On the Films of Paul Schrader
Looking at the best and/or most significant films with Schrader’s involvement across his towering four decade career.
My personal introduction to the work of Paul Schrader likely coincides with the first experience of his work for most people in most ways. Rosy faced and new to film, I saw Scorsese’s Taxi Driver at age 14 without really knowing who Scorsese was, never-mind paying enough attention to the credits to spot the name of screenwriter Paul Schrader. As with most people, I was stunned by that film in that moment, and it has admittedly played an important role to the development of my personal tastes with its grim outlook, fantastic anti-hero lead, amazing score and almost sickeningly gorgeous cinematography.
My gradual exploration of Scorsese’s work would, of course, coincide as a small exploration of some of the work of Paul Schrader, who wrote the scripts for Raging Bull (which, some days, is my favourite Scorsese these days), The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing out the Dead (criminally underrated). It would be quite a while before I came across the work of Paul Schrader as a director (I believe Mishima was the first of his films that I saw, some years ago), and even longer before I would come to recognise him as the phenomenal director that he is.
