Memento

So far in the film, I am surprised at how much makes sense. Honestly, hearing that it was told partly forward and partly backward, alternating, I thought it would make no sense. Nolan does a great job of linking everything together while you're watching. The structure keeps you in the dark about the plot, but I am not confused about the order of events (so far). It also brings up some interesting points. Teddy tells Leonard that he puts too much faith in his little notes, and they are just as faulty as memory. So far, both Leonard and the audience are using his notes as a lifeline. But, so far his notes have had him kill his friend, and have a stranger trapped in his closet, beaten up. Half the time, he does not know why he is doing what he is doing, but just based on a short fragment of a sentence, he is willing to kill. I am guessing that there will be some sort of twist at the "end" (or beginning), just based on how the film is structured to keep you confused.

Taxi Driver

In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle is a somewhat unpredictable character. He makes the audience, as well as some characters, uneasy. We only see glimpses of it at first in the form of his poor social skills (movie with Betsy), but it escalates throughout the film. He becomes more violent, buys guns, and changes his hair style drastically. This change climaxes during the shootout in the hotel. In his mind, he is doing this to help Iris, and the fight is quite brutal. It is interesting that the city hailed him as a hero, when if he did not mess up, he would have shot Palantine. It was still the same Travis in both those situations, so he is being called a hero even though he may not really be one. Also, the final scene brings up several questions. My first thought was that Travis was still in a coma, and this was just how he hoped things would play out. It is left open ended, but there is also a good chance that the "old" not hero, regular cab driver Travis is there.

Does you think that even though Travis goes through many changes mentally, that there are still parts of him that are the same taxi driver that we see in the beginning of the movie?

Taxi Driver

In Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro plays a man with a lot of mental instability. Travis Bickle's character changes so quickly and so dramatically over the course of the movie. He begins as a war veteran who is most likely suffering from PTSD, but is living his life as a taxi driver, who wants to chase this girl that he likes. Bickle then quickly transforms into an anti-hero who has lost their handle on reality, but still believes that what he's doing is the right thing. Regardless of the actions that Bickle takes as he changes, there is always a recurring motif that stood out to me, the shots of Bickle driving the taxi at night while the same jazzy tune plays. Even though Bickle becomes almost a completely different person, there are still shots of him in his taxi driving around throughout the whole movie, and I think that shows that underneath all the instability, Bickle is still the same man that we first met who wants to be with Betsy and who wants to get on with his life.

Does you think that even though Bickle goes through many changes mentally, that there are still parts of him that are the same taxi driver that we see in the beginning of the movie.

Taxi Driver

The Use of Music in Taxi Driver

One of the things that stood out to me the most in this movie was the use of music and sound. Throughout the entire film, the audience hears a musical theme that is consistent in the whole movie. The tune is always the same, and usually played by a saxaphone in a smooth, jazzy arrangement. This is the first thing heard by the audience in the movie, which instantly puts them into a mood of pleasant relaxation. This is quite ironic because the rest of the movie is about a psychotic man who has the wish to murder someone. The music is in large contrast with the violent events that happen in the rest of the film. 

Another interesting aspect, later evident in the movie is the fact that this very same theme is used but played in a completely different arrangement. When Travis Bickle kills the bouncer, "Sport," and the mafioso who is about to have sex with Iris, and the camera tracks with a bird's eye angle, the jazzy tune is played as if it was a war march. This was probably done to create a sense of uneasiness in the audience, for Scorsese took something already familiar and pleasant and distorting it to the point that it is scary. This aided something that was already scary and horrific just witnessed by the audience - the scene in which Bickle kills everyone except for Iris and, fortunately, himself.

Taxi Driver

One of the many things I found interesting in the movie, Taxi Driver, was the way Scorsese made Travis Bickle always look like a loner amongst crowds. There is always a sense of isolation around him, even when he is with other people. For example; the scene where he is in the cafe with the other taxi drivers, he is still sitting an awkward distance away from them.

There are very few relationships in the film in general. The only real relationships is the odd one between Iris and Travis that forms towards the end of the movie, the one between "Sport" and "Easy" and short lived one between Betsy and Travis. In the two relationships including Travis, the mood is awkward, weird, and in few words, uncomfortable.

The one other relationship is the one Travis has himself because he is such an isolated person. We see what is probably the most famous line in the show when Travis is basically talking to himself, "Are you talking to me?" He is a very weird and awkward character himself and I feel like it comes out more when he is alone than when he is around other people.

Taxi Driver

Travis' character develops throughout Taxi Driver and we can see a turning point during the movie. This occurs after Betsy basically tells Travis that she hates him, and his dreams of loving and being with her are completely crushed. This literally changes his outlook on life and turns him into a hateful person. It is also after Travis sees Iris in the street after almost running her over. I think he realized after he saw Matthew abuse her and pull her out of the taxi that he wanted to protect her. This explains why he buys all the guns, gets into shape, and tries to improve himself. He goes from being a normal taxi driver who is pleasant and charming to this serious, lying man whose one goal is to kill. Even though at this point in the movie (picture below), we do not know who he wants to attack, we can tell that it is going to be more than one person.
I knew that from the incident where Iris gets into Travis/ taxi, she was going to be important in the movie and it obviously made an impact on Travis. He became really shady and went out to find Iris and take her with him, to help her escape from the nightmare that is her daily life as a prostitute. In a way, Travis finds a new sense of love after meeting Iris, but more like a father-daughter kind of love. It would add another level of creepiness to this already sketchy film if they had something more than this kind of relationship. Travis goes from loving Betsy, to hating the world, to loving Iris.

Was there anything else that changed Travis' outlook on life?

Taxi Driver

Throughout this movie we witness change occur in Travis.

Earlier in the film there is a scene where he is alone in his apartment, practicing for who knows what. He practices a speech and tapes multiple weapons to himself. We have no idea what he is preparing for, but we know that it is obviously not a sane mission. One phrase continues to stick out from this scene, and that's when he says, "You talking to me?"

Later, another scene strikes a similar familiarity. This is the scene when Travis approaches Matthew for the second time. I could predict that Travis was going to pull out a weapon because he slipped, "You talking to me" into the phrase.

 Travis was nervous and didn't want to be the one to do harm, but in his mind it was worth it to be the murderer as long as he is fighting for the greater good, or in this case, against the filth.

Do you think Travis had an ulterior motive for the killings in that scene?

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver a complex movie about the mind of a returning war veteran does an excellent job at showing transformation in our main character through relationships. While watching the movie I believed there were three major conversations/ "relationships" between De Niro and other characters that molded his final meltdown. The first one being the blonde women from the campaign, the second was the actual senator when he got into De Niro's cab and lastly Iris who tried escaping into his cab.

The first relationship I'd like to discuss is the one with the campaign lady that De Niro has feelings for. For the first time in the movie we hear him talk without a voice over or self narrative. He briefly talks about some connection between the two of them that he could sense. The audience is shown how easily influenced he is by how quickly invested into the campaign he gets because of her. I believe De Niro has a hero complex, and thinks in his own mind he is saving people from possibly not dangerous individuals.

The second relationship is between Palentino and De Niro in the cab. We see him take his new found knowledge from his time spent with Betsy and starts chatting. When Palentino asks Travis for his input we hear and see the anger that is boiling inside of him. Now his mission for who needs to be saved is the people of New York instead of Betsy away from the guy who she works with.

The last relationship is between Iris and De Niro which is the most dramatic one. He meets her for the first time when she tries to escape from Sport but he doesn't move. Eventually he makes it his mission to save her from a place where he believes she doesn't want to be. Even though she might not, there is some resistance and Travis continues to push, until finally he tries saving her which leads to a bloody mess.

All of these relationships come one after another which leaves me to believe Scorsce wanted us to see how slowly Travis was leading down this path which in his mind was interpreted of being hero while to others he looked like a maniac. 

Taxi Driver

While watching Taxi Driver I was extremely uneasy almost all the time. Even from the get-go Travis' statement of "One day a real rain is gonna come and wash all the filth from the streets" was extremely unsettling. The film beautifully builds on that unsettling feeling as the film progresses. Travis' unstable and strange nature is first shown from his brief relationship with Betsy. Through his general lack of social graces and his poor choices in venues for their dates, the audience is shown that Travis is strange, but relatively harmless. Still though, that uneasiness remained.

Later, Travis escalates, quite suddenly with the purchase of multiple firearms, and the construction of a sleeve-gun to holster his pistol in. His behavior with all of these, most notably the "You Talkin' To Me?" scene is clearly offensive, and violent. Still though, the audience is not shown the whole picture, so we are still simply uneasy.

Travis' final turn and where the audience is no longer uneasy, but more horrified, is Travis' attempt to kill Palantine, and his killing of Matthew and the other men involved with Iris' prostitution. The overtly violent nature of this scene boiled over all that previous uneasiness dramatically, and quite well frankly.

Taxi Driver

In the film Taxi Driver, I have noticed that there is a lack of suspense for moments that generally would have it. For instance, when Travis goes on his murder spree there is no buildup of any kind. The viewer just sees Travis make small talk with Sport and then all of sudden pull his gun out and fires. In a typical modern day movie we expect the guy with the gun to have some cheesy line or a monologue about how he is going to kill the person. This continues when he just goes into the house and starts firing at the other guy shooting his hand partially off. While watching this scene there was also a lack of non-diegetic sound which, in my opinion is a staple of action packed scenes. Although it was odd for me to see, I feel the lack of non-diegetic sound adds to the scene as a whole.

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver

         Martin Scorsese mixed violence with a disturbed character and created the dark story of Taxi Driver. I thought the film was pretty slow at times because Travis Bickle is basically the only character and his story (although very messed up) was slow and sometimes even boring. One thing I found interesting was Bickle's obsession with trying to "clean up the filth" in the city while he was one of the low-lifes making it dirty. I knew I didn't like his character from one of the first scenes of the movie when he went to the erotic movie theatre. This scene showed that he was distasteful, and even more so when he brought his date there. I knew he was going to do something awful from the very beginning, but the weird (and frequent) montages of him bulking up and sharpening weapons and the voiceovers validated my belief. I was not shocked at all when he went on the killing spree at the end of the film because the tension kept growing throughout the movie. I think that after Travis killed the first man (the one who robbed the convenience store), he had some sort of adrenaline that enabled him to kill the men at the end. The convenience store scene really stood out to me because the shooting seemed so sudden. I thought it was interesting that the robber was black because it shows the racism in film during that time period. I also noticed that the convenience store owner was wearing a "Tulane" shirt, the candidate running against Palantine. I wonder if the owner was wearing a Palantine shirt if Travis still would have helped him. 

Convenience Store Scene Link

     What else about this particular scene sticks out to you?

Taxi Driver

Scott Yarmoff
Mrs. Robbins
Film Analysis Period 3
1/5/15

Taxi Driver

I was talking to a classmate after class today about this film. She told me she thought it was kind of random and purposeless. While I would have agreed with this opinion the first time I watched this film, I think the fact that it was now introduced as a "documentary of the mind" gives it a little more meaning. The seemingly pointless narration and actions that Travis does now seems a little more justified in my eyes. I understand that everyone is a little odd when they're alone, so the "You talkin' to me?" scene and others like it make more sense. Do you think that the fact that it's a "documentary of the mind" justifies the actions, or do you think it's more purposeless?

Taxi Driver

I think that what makes Taxi Driver such an interesting film is the fact that normally, us as a society barely even think about taxi drivers. We just know that we need a taxi to get from one place to the next, and it’s their job to get us there (if we can get one in the first place before someone else steals it from us). However, the main character, Travis, in Taxi Driver proves that no one is just a “Taxi Driver”, or rather, someone who gets us from one place to the next. Everyone in a society makes it up, even if they turn out to be a little on the insane side. 

In the final sequence when Travis went on a killing spree and shot Iris’ pimps, we see that he has an extremely dark side and he was truly insane the whole time. The audience grew to and sort of even ends up trusting Travis because of his dedication to Iris. However he took his dedication to a whole new level. I always sensed an anti-social/isolation dilemma, but I never thought that the film would end like this.

Travis is a very interesting character who speaks of ridding scum from the streets, yet he sort of is considered to be apart of that group of people. Why do you think Travis was so dedicated to Iris and what do you think will happen with her now?

Today's fabulously violent viewing

As Scott put in his presentation, Scorsese's work is violent. Today the film took a very sharp turn and so much happened so fast. One of the big scenes that hit me was when Travis and Iris were alone together for the first time. I think it was the best evidence to the argument that Travis is a good person because he refused to do anything sexual with Iris because she was so young and didn't want to take advantage of anything. All he wanted to do is get her out of there so she can have the kind of life that she deserves. Of course, later, when he shoots up her building and is sitting there all bloody with a gun in his hand was bad and I'm sure Iris did not appreciate it. However, him killing those guys is more evidence to the fact of how mislead and immature he is. By killing those guys, he thinks he is helping Iris and will maybe get her good side for it, but he doesn't understand how things work. You can't just kill people if you don't like them. Unless you have no problem with prison.

I look forward to see what happens in the end of the film.

Taxi Driver

The Theme of Isolation in Taxi Driver:

In the film, a lot of Travis's opinions and actions can be traced back to isolation, or perhaps they are cause because of it. This isolation is shown a couple of ways throughout the movie: firstly, the cab. To almost everyone that rides in his cab, Travis is just the back of a head. He's not really there to them, and he's only able to watch his customers through the rearview mirror.

Another way is through Travis' interactions with people who should, by the looks of it, be his friend. Even coworkers, other cab drivers, Travis sat significantly farther away from them than was necessary. It makes him blatantly unsocial, and shows that not only is he isolated, he's that way because he wants to be.

The only true connection Travis had throughout the entirety of the film was with Iris, which only proves to show how important she was to him. She was the only person worth saving to him; Betsy was given up on fairly quickly, but not Iris. Travis' isolation makes this 12 year old seem that much more important in turn, and helps the storyline as a whole.

Taxi Driver

Noah Pines
Robbins
Film Analysis
1/5/15

Taxi Driver

Robert De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, was never 100% sane. He drove taxi around all night, ate at a diner with other drivers (but barely interacts with them), and enjoyed going the theater to watch X-rated movies. The one thing that he truly believed in, was that someone needed to "clean the scum off New York City [streets]."

Travis then discovers Betsy, and it appears that he is going to change. He became more confident and seemed happy for once, but lacking proper social skills, he to Betsy to see a porno and she was horrified. She never forgave him and he snapped at her, telling her that she'll burn in hell. He begins buying weapons, disgusted by all the horrible people on the streets (prostitutes, etc), but then he sees Iris, the 12 year old prostitute, again (who once tried to escape in his cab). Travis seems to change again, as he attempts to convince her to let him help her escape, but she doesn't want to.

In the end, sporting a terrifying mohawk, Travis decides to take matters into his own hands, gets into a bloody gunfight with Iris' pimp, bouncer, and customer... killing all three before attempting to kill himself.

It's rather ironic how Travis always talks about ridding the streets of filth (while he is a cab driver which is not often regarded as a "high quality" job), and after he kills the men, he is no better than any of them! What do you think will happen to Iris?

Taxi Driver

Travis Bickle has been an interesting character throughout the film to follow. He has involved from a mere nobody to a killer. His mental instability is what make his actions so unpredictable.

He does try to fit in but even though he is still never able to because he is so disconnected; he's an insomniac, he takes pills, drinks, spends his time watching porn films when he is off and even the time he meets his fellow taxi drivers he is not involved in the conversation, disconnected and easily distracted. Mise en scene is important in this scene in order to portray the flaw in his character.

Travis then walks into the office in order to ask Betty out and create a romantic relationship with a girl but decides to take her into a porn film where she gets uncomfortable, gets in a taxi and leaves him at the theater. Then we see a shift in his character as he tries to get her back, sends her flowers, and calls her. His mental illness is revealed here where he becomes obsessive and violent; further drives him to hysteria. The rejection caused him to deceive himself into killing Palentine and when he fails in his attempt he kills everyone in Iris' building and dies himself. 

The montage at the end was interesting to me and i'm interested to see where it leads... What do you think the point in adding another scene to the film is when your main character is dead?

Taxi Driver

One of the things that I love most about the film Taxi Driver, is the fact that the main character, Travis Bickle, is in a sense, a nobody. To the city of New York, he is a cabbie: not even a real person. He's just the thing that you pay to make your cab go where you want it to.

They never realize that any one of these cab drivers could be as disturbed and paranoid as Travis is. I think that this is one of the messages that Martin Scorsese tries to convey through this film: not to look at anyone a certain way just because of who they are or what they do. It's almost an allegory on the America of the 1970s in that sense. Perhaps this is an explanation for why Travis looks so incredibly strange when he is wearing his best suit and tie. We don't think of him as a guy who has a job, and gets dressed up for a special occasion. We think of him as a taxi driver, and that's probably all we'll ever think about him.

Taxi Driver

I think what makes the film Taxi Driver so interesting is the main focus on the protagonist Travis, and how he evolves from the beginning to the end of the film. At the beginning, he seemed to be somewhat normal, being a taxi driver, and trying to date a girl he had a crush on. But as the film unfolded, you saw these two elements of his life disappear. For example, his short lived relationship with Betsy comes to an abrupt end. But something I noticed was at towards the end of the film, he didn't drive around in his taxi as much as he did in the beginning. Now he was fixated on much more different and dangerous things, such as trying to kill Palentine. It was such a contrast to see how he genuinely thinks he's doing something good for the people by trying to wipe the "filth" off the streets, when really he is endangering so many. Whereas before, when he was doing his job and chasing after Betsy, he was doing normal things, causing little to no problems. I think that this was a good was to show that there is clearly something wrong with Travis, while not directly stating what it was.

It is clear that this film does an excellent job at having the audience infer things rather than just stating them. What other key points of the film did you have to infer?

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is a film from 1976 direct by Martin Scorsese. There are many strange elements that make this film so significant. Such as the main characters lack of direct focus and obsessive focus on specific things while also a lack of dialogue to express this. Most of the time the main character, Travis, played by Robert De Niro is simply silent to himself and observing the things around him. The few times he speaks is it with great contrast from the way he behaves towards specific people. He he no interest in conversing with fellow men however very interested in a beautiful woman. Travis repeatedly becomes very intrigued and almost obsessed with women. First with the girl from the campaign and second with a young girl prostitute.  He becomes very eager to help them in a way, however, it's strange because the audience is unsure of what he gets out of the situation.
Why do you think Travis does this?

Taxi Driver

One of the most compelling themes throughout Taxi Driver that makes it even that more intriguing for the audience, is Travis's character. Throughout the film, we get a good feel for who Travis is as a character and what he values. Travis; unlike any other man that has crossed paths with Iris, isn't begging for her sexual favors. Travis has changed though significantly since the beginning of the movie, where he was dumped after trying to take his date to a porn theater. Now, Travis actually wants to help. He tries talking her into escaping with him, takes her on a date for breakfast, and even gives her $500 to fix her life. Iris hears him out but continues to push his guidance away. Travis becomes obsessed with the idea of saving Iris, and returning her back into her own childish ways. So, why is he so persistent? Why do you think he cares so much about Iris and what she does with her life? 

Taxi Driver

What makes Travis such a compelling character is that he is more than just the enraged psychopath that we see towards the end of the film-he wants to do good (at least in his mind). We see this in his obsession with Iris, the 12-year-old prostitute who hopped in his cab one night trying to escape her pimp. Her pimp, Sport, takes her away from the cab and drops a crumpled $20 bill in the passenger seat of Travis' cab to forget the incident. Travis refuses to even touch the bill and associates it with the scum of the rest of the city. From this night, rescuing Iris becomes his goal because he wants to view himself as a hero. After his "real" one on one encounter with Iris, where he pretends to be interested as a client, when he is done lecturing her, he pays the man downstairs with the crumpled $20 that he had saved from Sport, to show how he considers the house and business to be filthy and low. His rescue attempt is an idea that Travis forces upon Iris because she seems to be content with her job and relationship with Sport; he becomes so determined to rescue her that he projects his hatred for the city onto Sport and his co-workers and kills them all in efforts to solve the problem. Why do you think Travis is so fixated on helping Iris? 

Taxi Driver

Lauren Hope Gottschalk

Mrs. Robbins

Critical Analysis of Film and Literature

05 January 2015

Taxi Driver

Towards the end of the movie Taxi Driver it seemed that Travis Bickle played by the actor Robert De

 Niro wanted to be caught. First of all, Bickle admits to Iris that he thinks he will be going away for 

some time showing that Bickle knows what is to come and that he has accepted that. Also, when he

is saying this to Iris, Bickle's face seems to tense like he knows that he is saying the truth.

The next element of the film that shows that Bickle wants to be caught is when his hair is shaved into 

a mow hawk. This type of haircut is more uncommon than not, and is much more noticeable than 

Bickle's former hairstyle.

                                     

Do you think Bickle the protagonist wanted to be caught?

Taxi Driver

Taxi driver is a a movie following the journey of a young taxi driver named Travis. A harmless innocent movie shortly turns into a violent dangerous movie. Scorsese uses suspense to lead up to what Travis is going to do in the final scenes. From my perspective I wasn't expecting Travis to go and kill these pimps that are controlling Iris. I knew that he loved her almost like a father and wanted to protect her, but from his personality I wasn't able to pick up on the fact that he was going to kill someone.
Travis is an awkward uncomfortable character at times and tends to stutter when he's talking or talk too much about random topics that make no sense. So for Scorsese to create Travis as a killer at the end of the movie was very unpredictable. He manipulated the audiences emotions by creating a character we could learn to connect to and trust and then all of a sudden turning him into a crazy killer that thinks what he's doing is protecting Iris.

Just from a personal perspective I couldn't have pictured this is how the movie was going to end based on who we got to know Travis was, what do you think?