Write whatever you'd like about this classic - which received a fresh rave review as recently as last Thursday - just be sure to address the way Scorsese uses one aesthetic of cinema (sound, cinematography, mise-en-scene, etc.) to achieve this "sense of vertigo" or "dream-like state." Please support your chosen aesthetic with an example of how it was employed during a specific moment in the film.
I look forward to reading what you write by no later than midnight next Monday.
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ReplyDeleteMartin Scorsese’s Palme D’Or winning Taxi Driver is every bit as galvanizing today, to modern moviegoers, as it was to first time viewers forty years ago. It is a film as entrenched in the American psyche as The Godfather or Star Wars. Even those who haven’t seen the film or unfamiliar with Scorsese’s work, cannot escape the famous mantra, at one point or another, of “You talking to me?” A film thats equal parts Rainer Werner Fassbiner and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Taxi Driver is both a film that is indebted to film history while invigorating it’s future. All aspects of the film’s production from cinematography, screenplay, acting, set design, etc all culminate together to present a damn-near perfect picture.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the quote from Scorsese himself saying that Taxi Driver arose from his feeling that "movies are really kind of a dream-state, or like taking dope”, I think that this film is an ultimate testament to that idea. Movies are whimsical and very otherworldly, an accreditation that could easily be given to Taxi Driver, and I think there are many of examples throughout the film that are evidence of that. One for instances is the barrage of blurred colors and images that create for an almost Stan Brakhage-sqe dream sequence. Another, from the very same montage, is the shot of Travis’ eyes looking directly into the camera. These are the eyes were are going to look into and these are the eyes that we are going to look from.
It its as if the claustrophobic space of the taxi’s interior is a metaphor for Travis’ own mind. The idea the taxi is what separates Travis Bickell from society is one taken directly from Notes From Underground, but in that case being a man only viewing the world from under floorboards. Many of the Dostoyevsky-sque narrations of De Niro writing in his diary play over shots of the taxi freely moving about the kaleidoscopic city streets, only furthering the notion. The taxi acts as an almost Freudian psychoanalytical device that allows for audience to both get into the psyche of Travis and why he thinks the way that he does. Like the novel Paul Schrader was inspired by, Notes From Underground and Taxi Driver both keep within the thematic idea that faces come and go, time passes, but all that remains is just you, alone; God’s lonely man.
I had never before seen Taxi Driver so this was quite the experience. The film was not what I had expected at all. Just like we had read about and like this question asks, the film as a whole embraced this idea of a dream-like, heightened reality, while still exhibiting an extremely realistic feel. The most dream-like aesthetic to me was the use use the Taxi itself. The taxi was literally and figuratively a vehicle of transportation. Both transportation for DiNiro’s character through the city, but also transportation of the viewer to experience New York from a whole new perspective that not many films do.
ReplyDeleteThe Taxi also serves as way to show DiNiro’s emotions. It’s almost as if the taxi serves as his own head space and the passengers that climb in are his thoughts. As the film begins, the passengers in the car are very “passerby” almost like the mundane thoughts any normal human would have: sex, relationships, politics. Every passenger who boards is never given any real screen time or any story. It is not until the actual story picks up, meeting the woman in the white dress, that the passengers start to become very intentional to what DiNiro is thinking.
This started to become apparent when the presidential nominee boarded his taxi. The timing was all too perfect, DiNiro’s character having just immersed himself in this world of politics for the sake of his new relationship. Then his relationship crumbles quickly, and the passengers start to become more and more nefarious as the film continues. Scorsese’s character, the husband who intends to kill his wife, enters the film right as DiNiro’s character starts to slip, symbolizing the first step of DiNiro indulging in his bad side. DiNiro’s face is that of fear during the scene, but the audience can definitely tell wheels are turning inside of his head, possibly being the source of his fear. Then Iris try to get in his taxi but is pulled out by her pimp and left with the $20. I think this symbolizes DiNiro’s lust, violence, and anger all merging into one. The character he becomes at the end is driven by bloodlust, anger, and of course violence.
Finally, at the end, the woman in white hops aboard his taxi cab. This scene in particular gives my theory credence because it is shot very “knowingly” almost as a wink and nudge to the audience. There are many possibilities to what this scene could mean and where it puts DiNiro in his headspace. If I had to make a guess, I would think it is a thought of independence. I think the knowing glances and the way he plays off her presence gives the idea that he no longer craves the attention of her or anyone… until he looks himself in the mirror and once again is thrown into a thought of not being good enough. Possibly. I do not know. I am excited to read what others think of the ending.
Taxi Driver definitely had a dream like quality to it. I thought that Scorsese did such a compelling job of immersing the viewer into the “dream” like trances, which made moments like the one at the end, where Betsy gets in the car and Travis drops her off, damn near indistinguishable in terms of knowing whether the moment is one of reality, or a figment of the imagination. The movie as a whole was beautiful to look at, like our dreams usually are, at least the good ones, and I found myself really caught up in Travis’ world. If I had to compare this film to the ones we have watched thus far, I would say that is his greatest work of art; I would even go as far as to say that its better than some of the recent movies he’s made, which get tons of critical acclaim.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that stood out to me was the opening sequence of New York’s night life. The inserts of the car in random orders like how we recall random events n our dreams and certain things stick out to us, while others are forgotten. The beautiful music coupled with the bright neon lights of the streets, the blurred imagery, and slowed down footage creates this sort of surreal, tranquil or romanticized feeling of a city that is often recognized as being chaotic. Then you get Travis narrating his own story as if he’s reliving these moments with us like that of a dream that he is explaining. Before moving on, I thought it was cool that the same sort of beautiful music plays as he see’s Betsy for the first time and it’s almost as if he is daydreaming when he gauzes at her.
The next moment that jumped out at me, which gave me this narcotized dream like feeling was the scene where Travis sits in the diner with his friends and he sees the two black men in a white and black suit. I thought this visual motif served a few purposes. It was a metaphor for how Travis was torn between his moral righteous self and the side who wants to make bad decisions. It also showed how closely aligned those sides are and how easily one canoe torn, which makes sense because later we constantly saw Travis teeter back and forward between the two side of right and wrong. It was also bit of foreshadowing for the moment when he shoots himself in the mirror figuratively destroying his good side. The later becomes even more impactful when you see how it was cut together with the extreme close up of the cup with the alka-seltzer bubbling, furthering the idea that a storm was brewing inside of Travis.
Another cool motif showing Scorsese’s mastery or usage of imagery and mise-en-scene was the moment when Betsy walks out of the movies complaining about how Travis brought her to see an inappropriate film. Then in the next moment, prostitutes walk by, and as a viewer you know he has sexual feelings for her and a lust for her, but he takes it to far with the movies and was very untactful in his approach. I think thats a result of the insensitivity that he has unknowingly developed while riding around and being witness to the prostitutes who hook up with tricks in the back of his cab, which is also an extension of his mind. What takes the cake, is when she ironically takes a cab home. That sort of multifaceted connection and building of ideas and imagery was amazing and extremely impressive.
I thought the scene with Scorsese was cool, outside of him dropping the N-bomb, and understand that those are the times we lived in, but feel like it would have been just as impactful with out that utterance. Be that as it may, I thought this scene showed how our interactions with other people can manifest and bring out the bad or good in us. The later showed how moments resonate with us and often become the motivation for the some of the decisions we take in life.
I think the reason Taxi Driver is important to both Scorsese’s filmography and the study of cinema is what Pauline Kael calls “the quality of trance”. The film is moving because it takes someone’s intimate mind and relates it to the reality of New York City. The cinematography and mise-en-scene elements, combined with the narrative, make the protagonist’s life appear as a dream. The taxi is also a representation of his isolation from society and normality.
ReplyDeleteThe opening sequence is one of the best and the earliest representations of who Travis Bickle is. As the taxi drives through the white smoke, we see a close-up of his face, focusing on his eyes; a text-book representation of who’s world, or mind, we are following. However, the rain outside and the people slow motion walking literally shows the separation between the public streets and the personal taxi. As Travis drives, the city lights are blurred and look like they are melting down the taxi with the rain. The lack of dialogue and slow jazz music add to the appearance of an out-of-body, possible drug-infused, dream.
The internal monologues help define the separation between his character and reality. Early in the film, Travis speaks about how the “scum” of society comes out at night. He continues by saying he will go anywhere and drive anyone which feeds his hate, as Scorsese says in the text. As he picks up riders in his taxi, he stays quiet except when the politician, Palantine, gets in. At this point in the film, Travis is infatuated with Betsy and the politics she believes in. When asked by Palantine what bothers him about this country Travis doesn’t hold back. If the taxi represents his internal struggle with isolation, this moment is the beginning of his call to action.
Taxi driver impresses me a lot in his cinematography. Whatever the sense of vertigo or dream-like state, is all created by Travis' loneness. This is another version of American dream, it happens in NY the city where the American dream is born in. The dream moment starts from the tail of his checker cab, the windows of the cab, the windshield. From those angle, through Travis' eyes, we see what he see. He looks at this city as a dirty place, the street is mean. After night the street is full of prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, mobs. When his cab goes through the broken fire hydrant, the water washes his car and the street. Travis believes only water can wash the street's sin. At his first job interview, the manager asked him if his driver's license is clean. His answer has revealed what he pursuade- a clean conscience. He has mysophobia on moral. There are many shots shoot him with long focus lens when he walks on the street alone. This long distance shot depicts him as the most lonely in NY city. After he finishes his work in the morning and return the cab to the company. He comes out from the office and walks along the 57 street. When he first time date with Besty, he walks alone among the crows with his red suit. We never see him walks with other people on the street unless he tries to contact with the world.
ReplyDeleteExcept the long shot, there is another shot that Travis puts a tablet into the cup. He stares at the black spot in the water and goes into it. The water looks like boiling and the black dot is annoying. He is obsessed by the water. Only a lonely man would obsessed by something simple. He doesn't want to talk to his mate, or share his work with them. He is not interested in their conversation. Until when he excited about his plan to become a hero, he tells his mate about what he wants. When he talks, he looks away and just like talking to himself at his apartment, to the mirror.
There lots of shot is the night scene of NY. Except the ending, we can see how dirty the street is through the camera, through Travis' POV. We don't see people on the street at the ending. Through his POV, we see the charming street lights. Travis is smiling. He finally did something to clean the sin of the city, now he perceives the city much clean. The night is charming to him. He is still living in his fantasy in his cab like a night hero.
Taxi Driver does a lot of things right, which is why I think it is an American classic. It encapsulates New Hollywood cinema in an incredible way and does an amazing job at this “dream-like state.” Many aspects of the movie add to this dream state, or feel, that the movie has but for me the thing that really did it was the film’s editing (with a dash of the sound design).
ReplyDeleteThroughout the film there are many examples of “non-traditional” editing. It is often disjointed or without continuity. This contributes to the dream state because it, one, keeps the viewer engaged and two, isn’t representative of real life. When a cut happens twice in a row or even more times that’s shows something that would happen in a dream. By doing this Scorsese and his editors on Taxi Driver, Tom Rolf and Melvin Shaprio, make scenes in the movie fell like a dream. This is most evident, in my opinion, in the famous “You talkin’ to me?” scene.
The editing towards the end of the scene is so disjointed that it makes it all feel unreal. There are really slow fades that jump all around the room and disorient the viewer about where exactly Robert De Niro’s Travis Brickle is. The same cut happens twice in a row when Brickle is turning around. This is also matched with the same voice over happening twice in a row. This entire eight second sequence contributes to the “dream-like state” more than any other instance, in my opinion. For starters, voice over of the character that is on the screen is already disorienting and feels artificial because a viewer is hearing the character speak but not seeing them speak. Then, secondly, the viewer is seeing and hearing the same thing happen multiple times. This doesn’t happen in real life and could only happen within a dream or dream-like state.
To begin with, I first saw Scorsese's, "Taxi Driver" 11 years ago and I loved the character Travis Bickle. However, re-watching it 11 years later, I found a lot of flaws with Travis. One important thing to note is the fact that Travis is a Vietnam Vet. It is clear to why he views the gangster parts of New York in such a negative way... it's because he views it as a battle field. In a way, I believe that "Taxi Driver" is an extension of "The Big Shave". Travis Bickle is trying to change a low-income neighborhood when I don't believe it needs help. And that's where I criticize Travis's behavior because he is forcing his culture on a culture he doesn't understand or is not use to. Just like "The Big Shave" where the mans clear face represented Vietnam and the razor represented the US messing up something that doesn't need to be fixed. In "Taxi Driver" Travis represents the US and Iris represents Vietnam. For example, there is a moment where Travis tries to save Iris when he pays for their time together and she lets him know she doesn't need help. In other words, that's the way life is in that part of the neighborhood, things like that are normal occurrences, and life continues to move. So why does Travis believe that only his way of changing things is the right way? And why does he make it his duty to try to change a culture he doesn't understand?
ReplyDeleteWith all that said, it is clear that visually and within the framing Scorsese definitely achieves a "dream-like-state" in "Taxi Driver". For example, one specific scene that stands out to me is when Travis picks up Betsy at the end of the movie. We hear Betsy and throughout the car ride the only time we see her is through the rearview-mirror. Once Travis drops her off and drives off, he does a double take at the rearview-mirror further emphasizing if she was real or fake. And the shots in the rearview-mirror of Betsy definitely helped in creating that dreamy look because we only see her in such a little frame and it can also read as Travis's mind playing tricks on him through his point of view.
Taxi Driver continues Scorsese's obsession with the damaged protagonist, caught between two worlds, who's push and pull between two forces eventually results in violence. While most draw comparisons to Scorsese's previous New York film, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver seems to be the dark inverted sequel to Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, a specific character piece focused on someone in a transitional period in their life, searching for love, purpose, and the reality of their existence vs their desired fantasy of what it should be. Travis and Alice both go through several partners in the film. looking for self satisfaction that that cannot find in themselves, then their attentions turn at the end to save a child. Alice wants to give her son a good life and finally asks him what he wants and Travis "saves" a child prostitute. While there are differences abound, these two films share a lot and Scorsese's experience on Alice seems to influence many of the choices made in Taxi Driver.
ReplyDeleteTravis Bickle is a human trash can from the moment we meet him in the film, selfish, delusional, and sexually disturbed. This is not to say that we cannot empathize with him or understand his pain, but any notions that he is a hero or goes through some grand metamorphosis is unfounded and I often find his hero worship in the film community to be unfortunately telling of the way people misunderstand these types of films. But it still posses the question, why do people become so enamored by Bickle? Scorsese is able to achieve the task of putting us so squarely in his mental space that we become a part of him, his POV becomes ours and it is easy to see him as a hero as he sees himself, and feel the isolation that he does. Scorsese's use of came work specifically take this task upon itself. Often the camera will isolate Bickle, framing him to the side in group conversations, or using singles over two shots. This is accompanied by an often shallow focus where Bickle is the only face we can make out in an empty see. Even moments of human interaction have small touches, such as the extended talk with the Secret Service Officer, the agent has glasses the entire time, never allowing us to see him the same way we do Bickle. These choices of framing reinforce the isolationist single POV through line of the film.
I totally agree Connor. I think it's so interesting how often people get behind and defend characters just because they are the protagonist. Just because the story is following them doesn't mean they are a good person. I think the fact that so many people can watch the film and come out defending Travis is testimony to Scorsese's ability to put the audience in the POV of his characters. Even those that are disillusioned, and unstable.
DeleteRight of the bat, the opening montage sequence of a taxi driving through NYC paired with Herrmann's hypnotic score, instantly puts you in a trance that will overcome you for the whole film. It's like slipping into a high. It's an interesting change from Scorsese's usually soundtrack driven scores, to a mostly composed score. The film has a slow tempo through out, which makes the climactic gun fight at the end that much more shocking, and powerful. Then the tempo returns to a slower rhythm as the camera pans, and moves us through the crime scene, and outside of the building where bystanders look on, and police and ambulances arrive on the scene.
ReplyDeleteThe ending is too perfect. It is exactly what Travis is thinking will happen if he manages to kill the pimps. The media hail him as a hero, Iris' parents thank him for saving their daughter, and he is even visited by Betsy who commends him for his actions and seems to be in awe of him. It's Travis' fantasy. This is played so brilliantly in the last shot of the film where Travis gives a paranoid look into the rear view mirror of his cab. It is shot and edited in a glitchy, jumpy way, making you question if what is being shown is actually reality.
This was my first time watching Taxi Driver, and for years it has been the “Jodie Foster plays a baby prostitute” movie in my mind. I always have an interesting time watching films that have such intense hype around them, because it sets impossibly high standards. But I was relieved to really enjoy this film, especially the cinematography and performances.
ReplyDeleteScorsese uses the camera to get us right into the mind of Travis Bickle and his taxi. The flashing lights of the city and the blurred, kaleidoscope use of colors give us that sense of “being on dope”, as Scorsese put it. The world Travis is seeing is warped and surreal, so that’s the world the audience is allowed to see.
One of the most astounding shots (which I have since seen done quite a few times), is one of the last, as we leave Travis in the brothel room and the camera travels above the entire scene. This shot lets the audience leave Travis’s perspective just as he is letting go of all of his built up tension. He was finally able to do what he had fantasized about for so long. He got to be a hero, while also feeling the release of killing someone in cold blood. So when that shot moves over him and all the dead bodies around him, I like to imagine that that is Travis’s soul, floating over all of them.
Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver is a fantastic piece of American cinema. Its structure is reminiscent of a nightmare in so many different ways. I'll focus on sound. The most jarring moment in the film for me is when Travis is alone in his room and we the audience hear his voiceover playing over the images we're seeing, and his voiceover audio skips as if the physical record of it skipped and had to be readjusted. This is one of the moments that reminds us we are watching a film, but also gives us the sense that Travis is in some kind of hellish nightmare that we are privy to observe. The ending of the film encompasses all the lunacy and fright that came before in a weird heaven hallucination. Travis is seeing what it would've been like had he not died in a shootout in the whore house. And yet even in his wildest fantasies, he's still a bit on edge. He catches a glimpse of himself in the rear view mirror, and this glimpse is enough to scare him into turning the mirror away. You can see the crazy in his eyes (like doll's eyes) and that crazy is something that will be there no matter how much Travis gets his way.
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ReplyDeleteTaxi Driver came out in the 70s, a decade, in what I believe help shaped modern cinema. The 70s was home to A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars, and many others. Beside great movies the 70s saw a rising crime rate and a sense of disenfranchisement, a time where Taxi Driver seems to feed off of.
ReplyDeleteWe see Travis, a loner, living in one of the most populated cities in the world, unable to sleep decides to take a job driving taxis at night. Travis is an odd character when I first saw him, I didn’t think he would end up, where he ended up. But it make sense, throughout the movie we see him grow to the person we see at the end of the movie. He couldn’t sleep got a job working nights, falls in love tries to volunteer at the campaign office, and after listening to Scorsese Travis tries to kill Palantine. All of this is an escalation of his character, he is a person that once he sets his mind on it he’ll try to finish the job. But instead of assassinating Palantine and dying, he goes to plan B and somehow ended up being a hero in the eyes of New York City.
The music really builds on the dreamlike world Scorsese was making. New York was complemented with smooth jazz overlaid with a melodic saxophone, but it clashed with Travis’s drums and loud trumpets, as if the music is in conflict with itself. Caught between a dream and a nightmare.
Taxi Driver was the first Scorsese film I was, I was way too young when I first watched it, so my memories of it were really hazy. Seeing it now puts the movie in a totally different perspective, instead of a really boring movie, my parents accidently rented for, I now see this introspective film, from the psychotic mind of Travis Bickle.
Is it Travis Bickle’s personality that brought him to the environment or is it the environment that conditioned him to become the person he is by the end of the film? This is the first question that came to my mind when the credits rolled. Perhaps there is no correct answer, but in my opinion Bickle has always had his dark appetites and seeks environments with like-minded people, i.e. the red light district of New York. Now, what separates Bickle from other characters, such as Sport, is that he knows that feeding into his temptations is a bad thing. By the midway point of the film, when Bickle decides to buy the guns, the struggle to keep his inner demons at bay becomes too difficult. His dilemma changes from will he/won’t he into how will he/what will he do? Knowing that the explosion of his urges is inevitable, Bickle must face the task of finding a way to get some good to come out of this.
ReplyDeleteThe word “dream-like” is tossed around a lot when people discuss this movie. Part of Bickle’s internal conflict is that he doesn’t sleep too well and takes these late night cab shifts to try and tire himself out. Scorsese does an excellent job of making the audience feel exactly like Bickle. Whenever I watch the film, I personally always feel sleepy but can’t take my eyes off of the film because the suspense continues to keep me awake. The two most effective techniques Scorsese uses to make me feel that way is through the image and the sound. There are a lot of surreal shots in the film, particularly when Bickle is driving his cab. We have a lot of saturated color and out of focus images of lights flying past the cab. But these visuals definitely wouldn’t be as effective if it weren’t for the score. The slow smooth jazz riff perfectly puts me in a calm and sedated state to watch the film. Its almost like hypnosis. The music forces the audience to enter a trance where things are taken only at face value, much like when you are actually exhausted from a lack of sleep.
We are kept in this sedated state up until the very end. When Bickle makes the decision to free Iris by gunning down Sport and the rest of the scummy people in his way, the action is very sobering. It’s loud, the editing is fluid, and it happens so fast. It totally makes an audience jolt in their seat, wide awake. However, we are eased back into the unusual dream state as Bickle drives his cab again in the night time lights of New York City. Bickle has a look of worry on his face at the end as if he knows that there will be another day where he will have to feed the beast. In a way, I think the reason Scorsese bookends the film with the dream-like cinema is to really sell the big shootout. That shootout is Bickle’s one moment of clarity in the film. The rest of the time he isn’t really paying attention to anything other than his thoughts. The same could be said about the audience. The shootout is the first thing I remember whenever the film is brought up. In the dream-like states, there are a lot of things I forget. In class, I didn’t even remember that there was more after the shooting. And I’m not saying that I don’t remember it because it was boring, but because those sequences were strategically designed to be as disorienting as an actual dream. It shouldn’t have been made any other way.
On each repeat viewing, I notice something new about Taxi Driver. The film has innumerable interpretive layers, each one deserving of it's own essay. Hell, book even. The one that always stands out clearest to me is Travis' relationship with the people around him. The movie is drenched with a lonely, melancholic feeling that you never can quite shake. The music builds a tone of solemnness, but the romance of the saxophone always brings us back to the struggle of our protagonist.
ReplyDeleteTravis is a broken man, someone who desperately needs to be recognized and who will do almost anything to achieve that. Even when he's found someone who he thinks can appreciate him, Travis' social disconnect stands between him and satisfaction. It's this that motivates him to go on his rampage to try and "wipe the filth off the streets". Ironically, this act of violence leads him to being recognized as a hero in the eyes of the city.
Even at the end of the movie, Travis is standing on the edge of a cliff. His goal achieved, having killed the bad guys and saved the young girl, Travis is hailed as a hero, not as a part of the filth he wanted to eliminate. Travis knows he's part of the problem on a subconscious level, he's obviously not satisfied. Writer Paul Schrader confirms on the DVD commentary. "He's not going to be a hero next time."
The music, to me, really solidified the dream-like feel of the movie. The constant song that repeats over and over is a slow and lethargic piece that almost puts the audience in a trance. This is fitting because Travis himself seems to be in a similar state--the audience can sympathize with the protagonist throughout his insomniac journey. Similarly, the actions of Travis and the mentality he embodies seems to have less real world consequence because of the state that the music and editing places the audience in.
ReplyDeleteThe warm color palette also aids in this dream-like appearance. The opening sequence immediately comes to mind as an example. The beautiful shots of the taxi patrolling throughout the city and the zoned out lights in the distance all contribute to this feeling. Another sequence that comes to mind is one of the moments when Travis is in his apartment--there's a collection of flowers that's comically large. The props within the film, like the briefcase of weapons in one scene and the flowers in this one, all point to the fact that this reality is slightly fantastical.
As a side note, the ending is especially brutal in comparison to this alternate reality. The audience is tricked into thinking, just like Travis, that there will be no consequences to his actions, only to be sadly proved wrong in the gigantic shootout. This harsh realization pulls the audience from this state, only momentarily, before again indulging them in the prologue with Travis and his ex-fling.
In comparison to some of the other films we’ve seen by Scorsese, and his films in general, Taxi Driver felt like it was directed more towards one character, Travis Bickle. There are other characters in the movie, but only for a brief time. They come and go in the film as the come and go in Travis’ life.
ReplyDeleteVisually, Scorsese creates this dreamlike, almost hypnotic world, partially through his use of shallow depth of field, in the New York night. Lights shine unnaturally as Travis Bickle’s soft voice narrates his journal. We get very little information about his life before and after the film begins. All we know is that he has parents, and that he lies to them about working for the government. Nothing about his life before Vietnam. We see this entire story through Bickle’s point of view, and lots of the shots throughout the film show us his literal perspective. Similar to dreams, we are watching outside of our body. The overhead shots, specifically towards the end of the shoot out, feel like we, as Travis, are having an out of body experience. I also think that shot is also symbolic of the existential purpose that Travis feels he has.
\Throughout the film we watch as Travis travels through dangerous grounds, and we know what he’s doing is wrong, but we hang on to this empathy we have for him, because he believes what he’s doing is right. We suffer with him through his lonely nights driving through the city, but we cringe when he takes a girl to a porno. In the book Scorsese said that lonely people really responded to this film. That is one thing that will secure this film’s relevance for as long as loneliness exists. We don’t know exactly what created Bickle’s loneliness, whether or not it was a product of Vietnam. In a Roger Ebert review from 1996, he mentions that “Are you talking to me?” is quoted so often, and left out is what come after that; “Well I’m the only one here”, which is a line that really summarizes the movie.
In Taxi driver, the streets are real, the people are real, every object in the frame is real, but the cinematography of the film makes it feel surreal. The way that Taxi Driver opens is dream-like with the steam rising from the sewers in the street. There is a reoccurring “sleepy-jazz” theme throughout the film that clashes with another theme that I can’t quite describe. It’s almost ominous, but also reminds me of people preparing for battle.
ReplyDeleteWe see Travis’ point of view with the extreme closeup of his eyes which then cut away to the streets. The colors are intensified and capture the grimy, grotesque feeling of New York City as Travis is driving down the street. All of the buildings and neon signs are blurred. The red and blue colors blend together as people move in slow motion.
When Travis enters the Taxi company to apply for a job, the steam trails behind him. I didn’t notice this until I watched the opening for the 3rd time. Scorsese utilizes slow panning and gives the viewer a feeling of floating during several moments in the film. The most memorable scene where this is utilized is after the shooting confrontation in the apartment building. Travis is lying on the couch, wounded, and the cops are completely still. It feels like an out-of-body experience.
The color red is dominant in Taxi Driver like it was in Mean Streets. While Travis is talking to another cabby about his frustrations with New York, the red light from a neon sign covers him. I stated in a previous blog post how red symbolizes violence and anger. The red light casted on his captures his state of mind.
Scorsese uses a lot of techniques to achieve a dream like state. The film opens up with shots of New York at night with lots of movement, bokeh, and a slow, dreamy jazz to really set the mood. Throughout the film we see different events through the literal eyes of Travis. One of them is the diner scene in which Scorsese takes his time focusing and zooming in on the antacid fizzing in the water. Even before that, when Travis notices the pimps staring at him, you get the same trancelike/paranoid feeling. Scorsese uses all of the tools available to him throughout the entire movie. Even after the climax, when travis shoots everyone, we get a birds eye shot of everyone and their positions. It feels super dream like, being able to look down at a scene as if you're floating above everything.
ReplyDeleteI think Scorsese did a great job working with De Niro. Without such a committed performance the film would not nearly be as good. Travis has a really strange confidence to him. Part of it is disregarding other peoples opinions entirely, like when he was so insistent on asking Betsy out on a date to get coffee and pie which is pretty normal. Then he takes her to a adult theater. He never gets any sleep and it seems to put him in this careless daze, but at the same time his thoughts and actions seem to be all thought out. He is quite literally living on a different wave length than a majority of the population.
Bernard Herrmann did a great job with the soundtrack as well. While I would never listen to the soundtrack alone (though I do like jazz), coupling it with the film is perfect. It's atmosphere and tone give the film a more tragic and romantic interpretation; an interpretation I don't think I would have come up with had the music been different.
This is only my second time seeing it, the first time being a long time ago, so I look forward to analyzing it more.
I hadn’t seen this movie in a few years, though every time I watch it I find myself appreciating it more and more. What seems to make this film so prevalent despite its age is the fact that it managed to dreamily capture the feeling of loneliness in a way that made Travis’s solitude tangible for the viewer; every piece of the movie is intended to emotionally manipulate the audience to feel exactly what Travis is, even if, rationally, we would never condone his actions. Scorsese talks about this in his book, how he wanted to make it a sort of twisted therapy session, and I think he succeeded perfectly.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about his process for creating Taxi Driver and how Scorsese was conscious of the effects war has on a human being, I was also more attuned in noticing the presence of PTSD symptoms in Travis’s character, which is significant considering the time period that the film was made. This also made me realize the important role that the war would later have in Travis’s life, how it would cause him to become disillusioned with his reality; He was a product of his army experiences, in which his individuality was destroyed in order to serve the whole. I think this is the reason Travis decides to take matters into his own hands, though he’s not doing this for personal gain, but rather, for the greater good. He begins to look at himself as only a vessel of justice, strengthening his body and stocking up on weapons in order to defend his intended goal. Travis was not afraid to die, in fact, he seemed to welcome the idea.
The aesthetic from the movie that I thought best portrayed the dream-like feel of the movie would be the cinematography. This is especially prevalent in the scenes where Travis is driving throughout the city. It reminded me of the times during long car rides where I would begin to drift asleep and all I could see was the colors of the passing lights. Something about the way they move across the car is incredibly dreamy and surreal.
This was my first viewing of Scorsese's classic Taxi Driver and I certainly had high expectations from the film being hyped up for most of my life as a fan of cinema. This film lived up to and pushed past my expectations. I was blown away with the mastery of the craft that Scorsese showcases in Taxi Driver. The pacing, performances, camera work and especially the sound design was spectacular.
ReplyDeleteTravis Bickle (portrayed by Robert De Niro) is a Vietnam veteran who suffers from PTSD. He struggles with what we consider normal human interactions and this leads him to despise the world he is living in. The film shows his slow transition from a man trying to fit in the world that turned its back on him, to a man who wants to destroy the scum that surrounds him.
The score of the film is perfect, it opens with epic swells and crashes then transitions to a sexy saxophone riff that nails the time period and setting. The sweeping strings that follow are reminiscent of the score of an American Western from the 50's which highlights Travis' cowboy-like hero complex. The score composed by Bernard Herman is highlighted by the moments of silence that Scorsese implements in the final shootout scene which keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat.
Whenever Travis is driving his cab we only ever see his reflection in the mirror until the final scene with Betsy. The hood mounted shots also only ever show his face with the background out of focus creating a field of triangular shaped bokeh behind him. This serves to further emphasize our main characters growing distain for the world around him. This film is a technical and creative masterpiece that will surely be studied and admired for generations.
Taxi Driver- 10/10.
ReplyDeleteWhat more can be said about this amazing film. It's got everything: a flawed protagonist that descends into madness and violence; social commentary on the problems of New York in the 1970's and how all of the characters respond to it; a depiction of loneliness. This film has it all and then some. In short, it will be analyzed to death years after we are all gone.
The scene that stood out to me the most was "Travis buys guns" scene. The mise- en- scene techniques used it in are worth taking a look at.
It starts off with 90 degree camera rotating technique. We see the bars on the window and then when the camera turns we see the "One of these days, I'm gonna get organin-zized" poster and then the Charles Palentine poster. We get the description in that shot that #1 Travis lives in a bad neighborhood, #2 he is getting organized and #3 Palantine seems to be a figure in his life. Scorcese has used signs before to hint at the theme or foreshadowing of the film and he does this here masterfully. Next, Travis is taken to see Easy Andy. We see the usage of the 90 degree rotating shot again. This time to introduce Easy Andy himself. Scorcese was on to something when he started to implement it's use. It's smooth and is a great way to visually introduce new information or characters without a cut.
Next, we come to the hotel room. In the film, hotel rooms are used when the characters need to have privacy while doing sleazy things. In this film its usually extra-marital affairs or buying prostitues (the scene with Iris is almost shot the same way). The way the guns are shot- it's as if they are sexual objects. Travis picks up each of the guns, uses them and lays them down on the velvet suitcase. The intimacy of this scene as well as the framing of the guns and the eagerness of Easy Andy after the sale is done is similar to prostitution- she's looking to see if you want to spend more! Hell, even the way Easy Andy picks up Travis is something that would happen if you were buying sex with an escort! In my opinion it is #2 of the top scenes in the film but is most difficult to analyze because it is very subtle, smooth and it unconsciously triggers these thoughts to the audience. Such is the theme of Taxi Driver. It's about taboo subjects and buying guns, like women or watching porn, is one of them.
When it comes to the evolution of film Taxi driver is one of the top influences. Scorsese once again brings a new style to the big screen. Our first view of Travis is this extreme close up go his eyes draped in red, as he looks around his view world. The red could represent evil reflecting on to him, but the shot from the front of the car to see lights being traced around in a world of darkness definitely reinforced the dope like state Scorsese talks about in film. As we follow Travis on this dream state journey through his view on New York City, we notice a few things. For one the camera isn't set on the same focal points, like in traditional films. We get this off center form the cameras main focus to give us a better view on how Travis sees the world, not so much on what is right in front of us rather what is slightly off from the camera. For example when he is leaving the taxi depot for the first time the camera leaves Travis to show what he is looking at, a car comes in, a car leaves, a man runs in to the offices, and then the camera turns back around to Travis. So not only did we get a point of view from Travis, but also we get the notion that the camera doesn't exist. Going forward, these off shots show us this world Travis calls filthy, kids running up to ladies of the night, pimps on the street, but he himself goes to a snuff theater. Regardless I found Taxi driver to once again be a great from Scorsese, maybe his greatest. This I feel was the film to really dig him into the film industry, and get him to his fame today. Everyone know De Niros mirror scene even if they haven't seen the movie. To me this is hands down my favorite movie from Scorsese.
ReplyDeleteI think that the largest contributor to the dream or trancelike feeling of Taxi Driver is without a doubt the cinematography. No time is wasted in this regard. We see it in the opening title sequence. The slow motion shots of the taxi breaking through the steam coming up from the ground (more Scorsese hell imagery) and of Travis’s eyes, and the bleary shots of the lights of the city through the rain on the windshield of the cab. In addition to sort of setting the tone of the film, I think it does a lot to tell us about Travis’s mental state. In that moment we are seeing the world as he sees it. Through sleep deprived, at least mildly deranged eyes. The slow motion is used to similar effect when we are introduced to Betsy as Travis rambles on about how “they, cannot, touch, her.”
ReplyDeleteI find this movie really super hard to watch. And it all has to do with Travis. He’s extremely problematic. Or he has at least become more so since the first time I saw this movie back in high school and especially since the election. He strikes me as everything that is terrifying about Donald Trump and his more fanatic supporters. The alt righters, the Richard Spencers. His monologue, “All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets” strikes me as particularly Trumpian and disturbing. He “just” wants America to be great again. He “just” wants a New York without drag queens, gays (“fairies”), drug users, and prostitutes. He wants the “bad hombres” to be washed away. Switch the dialogue to “Muslims, Mexicans, the press, nasty women” and you have a Trump rally. Just like Trump, he is a pervert, a psychopath, a liar, and man-child who is embraced as a hero despite really being rather undeserving.
While my brain thinks, “Fuck yeah,” when he lays waste to Sport and his associates, I can’t help but shake the feeling that Travis will continue his crusade after the movie ends, “Because the people love him, okay, they talk about him in all the papers, can’t say enough good thing about him. Great guy.” And I don’t feel like afterwards he’ll be hailed as a hero. I feel like he’ll be more of a Dylan Roof or Pulse Night Club shooter.
Taxi Driver was just as entertaining as I remember it being the first time I saw it. It was just as dark, and dreamy as I remembered it but the character of Travis Bickle didn't strike me as a guy who was losing his mind even though that's how I've always remembered this film. From my first viewing I realized that Travis is undoubtedly crazy, but I always associated it with fact that he was a Vietnam War veteran at the time he became a taxi driver and therefore just had a bit of shell shock. However, after the most recent viewing I realized that it was much more than just his past experiences that were affecting his state of mind, but rather the current hell that he seems to be trapped in. Whether or not his assumed experiences of war and violence constantly shape his way of thinking even after the fighting while he is trying to readjust to civilian life could be up for debate. I noticed that we only hear about Travis's military experience very briefly in the film's few opening minutes, but for some reason that point always stuck with me and I continued to view the film and it's characters through this lens.
ReplyDeleteThe visual style is extremely memorable with hazy and skewed camera angles that never seem to give the audience a normal perspective. In this regard I think Scorsese did an amazing job of portraying how Travis must have felt throughout the film with the imagery skewing more and more as his paranoid state of being grows worse. In my opinion the music really defines the atmosphere of the film, giving NY City an almost otherworldly quality that I don't typically associate with Martin Scorsese's films, especially the ones set in NY. This could however be a trend of Scorsese acclimating the environments featured in his films to the characters that inhabit them. So in a way the city becomes nothing more than a physical manifestation of everything Travis hates and feels is terrible for the world. I mostly remember the line,"someday a rain is gonna come and wash everything off the streets". Besides the reoccurring motif of the overflowing water hydrants flooding the streets that can be seen throughout the film, this is a clear foreshadowing to the "rain" of bullets that he plans to wash away the lives of people who in his eyes are scum.
This was my sixth viewing of Scorsese's cinematic classic, "Taxi Driver", and I enjoyed it just as much as I did from my first viewing. The visual aesthetics and haunting musical composition brilliantly reflect the troubled, psychologically damaged nature of its central protagonist. The entire narrative of the film has the feeling of a dream-like, acid-fueled hallucinogenic trance. The film opens up in an ominous New York setting, displaying the corruption and deterioration of what it has become. The film centers on Travis Bickle, a 26-year old Vietnam War veteran, who is disillusioned to what New York has become; and therefore, has quite a bit of shell shock. It is apparent to the audience that he is troubled; and clearly suffering from sort of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in Vietnam. He keeps an emotional detachment from reality as a way of protection. When the film starts out, we can see how truly isolated and withdrawn from the world Travis has become. He does not trust anyone or anything; and as a result, has become angry and bitter with life. This film uses many aesthetic elements to achieve the "vertigo" quality of it; which makes it all the more powerful and intriguing to watch. Specifically, the haunting score by Bernard Herrmann. The score perfectly illuminates its surroundings by showcasing the mysterious, ominous nature of New York City. The score plays an instrumental component in facilitating the narrative of this film. It essentially drives the film from the first shot to the last. The film would simply not be the same, or even work, without it. I am so glad Scorsese got Bernard Herrmann out of retirement to do this! One specific moment in the film that stands out occurs in the opening sequence. Audience members can clearly see what type of film they are going to experience by just the mysterious, haunting tone to it. Another example occurs when Travis is about to assassinate the Presidential Nominee, Sen. Palatine. The score in this scene is impactful and utterly captivating because it reflects the nature of the scene. When you are watching this film, you are left in a sort of unpredictable, uncertain gaze as to what is going to happen.
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