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Short essay on taxi driver
Film analysis social behavior
Analysis of taxi driver
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“Taxi Driver”
New York City that is depicted in Taxi Driver seems to be too real to be true. It is a place where violence runs rampant, drugs are cheap, and sex is easy. This world may be all too familiar to many that live in major metropolitan areas. But, in the film there is something interesting, and vibrant about the streets that Travis Bickle drives alone, despite the amount of danger and turmoil that overshadows everything in the nights of the city. In the film “Taxi Driver” director Martin Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader find and express a trial that many people face, the search for belonging and acceptance.
The character of Travis Bickle roams the nights in his taxi cab, and witnesses all of this “open sewer”, loathing the people who live within it’s realm. Travis is a complex character in his hate for the world in which he works. The streets on which he works are the same streets that he makes his living, and pays his rent, buys his booze, and eventually buys his guns. He is a victim of the world that he hates, because it is the only world he knows. This is viewed best in the scene where Travis takes Betsy to the “movies”.
When Travis was in the café with Betsy earlier in the film, it would be hard to say that there was really anything to odd about it. But later on in the film, on Travis and Betsy’s second date, things become clear that Travis has a different understanding of what is socially acceptable. Travis can’t seem to understand why Betsy doesn’t want to go see the pornographic movie that he has taken her to. He thinks that this is a place where couples go, and seems to think that it’s a decent place to go on a date. There is something alluring about Travis’s naivete, something comical, and maybe a little ironic. Travis isn’t naïve to the world of drugs, sex, and smut; Travis is naïve to the world of decency, where the majority of society attempts to dwell.
As Travis’s taxi drives down the road, the viewer gets the chance to view the streets through the eyes of Travis. You see things through the windshield and rearview mirrors, all luminescent in the neon glow of the night. The streets are filled with different sorts; prostitutes on the street corners, pimps in the cafes, and homeless people wandering through the mess aimlessly. As film critic Leonard Quart put’s it
“The city seen through Travis’ windshield a...
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...ally acceptable world of Betsy, his infatuation, Travis is much of the same.
Aside the Director, and screenwriter, many people can relate to Travis’s struggle between worlds, and the uncertainty of how to attain status in the better of the two. This film depicts the striving that we take to find morals. This quest isn’t always successful though. This is viewed in “Taxi Driver” as Travis’s assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, which fails. Film critic Amy Taubin explains this best when she writes, “….the assassination failed is only fitting, since Taxi Driver is a film steeped in failure—the US failure in Vietnam, the failure of the 1960’s counterculture and…the failure of masculinity as a set of behavioral codes on which to mold a life.”
The film “Taxi Driver” is a true undertaking of the human longing to fit in, and be adequate. It depicts all aspects of this, by showing the triumph of Travis’s heroic emancipation of Iris, and the failure of the assassination of the presidential candidate Palentine. “Taxi Driver” shows all of this in a least expected but very beautiful way, it is a timeless ballad to all unsure, astray, and wandering personalities.
In 2013, just shy of my 17th birthday, I planned a day trip with two of my friends to see The Phantom of the Opera in New York. At this point in my life, I was entirely unaccustomed to large cities, such as New York City, and felt excited to experience the bustle I expected. While in the city, a woman informed me about methods to avoid the crime so intertwined with life in the city and introduced me to the concept that, just as New York City held many attractions for tourists, it also held some dangers as well. This idea takes pride of place in Edward Jones’ short story, “Young Lions” and its discussion of Caesar Matthews. As I learned a few years ago, the city truly contains amazement for those experiencing it, but, like all things in life,
Kernan, Alvin B. "Truth and dramatic in Street Car." Moderen Critical Interpretation. (1988): `17-20. Print.
A taxi driver named Gerhard Müller shows them the rebuilt city, and they learn his side of story, from being
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.
He believes in her in many ways and has great faith in her. First of all, he trusts Aja to act and be there when help is needed. Travis feels that when the community is in need, Aja will be there to help. He trusts her to be there when needed, and to take the appropriate steps in fixing the current problem. When explaining her role in the community, Travis explains it as an almost spirit-like occurrence. He says, “I felt a rush of joy to see her there […]. Aja’s journeys to the end of the spit were good omens; Aja moved when people needed her to move” (Drew 15). This represents Travis’ trust in Aja since it shows how he believes that she is there whenever needed. Since she moves when help is required, the fact that her moving is a “good omen” means that Travis has great faith in her ability to help. He seems to believe that no problem is too big for her and that she can always be relied on. He also seems to be very happy to see her, which demonstrates his belief and trust in her. Travis also trusts Aja as a mother figure in terms of trusting others. When Travis was a child, his mother taught him to look into others’ eyes to determine if they were trustworthy. If you could see horizons in their eyes, you would trust them; if you did not see the horizons, you would not. Travis’ mother passed away when he was young, and from the day she left and onwards, Aja took over as a mother figure in his life. For
Director Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition is the officially-approved US film of the moment, overwhelmingly endorsed by the media and starring “America’s favorite actor,” Tom Hanks. An unstated assumption is that the movie’s pedigree makes it an obligatory cultural or quasi-cultural experience for certain social layers. It is a gangster film with darkened images meant to impart an art-house quality. Set in the early Depression era, it is also insinuated that a social insight or two can be found lurking in the shadows.
In Martin Scorsese’s neo noir: Taxi Driver (1976) Scorsese channels his theme of loneliness through the questionable motives of a young man called Travis Bickle, an all night taxi driver suffering from insomnia and living alone in downtown New York.
Society is faced with various problems that hinder the development of its communities. These issues affect the society in a numerous of ways and has a major effect on the citizens of the community as well. Social adversities causes grief and is also the cause of crimes and other miscellaneous activities that occur in inequitable areas. In the film, Fruitvale Station, there are abundant amounts of these adversities and societal issues that are illustrated. Fruitvale Station is a great example of a film that shows accurate social issues that occur in today’s society. The movie demonstrates issues of inequality, racial prejudice, gang involvement and also unemployment. It also shows how the people who are forced to live with these issues, fight for survival to maintain to see another day.
The narrative convention of Taxi Driver is significantly influential in a way due to its accurate capture of one modern individualistic feature: a loner like Travis Bickle in a big city like New York; not noticed, no reason to be noticed, he is one with his surroundings. From 1960s to 1970s, it was the time of drastic change in social values, when people started to consciously act as individuals, and the shackles from family, community and society were gradually degraded, which confirmed the label of “me generation” given by Tom Wolfe. By the 1980s the ethos of expressive individualism had grown into a national preoccupation, and permeated deeply into every domains of personal lifestyles. Taxi Driver, as a media content, appropriately displayed
For this assignment I decided to read the book Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city by Elijah Anderson. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. The code of the streets is basically morals and values that these people have. Most of the time it is the way they need to act to survive. Continuing on within this book review I am going to discuss the main points and arguments that Anderson portrays within the book. The main points that the book has, goes along with the chapters. These points consist of Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, decent daddy, the mating game, black inner city grandmother. Now within these points there are a few main arguments that I would like to point out. The first argument is the belief that you will need to accept the street code to get through life. The other one is the belief that people on the street need “juice”. For the rest of this paper we will be looking at each one of main points and arguments by going through each chapter and discussing it.
The director Antoine Fuqua vision for this film was to bring that intense love-hate relationship onto the big screen and showcase it for the world to see. To ensure a convincing film setting, Fuqua shot on location in some of the most hardcore neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Fuqua also wanted to show the daily struggles of officers tasked to work in the rougher neighborhoods of cities and how easy it can be to get caught up in a street life filled with killers and drug dealers. Overall the film displayed the city of Los Angeles in a different perspective. One which m...
Travis, son of Walter serves a function in the play, that is the most vital. He lets us connect with Walter while adding more dimension to Walter’s character. Travis the one who makes Walter,a misguided,angry main character more whole, he turns Walter into a more likable person because he shows Walter’s soft side. The play depicts Walter being most rude and abrupt to his wife,mother and sister but never to Travis. Walter happily jokes with his son and slips easily into his role as a father even when he is in a troubled state. Travis makes Walter gain more dimension in his character, he is often the reason Walter does morally grey things and longs for money. Walter desires money so he can offer his son a superior life than he has had. Walter
“Driving Miss Daisy”, is a great movie that depicts patience and an unusual quarter-century friendship that grows between a queer elderly Southern Jewish widow and her submissive, black chauffeur. The movie is set in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. The plot focuses on two characters, an elderly Jewish widow named Miss Daisy Werthan and Hoke Colburn her chauffeur. Although the main theme of Driving Miss Daisy is the friendship and trust that grows between Miss Daisy, the strong-willed elderly Jewish widow, and Hoke, her indomitably spirited chauffeur; prejudice, racial and religious tension of those decades are other themes portrayed in the movie. The movie is centered on societal conflicts from 1948 to 1973 that takes place before, during,
Nicolas Winding Refn is known for his gritty violence, slow burn pace, and beautifully directed movies. Drive starts out about an unnamed driver who helps criminals get away after heists. Once the action wears off the driver starts to fall for a girl, but this is quickly interrupted by the girl’s husband, an ex-con, who is making a reappearance in her life. Everything quickly spirals out of control, which leads into a finale that left viewers wanting more of this nameless driver. When taken lightly this movie has beautiful cinematography that is visually pleasing, a clever story to engage the mind, and one of the best soundtracks to date. Many people criticized the movie Drive because they thought the violence to be over the top and unnecessary, but I believe that the graphic and realistically brutal violence played a key role in this movie and in the development of the main character. Deeper though than this wonderful movie is a moral that many tend to miss, which is what we ultimately do in the end, good or bad, is in our nature and we can’t help it because it’s who we are.
Taxi Driver is an American Physiological Thriller and Drama directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is about a loner, Travis Bickle, who is played by Robert Di Nero. Travis is a recently discharged Marine who decides to be a taxi driver in New York City. He has chronic insomnia so he spends his nights driving and days in porn theaters. He becomes friends with Iris, played by Jodie Foster, who is a teenage prostitute. He eventually helps Iris get out of prostitution and back home to her family. Travis becomes more and more violent throughout the film; he attempts to assassinate a Senator at a rally and even kills several pimps. He even tries to commit suicide, but runs out of ammunition. Travis Bickle portrays several emotional and behavioral disabilities in the film, Taxi Driver.