Analysis of Taxi Driver in relation to New Hollywood Wave

Taxi Driver focuses on a racist, sociopathic, and violent protagonist and features a twelve year old prostitute (Spark Notes), although it was very risky and had some strong messages in it, it was critically acclaimed in the United States and received four Oscar nominations. The film exaggerates the filth of New York city in order to represent Bickle's skewed perspective (Spark Notes). The word "filth" is used a lot in the movie to describe both the city and the people within it, this is both literal and figurative, in the summer of 1975 rubbish collectors went of strike therefore the streets of New York filled with trash with no solution to the problem. Taxi Driver portrays exactly what New York was at the time, it reflects all the bad messages that weren't reflected in films in the 60s and 70s (Nelson). At the time the film was made, the war in Vietnam had just failed, a new presidential debate was in process and the nation was filled with uncertainty. The movie reflects all these ideas perfectly, many of the ideas the public were feeling are reflected through Travis, an everyday man that see the world for what it is. The mood often suggested in the movie is paranoia, this is reflected through the protagonist who throughout the film gradually becomes more paranoid and ominous (Grade Saver).

We look at the filth of New York through Travis Bickle's eyes, this is suggested through the introduction of the film features a close up of the characters eyes, it is also suggested through the protagonists' narration throughout the movie, usually it is a narration of what he is writing in a diary, the use of a diary allows us to connect with the protagonist as it contains his deepest thoughts and emotions (Hayes). We only know the protagonists intentions and plans because he has no ne else to confide in. Travis's taxi is a key object in the film, it isolates him from the "scum" of the streets and disconnects him from any person that tries to enter his life. Even when there are people in his taxi there is a glass wall separating them, loneliness is one the main themes within this film, the lack of friends he has is what make the character slowly become more withdrawn (Hayes). The movie involves many different conflicts however it is when Betsy rejects Travis that he becomes withdrawn from society, the major conflict in the film occurs when Travis comes into contact with Iris pimp as he tries to set the girl free from a career of prostitution (Grade Saver). In the 70s Time Square was filled with peep shows and prostitutes, however, the fact that the girl is 12 is an overexaggerating in order to show the audience how the protagonist sees the streets. Travis doesn't have a plan of what he wants to do this reflects the uncertainty everyone felt after the failure of the war, we see the same theme of uncertainty years earlier in "The Graduate" as the protagonist Ben tries to stray away from the materialist life his parents set out for him. The protagonist in Taxi Driver has the added psychological damage caused by partaking in the Vietnam War. The idea of PTSD is reflected throughout the movie, especially through violence, the characters' experience during wartime imprinted a need for violence in his brain. He has an inability to translate violent behaviour into anything other than antisocial behaviour (Newell). For example, in the infamous "Are you talkin' to me?" sequence Travis builds a contraption to propel a gun from his sleeve, this is a way to satisfy his masculinity as well as suggest to the audience the psychological effect that war has had on the character.

One of the most influential scenes in my opinion is the starting scene, it is true to what is it. Straight away it reflects exactly what New York was at the time. In this scene many of the shots are very slow, slowing down footage helps emphasize critical moment for example in the first scene the use of a slow tracking shot as Travis tries to ask for a job allows the audience to notice that everyone in the taxi office stay completely silent and stare at Travis for a while before any conversation occurs. This emphasizes the isolation that he feels, and allows the audience to feel it with him. When applying Bickle says he driving license is "clean, as clean as my conscience", this is surprising considering we later find that he served in the war and struggles with PTSD, a clean conscience suggests a sociopathic nature from the very start as it suggests he doesn't feel anything for those he killed or hurt in war. When Travis walks out of the garage a panning shot is used which pans 360 degrees, this is unusual as it breaks the 180 degree rule and can disorient the audience. I believe this was done deliberately to show how to protagonist has no direction. In this shot the camera pans from right to left across the screen as the cabs drive right in the opposite direction. Travis walks the other day, he doesn't follow the camera therefore, the camera must catch up to him. The fact that he isn't captured within the shot walking reflects how isolated he is, he is virtually unnoticed. Next we see a long shot of the man walking down the street this shot fades into a shot of the man getting closer to the camera as he takes a drink of the alcohol stored in his jacket.

A key scene in the movie which reflects the culture of the time is the second scene in the movie were Travis starts narrating his diary passage. The scene starts with a panning shot of Bickles' apartment we hear the sound of his neighbours shooting in the background suggesting he is living in a troubled area. The apartment is riddled with rubbish which makes it quite hypocritical when he starts narrating about the garbage on the street being washed away. The use of non-diegetic narration in this scene provide the audience with a glimpse inside Travis' head. The narrations are quite frequent at the start and tie together his sanity with his present life (Golfer). The voice over allows us to create a depiction of Travis' personality. Within the first narration we find out he is a sexist, homophobic hypocrite. I say this as in his first ride in the taxi he says "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal.", the use of these offensive terms suggests that he represents the generation of Americans that came before the counter-culture generation. As the cab driver narrates footage shot from inside the cab is used, the footage is framed so that we can see the windows of the cab to suggest that we are seeing it from the drivers point of view. It shows us the separation between the cab driver and the public, this has been done to reflect his isolation, he is able to disassociate from the general public even though just like them he is an "animal" out in the night. The use of slow paced shots of the road and of the public outside allows the director to emphasize the "filthy" acts going on in New York. The use of a pull focus was used on a shot taken of the exterior of the cab, the cab then becomes out of focus and the city in the background becomes the focus. This shot further shows how the cab driver disassociates from the general public. The disassociation reflects the cab drives antisocial behaviour brought on by his time serving in the marines. He also says "some won't even take spooks, don't make no difference to me", the lack of care further reflects his PTSD, he uses the word "spooks" to refer to black people, this term is offensive and suggests he has some racist characteristics which were extremely common in the time, however, he says he doesn't care about driving them about, showing how he actually is quite forward thinking for the time (Newell). The scene was shot in the rain, although this creates a tone of sadness, it also suggests the idea of renewal which links to Travis's use of the phrase "Some day a real rain will come wipe all the scum off the streets", this foreshadows that Travis will become that change that cleans up the streets.

References

Spark Notes, Date Accessed : 2020, Taxi Driver (Online)
Available at : https://www.sparknotes.com/film/taxidriver/context/
Nelson, J., 2010. REVIEW : Taxi Driver (Online)
Available at : http://www.philmology.com/?p=1324
Grade Saver, Date Accessed : 2020, Taxi Driver Literary Elements (Online0
Available at : https://www.gradesaver.com/taxi-driver/study-guide/literary-elements
Hayes, J., 2016. Analysis : Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (Video Online)
Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlzl-9T3BL8
Newell, C.h., 2016. Enter the Soldier's Mind :Visions of PTSD in Taxi Driver & Disorder (Online)
Available at : https://www.filminquiry.com/ptsd-in-taxi-driver-disorder/
Golfer, J. 2017. How Voice Over Narration in Taxi Driver Creates the Neo-Modernist Noir (Online)
Available at : https://jaspergolfer.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/how-voice-over-narration-in-taxi-driver-creates-the-neo-modernist-noir/