Casey Jones and Travis Bickle

[Monte Williams]

I just revisited Taxi Driver for the first time in twenty years or so. It was only my second time seeing the movie.

Now, I don't expect you layfolk to relate to this, but because I am a sophisticated, literary type, Taxi Driver immediately made me think of Casey Jones.

Specifically, owing to the particular brand of my own TMNT nostalgia, I was reminded of Elias Koteas as Casey Jones in the 1990 Golden Harvest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

Obviously, Koteas was playing a more cartoony vigilante than DeNiro's chilling portrayal of Travis Bickle, but for all the silliness of the dialogue in the 1990 TMNT movie, I think one could make the case that Koteas was inspired at least in part by DeNiro's work from 1976.

Whatever the case, Taxi Driver reminded me that, while it's easy to be charmed by Casey Jones (at least the 1990 live-action version), in real life he'd probably be a lot like Travis Bickle.

And so, I thought I'd open it up to discussion:

What Are Your Thoughts About Casey Jones?

Is he a hero, or a nut job? A necessity, or an idiot?

What's your favorite take on the character? Your least favorite?

Would you like to see a TMNT tale take the Casey Jones premise to its logical conclusion and explore the ugly underbelly of vigilantism? (Hell, maybe the Mirage comics do; I barely remember Casey's appearances in them).

Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on Taxi Driver, too!

For my part, as a wee lad I was amused by the goofy Casey Jones in the '80s cartoon, but I think there were limits to the extent to which I even understood that it was a (ham-fisted) parody of Clint Eastwood's vigilante characters. Elias Koteas remains my favorite Casey Jones by far, and indeed his might be the only take I actually favor.

My least favorite would be the teenage version from the otherwise pretty awesome Nickelodeon 2012 series, if the clumsy and bland and comically misguided Stephen Amell take from Out of the Shadows didn't exist.