Taxi Driver is a film about many things, but overall it is about the theme of isolation and focuses on one particular loner in a big city who can be construed as an anti-hero. It is a film that draws from many genres: the Western, horror, film noir, and was also influenced by the films of the Italians (DeSica, Rosselini, Fellini).
Discuss cinematically, in at least two paragraphs, the themes of isolation and/or the anti-hero and how Scorsese's film is influenced by the different genres and by the Italians. You might find Ebert's original review and his Great Movies essay on the film helpful.
With his movie “Taxi Driver”, Martin Scorsese takes influences from several film genres including Western, Horror and Film Noir, as well as influences from the italian neorealist movement, pioneered by filmmakers such as Vittorio De Sica. Scorsese takes the themes of these genres and movements and flips them on their head in his film. All of this contributes to creating the theme of isolation throughout the film.
ReplyDeleteThe western genre in film is characterized by images of lone, proud gunmen who take on the scum and filth of the lawless west for the good of the common folk. Such is the case in “Taxi Driver”, however this idea is only present in the mind of the central character Travis, who is full of delusions as to his purpose in the world. Travis sees himself as a hero figure, similar to that of the westerns and in the end of the film goes on a violent shooting spree of criminals in order to save a young girl. This situation is very western-esc, however Scorsese takes these western themes and goes in a different direction. He incorporates a heavy amount of violence and blood into this scene, creating a less glamorous and more gruesome portrayal of Travis’s “nobel quest”, which draws influences from the horror genre as well. When Travis finally reaches the young girl whom he hopes to rescue, instead of rushing into his arms as would be typical in a classic western, she turns and sobbs, traumatized by the shocking violence which has just occurred. This reversal of the classic genre tropes help us to enter the twisted mind of the character, as well as display his isolation from society.
“Taxi Driver” also draws influences from the Italian Neorealist movement. The films of the movement are characterized in part by their portrayal of a society stricken by poverty and trauma, particularly in the wake of world war ii. However, once again, Scorsese takes these influences and re imagines them in order to add to the themes of isolation in the film. The violent and chaotic nature of New York city is used as a reflection on the inner turmoil of the main character, who feels isolated from society and struggles with mental illness, and likely post traumatic stress disorder.
The filmmaker takes multiple influences for this film, however in doing so he re imagines all of them and makes them his own.
Anti-hero is defined as a protagonist that lacks conventional characteristics usually found in a protagonist. Travis, the protagonist of “Taxi Driver”, is certainly an unorthodox protagonist. He is just a normal guy, a taxi driver in NYC. In this way, this film mirrors some of the films form the Italian neo-realist era of cinema, as they profiled normal people in radical environments. However, this film takes this idea and makes it far more original. This film shows the character arch of someone who starts off as a nobody and turns into a somebody. To continue further in this direction, the film is mostly focused entirely on Travis, and because of this, we begin to relate and associate ourselves with him. Throughout the entire film, we sympathize with him, even when he is planning incredibly negative actions. In this way, I believe Travis is almost the perfect anti-hero. He is made out to seem like someone we should root for, someone we should want to kill the presidential candidate. Scorsese does a great job at creating a character that is being a completely immoral person, but we as an audience want them to be immoral. To continue in discussing Travis’s character, his occupation allows for an interesting progression of characterization. As a night time cab driver, he never has completely genuine connections with the people that he interacts with. He has so many people come in and out of his life on his shift. Other than the other night time cabbies, he doesn’t seem to have people that he associates with. He is alone in the world- the woman he likes doesn’t feel the same way, he doesn’t have any real friends, he interacts with so many people over the course of such a short time. This isolation means that he is deprived of usual human contact- a trait that can result in the misunderstanding of human action/ reaction. This isolation combined with the types of people he usually interacts with on his shift (the underbelly of humanity at the time- politicians, prostitutes, pimps, gay people) creates his mindset and his desire to cleanse the earth.
ReplyDeleteI spoke of how “Taxi Driver” took elements from the italian neorealist directors, but it is also of note that the film took aspects from other genres- specifically horror and film noir. From the horror genre, “Taxi Driver” not only took dark themes, but also used the way suspense is built. Over the course of the film, it is referencing what Travis is planning on doing. There are so many leading actions- him fake shooting the people at the theater, his obsession with cleansing the earth, his purchase of the weapons, him getting in peak physical form, etc.. All of these actions and events culminate in his action off killing the pimp and his men. Although not scary in any sense, the film does artfully build suspense towards the final actions.
The scene in which the “sick” man takes Travis around town to spy on his wife takes from both the film noir genre as well as the french new wave movement of cinema. From the noir genre, it takes the artistic use of lighting to convey motive/ characterization. As Travis and the man are outside the apartment that the woman is in, Travis’s face is fully lit while the other man’s face has natural falling shadows on it. Travis seems to be above the filth of humanity, and so his face has full light on it. The other man has succumbed to the darkness of humanity and is therefore shown with darkness on his face. This scene also resembles the scenes from famous french new wave films. For instance, in the film “Breathless” (1960), has a very similar car scene. In that scene, the two characters are discussing the purity of one of the characters. It is very similar to the scene in “Taxi Driver”, as the “sick” man is discussing the purity of his wife in the context of who she has been sleeping with.
The theme of isolation plays a huge role in Taxi Driver. Throughout the whole film, we see things from Travis’ point of view only. We see extreme close-ups of Travis’ eyes in the beginning of the film, which introduces the audience to the subjectivity of the film around this character. And throughout the film, we hear voiceovers which give insight into his personal thoughts and feelings in a way that dialogue with another person could not. These choices not only make the film deeply personal to the main character, but also make it very isolating. One scene which really emphasizes how isolated Travis is from others is when he is first parked outside the campaign office looking at Betsy. There is a lot of physical separation between Travis and Betsy such as the taxi itself, the doors of the office, and even Betsy’s glasses. There’s a line of dialogue where Betsy tells her coworker Tom to put on his glasses and while this could just be played as a joke, I think it goes much deeper as the glasses over her eyes provide a barrier between her and Travis. The eyes here hold the same importance as the close-ups of Travis’ eyes earlier held; they are a way to connect. Having Betsy cover her eyes with her glasses is how Scorsese communicates that the two cannot connect. There’s a shot after the medium shots of the Travis and Betsy’s faces that pans out and makes Travis smaller, and thus isolated, while emphasizing the door between them which is another barrier. The relationship between Travis and Betsy is just one way the theme of isolation in the film can be explored, and it is important because it directly shows Travis’ inability to connect with other people.
ReplyDeleteThe influence from Italian neorealism on this film can be seen in the shots of the city streets. We see buildings in bad shape, lots of trash, and all kinds of people– overall giving a genuine and accurate representation of the city. Shots of cities and the people who live there were a staple of neorealist films, because they displayed the harsh reality of the setting. Scorsese is not interested in glorifying New York City, in the same way a director such as Roberto Rossellini wasn’t interested in glorifying Rome. They instead wanted to give authentic depictions of the cities, even if these depictions weren’t positive. This negative portrayal of the city also evokes film noir, which usually involved dark urban environments as well as the crime that occurred in those environments. Travis encounters crime in his profession such as his customer who was planning to kill his wife, as well as Sport. Often there are shadows cast over his face and the cab that illustrate how his interacting with criminals is affecting him.
Taxi Driver makes viewers sympathize and relate to a near psychopath. This is what makes it such a great film; Scorsese creates an anti-hero that becomes beloved and understood despite Travis Bickle’s constant inclination to handle a situation in the worst way possible. Travis is a man of deep and utter loneliness, driving a taxi around a city he feels isolated from. His aversion to the outside comes from a feeling of aggression to his inability to connect to those around him despite his best attempts. Symbolically, this is no better represented in how the taxi separates the driver and passenger: even those let into Travis’s world have a wall built in between them. Travis’s decision to work at night is an interesting one considering he loathes the “scum” walking the streets and yet is drawn to them. This allows for the nightlife to take on a character of its own, multi-colored marquee lights, steam coming from the sidewalks, and an accelerated pace of those outside the cab that makes the whole setting seem more like a dream (or nightmare) than anything else.
ReplyDeleteThis ability to establish the city so profoundly is reminiscent of Italian neorealism, something Scorsese also emulates in Mean Streets. By voiding studio locations it allows the audience to more believably become a part of the movie’s world, which is one of the greatest strengths in this film, cinematically. Through the camera shots and angles, viewers begin to see the world through Travis’s eyes, and even if just temporarily, start to think like him as well. This is what makes Travis such a believable anti-hero. As an audience we become attached to Travis so strongly that even we cannot maintain better judgement than he has. Another quality of the Italians present in the film is the use of conversational dialogue. Normally this would happen between characters, but since this is a movie of isolation, its spoken by and to Travis. Much of the speaking Travis does in the film is in the form of voice overs that use very plain, simple language to establish his temperament. This reflects, and even glorifies, the everyday man that italian neorealism took such a liking to. By showing Travis’s inner dialogue in such a perceptible way, the complexities of his character can more easily be approached.
Travis doesn’t approach anything as incorrectly as he does women. His interpretation of the world around him as being vile and dangerous leads him to believe that women need to be saved. This mentality very closely mirrors those of a cowboy in Westerns or even ironically superheroes. Travis has a bit of a madonna-whore complex himself, clearly depicted in the first scenes of both Betsey and Iris. Betsy is initially shown in slow-motion and the symbolic white dress, as her theme in the movie plays for first time which is literally called “They Cannot Touch Her.” Iris, on the other hand, is shown as part of the dirty nightlife scene in which she is seeking escape and then harassed, this scene sticking with Travis as part of a turning point. The movement of Sport paying off Travis with a $20 bill for not interfering with him and Iris is in a sense Travis’s call to action. He has now began to interact with the outside world he despises so much and feels it is his duty to help. But the notion of the women wanting help is never considered. A traditional male view that women are helpless and silently wishing for a savior occurs, echoing the plot lines of so many Westerns throughout the years. The inevitable downfall of the isolated, delusional man.
Travis is an anti-hero. He’s a pretty awful person, but he thinks that what he does it right. He has good intentions, despite how delusional he is. He sees the world in his own way and tries to make things into how he sees them through the use of violence. This delusion is shown in the film as a whole through the way that the story is presented. The story is told using voiceover segments of Travis reading from his letters and diary entries. So, he controls the narrative. The audience sees the world as he sees it. However, the audience can also recognize that some of his views and thoughts are wrong or deranged. There is a divide between objectivity and subjectivity. There are opportunities for viewers to come to their own conclusions, and there are times where Travis’ own bizarre perception takes control. An example of this is when he buys weapons and the film enters a sequence of him preparing for his assassination plot in his apartment. The voiceover narration indicates that he sees himself as a hero and a savior. However, he looks like he has gone crazy. The disconnect between the aural information and the visual information being presented in this scene is what makes him an anti-hero; while he may not be conventionally heroic, he thinks that he’s doing the right thing because he sees the world in a different way.
ReplyDeleteMartin Scorsese was greatly influenced by the Italians. I found a very interesting video interview in which he talks about the impact that La Strada had on him. One thing that he talks about is the ending where Zampanò lets out a scream. This scream acts as a release for him as he acknowledges his emotions and lets himself feel something for the first time. The film ending on him rather than on Gelsomina allows the audience to feel sympathy for him. This ending is mirrored in Taxi Driver. Zampanò’s liberating scream is replicated in Taxi Driver through the music at the end. When Travis mimics shooting himself and the camera pulls up and out of the room, the music comes together and builds. To me, this is a release similar to the scream at the end of La Strada. Another thing Scorsese talks about is the Franciscan element of neorealism, which focused on compassion for every living thing. This is shown through the sympathetic portrayal of Zampanò and Travis. By ending on them, the audience sympathizes with them.
Taxi Driver is a prominent example of a film that draws influence from many places to create something new. In particular, Scorsese is influenced by a variety of genres in multiple ways, and the culmination of these influences create a nuanced portrayal of a complicated protagonist who, despite his self-assuredness, is not necessarily a good person. Travis embodies the anti-hero archetype in that he is undoubtedly the protagonist of Taxi Driver, but the actions he takes to reach what he perceives as justice are unnecessary or frightening. In this way, Taxi Driver resembles horror movies such as Psycho, which frame the killer as the main character, showing the viewer their intense violent actions with slight ambiguity over their guilt (Norman’s alternate personality vs. Travis’ ‘moral’ motivations). Another example of cross genre influences is Travis’ voice over, which narrates his inner monologue throughout the whole film, which has obvious roots in film noir.
ReplyDeleteItalian cinema’s influence on Scorsese’s film is seen particularly with the themes surrounding Travis, who is deeply alienated from the people around him. Parallels can easily be drawn from him to the main characters of La Strada, with Travis containing both elements of Zampano and Gelsomina’s personality. He wants to make connections with those around him, dreaming of adventures bigger than are readily accessible (like Gelsomina), but is unable to easily interact with others or form a real connection (like Zampano). Fellini’s influence can be seen visually, as well - many of the shots that bridge the scenes of Taxi Driver together are shots of the city as Travis sees it driving around, reminiscent of the establishing location shots used in Amarcord to draw attention to the passage of time. However, unlike in Amarcord, in which those shots aided in establishing the togetherness of the town, the shots in Taxi Driver further isolate Travis from those around him, as he views them through some form of barrier, whether it’s a window or a mirror. In that way, the shots are similar to more empty establishing shots of Italian neorealist films such as Rome, Open City, which aimed to show Italy as it truly was post-war, whatever desolate state that may be. This is much like Travis’ desire to expose the “true nature” of certain disreputable areas of New York.
Taxi Driver is a film which explores the pathology of isolation and loneliness, through the eyes of the titular character of Travis Bickle. The runtime employs a slow build of tension, as Travis devolves into a violently disturbed antihero, who the audience can no longer trust. Furthermore, this descent into madness is paralleled by the cinematic decisions made by director Martin Scorsese as a means to highlight the depravity of Travis’ mind. Scorsese takes elements of horror and injects his own style into the filmmaking. At night, the streets of New York City are lit with a sea of greens and reds which disfigures the overall mise-en-scene, such as the disfigurement of the neon nightmare that is Dario Argento’s Suspiria. This dark cinematography projects Travis’ hatred towards the city, which is a microcosm of his hatred towards humanity itself through his negative outlook of the streets of Manhattan. The cinematography reflects that of early 1970s Italian horror cinema which highlighted by the harsh greens and reds, which are juxtaposed by the soft lighting of day time where Travis’ dark thoughts remain dormant.
ReplyDeleteItalian neorealist cinema placed ordinary persons in the center of a typical Italian city or town as a backdrop. In making the protagonist an everyman, the audience is more prone to identify with the character, and their struggles. Like neorealists protagonists, Travis is an everyday person, which leads to two different effects. Travis is initially a sympathetic character through his seemingly calm disposition and minimal dialogue. This makes him relatable to a certain degree, and the idea for what is to potentially come based of this description lends power to expectation subversion. The choice to make Travis an everyperson comes in play when he is seen to be a seriously disturbed mind with homicidal tendencies. Issues that most people would brush off, are obstacles for Travis which fuel his rage. This rage culminates in the final shootout, where Travis decides to be a “hero”, and saves Jodie Foster from a situation that she did not asked to be saved from.
A similar expectation subversion comes from the western “The Searchers”, a film which heavily influenced the writing and filmmaking of “Taxi Driver”. The protagonist, Ethan Edwards, carries himself as any other John Wayne cowboy, except he is a homicidal racist. Like Travis, Ethan’s worldview is one that includes death and destruction, although his endless crusade for Debbie proves himself to be the bringer of such chaos. His blind motivation to find Debbie, which is at first another excuse for him to kill Native Americans, comes with a delusional high of grandeur, and much like Travis and Jodie Foster, Ethan decides to save Natalie Wood, who also did not ask to be saved. The final raid scene in “The Searchers” and the final shootout in “Taxi Driver”, are last ditch efforts to save a female character that the male protagonist believes need saving. Ethan’s definition of saving Debbie ranges from taking her home, and shooting her dead. The film builds up Ethan’s prejudices, so when he corners Debbie in the raid, her death is apparently imminent. This is where Travis and Ethan are different in character. Where Travis’ subversion is horrifically disgusting, Ethan saves Debbie instead of killing her, consequentially completing his arc, and redeeming his character. Travis has no redeeming qualities, and his decisions in the third act of the film prove to be that of a maniac who at one point seem to be, like Italian neorealists characters, normal.