Overview
- The film’s portrait of a disaffected Vietnam veteran is linked to today’s isolation, incel culture, and online radicalization.
- Writers frame it as a defining collaboration that elevated Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Paul Schrader and secured the Palme d'Or.
- Analyses credit Bernard Herrmann’s score and Michael Chapman’s nightmarish cinematography with sustaining its unnerving power.
- Coverage revisits reports that studio pressure muted more explicit racial elements from early drafts, leaving race largely as subtext.
- The movie’s circulation via HBO Max streaming and U.S. VOD rentals is expanding access and fueling renewed discussion.