3268_Dongin Kim "Taxi Driver"

Overview

Taxi Driver (1976)
The film picks out the corrupt and immoral New York City directly after The Vietnam War in 1970s. The story reveals by the protagonist Travis. Travis starts to work as Taxi driver and faces danger and corruption around the city. His spirit is getting warped by loneliness and isolation. Finally, his perverse mind makes him try to solve the problems by himself.
This film was written by Paul Schrader and directed by Martin Scorsese. This film takes its plot line from “The Searchers 1956” Scorsese has even said that “The Searchers had a great impact on Taxi Driver”

“Taxi Driver” received four Academy Award nominations and well-received by critics. The film based on partial real circumstance of New York City. The director Martin Scorsese is one of the famous director appeared in 1970s. Winning a Best Actress Academy Award with his former film “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore(1974)” and Robert De Niro’s winning Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Godfather Part II help Scorsese directing next film “Taxi Driver”.

“The 1970s produced a group of directors, sometimes called the "film school brats," that included Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and Brian de Palma. These men were young Americans who had studied European filmmakers at film school, and they were also the first generation of filmmakers to have grown up watching television.”(SparkNotes Editors, 2004)


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Beginning of "Taxi Driver (1976)

Beginning of "Ragging Bull "(1980)

In this film, some unique camera works are shown. Slowly glimmering lights in the city through the wind shield. It seems dreamy and tipsy feeling which scene is similar to Intro part of his film “Ragging Bull”.

This film progresses with Travis’s partial voiceover as writing a diary. His voice and the letters are overlapping the images which he says.

In the beginning of the movie, Travis’s cloudy eyes through an extreme close-up, changing camera flashes on his face with ominous music seem to represent a feared guy is put in filthy world. The extreme close-up represents the condensed core of the film.

The scene after job interview, Travis goes out from taxi garage. The camera doesn’t follow Travis and takes shot of the taxis which come into the garage. In the end of the left position of the camera moving, Travis looks at the taxis. This special camera moving seems to accentuate the subject.

The scene after Travis talks to himself through the mirror “You talking to me?” we can see the repeated scene twice as his turning scene. It seems to make the scene emphasized through repetition.




In the last scene, the setting of the screen with two moving screens between the rear view-mirror and Wind shield which seems representing past and present and clear images are opposed to the beginning of the film.

Music

In this film, we can frequently hear the Jazz music when Travis drive or walks on a hallway. This music emphasizes his loneliness with slow and gloomy melody. This music is also played in the beginning part and the ending part of the film.

Major characters

Travis Bickle
He served military service as marine in The Vietnam War. This film doesn’t explain anything about Travis. Therefore audience can roughly guess his past through the job interview in the beginning of the film. He is mentally unstable and he doesn’t talk a lot to other people. He isolates himself from other people. This behaviour makes him exacerbate his mental problem. He can’t sleep at night and He feels lonely and he says as if it was his fate. He frequently mentions that loneliness always follows his life. He obsesses to flush dirty city down even though he watches dirty movies unconcernedly.

Betsy
She works at Palantine’s presidential campaign. She is only special person in Travis’s eyes. Tom who works with her loves her but she doesn’t feel anything with him. She looks well-educated and has outstanding appearance. She is overcome by Travis’s attitude. However she realises that he is not suitable for her in porn cinema. We can find her attitude through Travis and Betsy’s conversation. She doesn’t understand his joke directly.

Iris
She is twelve and half-year-old prostitute. Accidently she meets Travis as a passenger. She accepts her circumstance as prostitute. She discloses her mind to go back home through the conversation with Travis. But she gives up quitting the work by Sport’s seduction. She is the catalysis to make Travis execute his plan to kill the people who protect Iris.

The unnamed passenger
Martin Scorsese acts as the cameo. He is planning to kill his unfaithful wife. His repeated speaking reflects unstable spirit. His planning stimulates Travis to kill the people.

Genre & Theme

The story of “Taxi Driver” depicts the process of changing spirit inside of a man by his surrounding. Main genre of this film is drama. But it partly has violent scenes as thriller. In this film, there are the two types of people, the active people who try to change the filthy city by themselves such as Travis and the passive people who accept their circumstances like Iris and Wizard. Loneliness and isolation in crowd is also one of the themes in this film. In his other movies such as “Ragging Bull” reveal a human being who is mentally lonely and isolated. In this movie “Taxi driver” represents the maximised problems through the taxi as closed space.

Racism
This film reveals black people several times. Even the scene is not important in the circumstances. This seems to deal with racism indirectly through the film. Even though, Travis doesn’t mention about racist opinion. But we can see the many scenes such as Travis often stares at well-dressed black guy in an all night diner, black guy on the street, and when his black co-worker “Charlie T” calls him “killer”. We can easily see through Travis’s discomfort with black people. These can be the reason that the black woman rejects to tell her name to Travis and humiliates him in porn cinema or the black boys who throws rubbish out to his taxi without proper reasons.


Symbols

The film has many types of symbols which help to understand this film appropriately.


Mirror
The rear view-mirror of his taxi helps Travis to look any other objects indirectly. When he wants to see passengers’ faces and situation on backseats, he regulates the rear view-mirror. The ending part of the film, Travis regulates the rear view-mirror to see Betsy and the rear view-mirror also illustrates the moving city in ending part of the film. The mirror in his room reflects his another side which he want to express to the society. Travis looks at himself and talks to imself in the mirror.

Wind shield
The wind shield is Travis’s another eye in the taxi as his space. Travis watches round the city through the wind shield. In the beginning of the film, it shows blurred figures of the city and the last part of the film, we can see the clear images of the city through the wind shield. It seems something changed in his mind.

Television
TV is a one of the catalysis which affects Travis to be insane. The TV projects the images which he hates and admires. The shoes in a dance floor on the TV reflect lonely Travis in the society. When he watches black couple dancing in a bandstand, we can see his envious facial expression. It is the object which Travis admires but he can’t join. He breaks the TV when he watches a Drama which a woman betrays her husband for other guy. But when the scene which Iris's father narrates his letter to Travis is shown, we can see new TV in his room. It seems his new life is started.

Imaginary handgun
Travis’s co-worker Charlie-T pretends to shoot toward Travis with imaginary hand gun and also Sport does the same pose toward Travis when Travis stares at him and in the last part of the film Travis does the same pose toward his head. This action seems the attack from the people who Travis wants to take off even himself.

A twenty-dollar bill
Travis gets a crushed twenty-dollar bill from Sport when Iris tries to run away and Sport drags her from the taxi.
The crushed twenty-dollar bill symbolises “filthy mess”. Travis separately keeps it and doesn’t give it to any people. Finally he gives it to the guy who rents a room to Iris. In the scene we can see Travis’s intention to give it back to people who made filth of the city.

Conclusion

This film shows anger to social disorder in US 1970s. The driver’s abnormal actions illustrate circumstance of the unstable society after The Vietnam War. Loneliness and isolation in crowd is also the main theme in this real life. Lots of films still deal with these thesises in this modern society. Robert De Niro’s stunning performance makes me impressed. Justification of murder in this film shows that people see what they want to see. Actually, this film is worth to watch but I didn't really like it because it is so realistically gloomy and makes me feel so melancholy. Anyway, eventhough, it is so displeased and disgusting, the topic about people's emotion is always unchangeable theme forever.


List of References

Web sites

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075314/
http://fischingerfilms.com/?page_id=270
http://www.sparknotes.com/film/taxidriver/context.html

Books
American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations by Friedman, Lester D
Philosophy of Martin Scorsese by Conard, Mark T.