The famous line “You talkin’ to me?” was spoken by Robert DeNiro in the 1976 film Taxi Driver. Robert DeNiro’s character, Travis Bickle, experiences life in the big city as a taxi driver. As the movie progress he encounters people and situations that affect Travis both physically and mentally. Martin Scorsese directed the film making it a great success in the 1970’s. In order to make the film successful he utilized a series of film elements. Scorsese made use of camera components, repetition of music, gender stereotypes, character development and old-fashioned references. Through the use of these film components, Scorsese accomplished a renowned film that continues to be spoken about in the twenty first century. Taxi driver captures the …show more content…
By using panning it exhibits setting, important props to the scene, and detail. One reoccurring theme Scorsese displayed in his film was jazz music. After most important scenes a specific jazz melody would play to tie all the events in the film together. For instance, after Travis had drank coffee with Betsy the jazz music would play. The jazz rendition would also play in the background while he narrates the story. Although the main importance of inserting the jazz music after most scenes and in the background during narration, Scorsese also added the music for dramatic effect. As Travis left the prostitutes home he saw her pimp walking towards him from a dark hallway. The jazz music suddenly became more dark and frightening implying that he was the “bad guy” in the situation. The reoccurring theme of the jazz rendition was a significant film aspect that both tied the events of the film together and proposed a change in tone of the film. Scorsese film Taxi driver displayed distinct messages through gender stereotypes, old-fashioned references and character development. Throughout the film sexual references towards woman had been made not only through the dirty movies but through characters as well. The audience often sees Travis return to a diner where all of his taxi friends are eating. Every time the camera shows his friends talking they are always talking about women in
After this, the shot pans along the road, and turns into a shot of police cars storming down the street. The fact that the street name, which serves as an embodiment of Norma and all associated with her, is so low to the ground emphasizes that the images of grandeur often associated with Hollywood are a facade, and that the true Hollywood is dark and grim, like a dirty street curb. The street pictured is dirty and unkempt, with weeds peeking out the cracks and piles of loose garbage and leaves strewn all over. This image serves as a stark contrast to the typical impressions people have of Hollywood, and reinforces that the true Hollywood is not the one seen so often on the big screen. Rather than opening with a scene showing off Hollywood’s magnificence, Wilder exposes to the audience what the “real” Hollywood is: a degenerate place full of misery and squalor. Moreover, opening scenes tend to set the tone of the movie, and leave lasting impressions the audience that carry through the entirety of watching. By showcasing the dark side of Hollywood before anything else, Wilder asserts that it is this dark, twisted version of the city that truly defines its inhabitants. In addition to pan shots, Wilder also incorporates music in the opening scene, which further adds to the dark image being relayed about Hollywood. The score is borderline cacophony, trademarked by sharp bursts of drums and trumpet that build suspense and
Unfortunately for Bickle, he is never able to get close enough to get to the candidate. After his plan completely fails, Bickle then begins to form an interest in saving a young 12-year-old prostitute by the name of Iris, played by Jodie Foster. In order to save her, Travis goes to the hotel that Iris works at and shoots her ‘pimp’ and murders him along with the hotel manager and the client of Iris. After seeing this film, Hinckley Jr. starts to form an obsession for Jodie Foster. He also began to believe that he saw himself in Travis Bickle. Hinckley Jr. was so infatuated with Taxi Driver that he saw the movie a total of fifteen times. He felt that in order to win Jodie Foster over, and to get her to even know he existed, was to assassinate the president of the United States. This would be the start of something that would lead to the attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan.
The film consists of many cliché western characters. There is a banker, an outlaw, a prostitute, a doctor, a gambler, and a pregnant woman. These characters are categorized by social class. The banker, the pregnant
While in Hollywood, Hinckley first viewed the 1976 film Taxi Driver, which gave dramatic meaning to his miserable and depressed state of life. Hinckley became obsessed with this film watching it over 15 times in a few years. Robert DeNiro portrays a psychotic taxi driver who thinks about political assassination throughout the film and also rescues a vulnerable female prostitute names Iris who was played by Jodie Foster (The Biography.com, “John Hinckley Jr. Biography”). When watching the movie, it gave Hinckley ideas of
The three terms/concepts are: mise-en-scène, décor, and costumes. The characterization in the film Goodfellas by director Martin Scorsese is based on a true story of the Italian mafia. The overall mise-en-scène; the design and composition of the film Goodfellas, includes the décor in set design and the characters wardrobe consisting of New York retro fashion costumes. Scorsese engages viewers with his use of a unique approach in mise-en-scène that aligns the gangster theme within set location, and the use of music in sound with a first person narrative voiceover. In fact, the narrative shapes the design in Goodfellas, and the story is set in New York, which includes all boroughs.
The shot ended by fading into the next one. There were some overlaps between these two shots. The director used panning to move the camera when Gladys walked toward us. At the same time, the background music started. It created a completely different kind of mood compared with the one in the office. The music was light-hearted. When Gladys finally saw the billboard with her name painting on it, she became more contented. At the same time, the background music changed to be more cheerful and energetic, which reflects Gladys's emotion and helps the viewer to sympathize with the
The short story The Pedestrian is an intriguing story that takes place in the future. This story suggests that if the world continues the progress that it is now then we will become no more than humans who are doing nothing with our lives. It shows how people would seclude themselves from others and begin to stop caring for others. Is this actually a possibility in the future?
Additionally, the usage of different kinds of shots also amplifies the mood of the film. For instance, in the end of the movie, when Mr. Sebastian is going back to his house, the filmmaker recorded this scene from a distance. By looking
From the start of the film, a soft non-diegetic melodramatic violin tremolo as the background soundtrack has been used. However, the music changes to a more ominous and suspenseful tone when the protagonist is walking to the copy shop, and gradually builds up until the protagonist uses his photocopier, in which then a loud audio and visual distortion interrupts the music, after which the music suddenly quietened. This shouts out to the audience that something bad has happened, again preluding the twist in the story, the copies. As the film progresses, Widrich Virgil uses the ground work that he built up, replicating the same visuals, the bedroom, the man on the street, the florist , familiarizing the audience to the setting. Therefore, later in the film when all of them are replaced with the protagonist, the audience makes a personal understanding, strengthening their understanding on Wildrich’s statement about the conformity of
In the play written by Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire", the use of his remarkable writing tactics and motifs are used to develop the main character Blanche throughout the play. As the play progresses, we gradually gain knowledge pertaining to Blanche and the type of individual she actually is in juxtapose to the facade she puts on. With clever usage of motifs such as lighting and flirtation, we can draw countless conclusions about Blanche throughout the play. Using the fore mentioned motifs we can contemplate that Blanche is developed into a deceiving, narcissistic and seductive being because of the use of motifs Williams amalgamated throughout the play.
In Taxi Driver, Scorsese manages his camera angles and editing to emphasize Travis seeing the world through glass or mirrors, especially the windshield and rear-view mirror of the taxi, through which all major characters enter Taxi Driver: Betsy through the panes of an all-- glass office; Palantine through his rear-view mirror; and Iris and Sport in a fleeting glance in his mirror. As Travis meets with a black-market gun dealer, and in this scene the weapon literally becomes the organ of perception. Scorsese situates his camera on Travis' arm as that arm takes the weapon and slowly pans it across the window looking down on the street below. Finally, in the scene which has made Travis Bickle a cinematic icon ("Are you talking to me?"), Travis looks into his mirror, challenges imaginary adversaries, and draws his various weapons in assault. The ambiguity of the image is poignant: Travis looks into a mirror and makes a self-destructive gesture foreshadowing his attempted suicide at the climax of the film, and Travis peers through the looking glass and
Unlike most films, Baby Driver integrates sound and cinematography in a unique manner, creating a symphonic orchestra of film composition. The initial heist and getaway of the film is a prime example of how audible and visual filmmaking can have such a large influence on each other, creating a piece of cinema that is driven by a distinct beat. Although in most films no actions are arbitrary, Baby Driver takes this premise to an entirely different level, directing every action to sync with the music in the scene: whether it be diegetic or non-diegetic to the character. Within the first five minutes of the film, the audience is introduced to the characters, setting, plot, and general motivations of the story without any dialogue. The opening scene employs a brilliantly creative combination of cinematography, music, and directing to convey the characters’ location, purpose, and emotion. This scene also sets the mood and tone for the rest of the movie. Director Edgar Wright and Director of Photography Bill Pope’s manipulation of mise-en-scène—through the use of sound, shot composition, and direction—creates a masterful scene of cinema that captivates the audience, pulling them into the world of crime and the story of a reluctant getaway driver. Each shot and beat is perfectly paired with a specific purpose to communicate the story to the audience. As a result, the opening scene of Baby Driver is an archetypal example of how to communicate a story to an audience without any
The main character of a film is the character you follow on a journey. As an audience member one grows a connection and feeling for the main character. What happens when the viewer finds out this character they have been feeling empathy and a connection with turns out not to be a good guy? The viewer than has to start questioning their own morals to figure out why and how they could have connected with a character that is not as upstanding of a citizen as once was thought. In Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese, Travis is the person that the viewer follows throughout the film. Travis participates in activities that many people would see as against their values and morals, but the audience is forced along. Over the course of the film,
The narrative assignment I have in mind is to follow a scene of two characters in a taxi cab. The premise is that the taxi driver is an eastern European immigrant in a college town, waiting to receive a call and when he does it is a young, drunk, male college student. The idea is that the taxi driver comes from an impoverished town, with influence from the decaying conditions of Eastern Ukraine from Russia. He is a middle-aged man with a wife and kids who come to the town (based entirely on London) to seek better living conditions than his previous home. He seems to be a cheerful character and upbeat despite his living situation. It is late at night when he gets the call from the college student. The college student lives a stereotypical
Our late modern society is full of prejudices. Some minorities are frowned upon, and are described as socially deprived. This is shown in both bullying and exclusion, but our actions towards these people have more fatal consequences than we know, and can result in the fact that some of the excluded in our community presents a bad behavior. Such an example is presented in the short story, “Shouting at Cars” by Adam Marek from 2013. The reader is here presented to the fate of a troll, who has been looked down on his entire life.