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Topics on how American film affects culture
Topics on how American film affects culture
Analysis of taxi driver
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Taxi Driver is a classic cinematic masterpiece and one of Martin Scorsese’s best films of all time. This is a hard-edge, violent film that pull no punches with its compelling portrayal of a derange loner named Travis Bickle embodied by the remarkably young and talented Robert De Niro. Film critics raved over its social, political, mental, urban decay it vividly presented, and audiences were deeply drawn to it, adding to its success as film.
Roger Ebert mentions the film in his book, The Great Movies, “Scorses’s 1976 film doesn’t grow dated or over familiar. I have seen it dozen of times. Every time I see, it works. I am drawn into Travis’s underworld of alienation, loneliness, haplessness, and anger. His utter aloneness is at the center of
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“All the animals come out at night“ he complains to himself. Travis suffers mental instability and insomnia, he “works the nightshift, driving his cab throughout decaying mid-‘70s New York City, wishing for a “real rain“ to wash the “scum“ off the neon-lit streets. Chronically alone, Travis cannot connect with anyone, not even with such other cabbies as blowhard Wizard (Peter Boyle). He becomes infatuated with vapid blonde presidential campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who agrees to a date and then spurns Travis when he cluelessly takes her to a porno movie. After an encounter with a malevolent fare (played by Scorsese), the increasingly paranoid Travis begins to condition (and arm) himself for his imagined destiny, a mission that mutates from assassinating Betsy’s candidate, Charles Palatine (Leonard Harris), to violently “saving“ teen hooker Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel). Travis’ bloodbath turns him into a media hero (Fandango).
Taxi Driver is an extraordinary explicit film displaying a piece of American vigilante to the extreme. “The end sequence plays like music, not drama: It completes the story on an emotional, not a literal, level. We end not on carnage, but on redemption, which is the goal of so many of Scorses’s characters” (Ebert 455). Taxi Driver is considered to be a psychological thriller with neo-noir elements. “The film is regularly cited by critics, film directors, and audiences alike as one of the greatest films of all time”
... The Movie. Dir. Arne Johnson, Shane King. Perf. Carrie Brownstein, Beth Ditto. Ro*co Films. 2008. DVD.
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.
Porter, Bruce. Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
Connelly, Marie. "The films of Martin Scorsese: A critical study." Diss. Case Western Reserve University, 1991. Web. 07 Apr 2014.
The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how several literary devices described in Foster's book are put to use in Tarantino’s film, “Pulp Fiction”, including quests, archetypes, food, and violence.
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
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.
More particularly, while Goodfellas does not shy away from the violence and mayhem of street life, it interrogate the nature of criminal enterprise, its “profit motive” (P.210, 2)
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...
Good morning/afternoon ladies and gentlemen. As movie critics of crime today I will be talking about why the movie that I have chosen is the quintessential crime film. As a crime enthusiast, I can assure you that my film is extremely satisfying not only for any crime enthusiast but also for any other enthusiast. You have heard today many claims for the quintessential crime film. The movie that I have chosen is Steven Soderbergh directed film, Ocean’s Eleven. Even though it was released 13 years ago, the movie has all the elements of the genre that are fundamental for success. There is a group of skillful people, perspective is from the criminal’s point of view instead of the good guy, a crime that it committed in an urban American setting. I assure you that Steven Soderbergh has formed the quintessential film mainly due to its amazing elements.
In the beginning, Travis’s dad heads to Texas to earn money for his family. Travis has to take on a big responsibility
He is a man whose psychological workings are dark, twisted, horrifying, and lonely. He is an absurd, anti-hero who is absolutely repulsed by his surroundings, and because he is unable to remove himself from them, he feels justified in removing other people. This profile fits Travis, portrayed by Robert DeNiro in Scorsese's film "Taxi Driver,", and Raskolnikov, the main character of Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. Their revulsion for life leads both men to commit cold-blooded murders, but the story lines contain major differences. By contrasting these differences and comparing the common themes of the classic and the film, we may come to a clearer understanding of the purpose of both stories.
A reclusive, troubled young artist embarks on a roadtrip of self discovery when he forms an unlikely friendship with a shady neighbor and tries to convince a man he cares about to be his lover, forcing him to make life-altering moral choices about his own existence.
In Wim Wenders’ 1984 film, Paris, Texas, we find its theme of loneliness harboured in Travis Henderson, but very much so in the film’s imagery, eloquently captured by Dutch cinematographer, Robby Müller, “When I choose to work on a film, the most important thing to me is that it is about human feelings. I try to work with directors who want their films to touch the audience.” And his imagery does just that in Paris, Texas.