\"Taxi Driver\" Lecture Notes PDF

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"Taxi Driver" Lecture Notes...

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Taxi Driver Good example of what the larger critical project is in this class. Travis Bickle - main character. Fucked up character. Can disagree with things but still like something and understand how it works critically. Is this a racist film or is it a film about a racist? Is this a sexist film or is it a film about a sexist? One of Martin Scorsese’s most celebrated works. Came along in early days of Scorsese, showcasing his relationships with Robert De Niro. Particular history with Jodie Foster. Young actor when Taxi Driver was made. Goes onto stardom. The film, her character, and her real life came to intersect. Jodie Foster would go to Yale University. An individual by the name of John Hinckley had a plan to assassinate the president for the purpose of gaining Jodie Foster’s attention. John Hinckley is the person who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981. He recently got out of jail. His motive of attempting to assassinate Reagan was his hopes that he would gain the attention of Jodie Foster who he was obsessed with. Life clearly imitates art. Like the character in the film, Hinckley thought that creating interest around him would give him attention with his obsession, Jodie Foster. Real life events come to serve as a larger context for film. Travis Bickle has a subjective perspective. Has a very unique way of looking at the world. Specific to his point of view. His point of view conflicts with real life. Speaks to the power and dangerous power inherent to cinema. Cinema has the ability to influence people in a number of different ways. Who is Travis Bickle? Introduced to him as an uneducated Vietnam veteran who can’t sleep at night so he decides to get a job driving a cab in NYC. Film’s opening credit sequence visualizes for us that we are going to look at the activities in the film from the viewpoint of Travis Bickle. Point of view/perspective = the film privileges Travis’s POV. Taxi Driver: perspective from a deranged individual who has very problematic views around issues of race, gender, homophobia, etc. Travis Bickle is a very problematic character. The film, however, privileges his POV. In cinema, there are ways in which when watching a movie various characters are placed in a position so that as an audience member we are looking at the world of film through their POV. This is important because the POV that as audience members we look through influences how we read the events in the film. This creates the opportunity for audience members to become somewhat empathetic or sympathetic to the character whose POV is being privileged.

How do we know we are getting Travis’s POV? Film begins with old cabs from 1970’s. Sound of saxophone with NYC sounds in late 1970s. Travis Bickle is emerging from the depths of hell. Taxi moving through the fog. Focuses on eyes of Travis Bickle. Looking into rearview mirror looking into back of taxi cab. Tight shot on his face - his face is often shaded in a red color. The color seeming to come from the mixture of neon signs, traffic lights, and other colored objects in the space as he drives the cab down the street. The opening sequence is quite blurry and distorted. The colors bleed into each other. Travis Bickle looking out at the world. We get the image that the world looks very distorted from Travis Bickle’s perspective - blurry, distorted, not clear. This is his POV. Certain shots that are exclusive to the way this character may have looked. Internal monologue - scenes when Travis is thinking and we are able to hear his thoughts. Given access to internal monologues allows us to understand what the character is thinking. One of the ways the film privileges his POV. Issue: Normally there are multiple POVs possibly available within the context of the film. But, when you take 1 POV and make it the main or only POV = audience is looking through Travis’s eyes. Over the course of the film, as we look at things through his eyes, it creates the possibility that we come to understand his motivation. This understanding leads to a potential identification within the character. A character that is morally problematic from a number of standpoints. Privilege the POV from a morally problematic character, gives opportunity for one to connect with this character. After watching film, imitate Travis standing in front of mirror: “You talking to me.” These demonstrate a character who should otherwise be a monster gets to be humanized through the process of the film. Ex: POV = Godfather = mafia leaders. Figures conceived as criminals. Travis Bickle: Despite the racism, sexism, hypocrisy, etc.: look past that and see him as a human. POV in cinema is so important because in spite of obvious flaws can be privileged with POV, letting audiences connect with them, therefore making them less evil. Travis Bickle represents the politics of resentment. He has resentment towards those he sees as “other.” He is obsessed with cleanliness. He is a hypocrite - part of a community of people that he otherwise despites. He spends his time sitting in pornographic theatres. Sees himself

above and beyond the actual circumstances he is in. He does not examine himself. He is inherently part of the same community of people he often disguises. Imagine him as a woman, Muslim or a black person. The perspective of a minority. If we were to replace Travis Bickle with one of these other characters and same things transpire, it would be a lot harder for the film to be made and it would be equally troubling to have audiences watch such a representation. One of ways in which film humanizes otherwise unsavory characters. Changing film - becomes ultimately more frightening. Socially problematic. Unacceptable. What we have - humanization: making human who is otherwise a monster. Finds himself looked at as an individual. By implying a horrible past, this affected their thought process and actions - a way of humanizing someone who has engaged in a very monstrous act. Terrorist activity. Offering help = creating an excuse. Not how such acts are created when treating a character. Often called a lone wolf - Travis is alienated - has a difficult time being social around other people - he is a loner. His actions are not regarded are represented as reflecting Travis Bickle. We don’t in turn demonize people who look like him - it only applies to him - the lone wolf. If it were to be one Muslim or a small group of Muslims = The entire religion is implicated. Society does not look at as white males - looked as individual acts. If it were looked at otherwise, we would have a very different representation of white masculinity in society. Mental health = a way of justifying activities. How does Travis Bickle view women in the film? Betsy represents the idealized woman in his mind. He sees her in a white dress - out of a crowd walks Betsy. White femininity. Represented initially as pure and clean. Travis has an obsession with Betsy. At some point Travis volunteered to work in a campaign he knows nothing about. He gets the opportunity to sit with Betsy and have a conversation. He later invites her to a movie. He takes her to see a pornographic movie and he is surprised when she says she is offended. He is so into his own world, he has no idea that what he has done could be considered rude and inappropriate. He cannot have Betsy. There are other men he sees in his way. Sees campaign guy as a threat. Travis cannot have Betsy based on issues of class. She is represented as of a different class. He is ultimately out of his lane. Taking her to a pornographic movie - he is clueless. He can’t have Betsy.

Purity represented by Betsy and Iris a child prostitute. Women in our society - one way or the other. Opposite of Betsy: Iris. She is a whore, a prostitute. She is part of the same community as him. Since Travis cannot have Betsy, he reaches out to what is available to him. Not interested in her sexually, but rather he is interested in saving her. This is ultimately about him - attempting to save Iris because he has access to her. His plan is to kill Palatine in hopes to get Betsy’s recognition. Unable to do this - goes to Iris’s area. He becomes a savior for Iris. Ultimately she goes back home with her parents. A hero in his mind and the mind of the public. In both cases, it is about him. They are necessary for him to demonstrate his hero status. One he can’t have because of class, the other he tries to save. The stark representation between Betsy and Iris is indicative of how Travis Bickle sees women in this very narrow dichotomy. In his cab - encounters Palatine. Calls Travis by his first name. At first, Travis blows it off but then he says he needs to clean up the city. Palatine finds a way of saying “I understand what you’re saying.” He needs the votes of people like Travis. Travis’s views are not checked, not held accountable. In this context, they serve a purpose. Scorsese in back of cab - park - leave window - wife is in a house, not his house, wife having an affair with a black man. Explains how he is going to kill his wife. Refers to black character as a nigger. Scorsese is verbally the same thoughts that have previously only existed in the head of Travis Bickle. Travis Bickle has community - there are others who believe the same thing. After this, Travis goes full speed into his plan. Plan to kill Palatine. So he goes to kill Matthew and others in the brothel. If he shot/killed Palatine, it would be represented as an assassination attempt. Represented as a crime - a bad thing. The people he shoots and kills are deemed criminals - guy running a brothel, pimp, mafia figure. Iris’s parents don’t see Travis Bickle as a bad guy. The media doesn’t see him as a terrorist - they see him as heroic. Had he done the same thing to Palatine, he would have been considered a criminal, a threat. Because of the people he kills, he in turn is seen as a hero. The media sees him as heroic - he is even somewhat redeemed in the mind of Betsy. In the cab she is very nice to him - she read about what happened. He has transformed his image in society in spite of the fact that we know who he really is. The films offers us a representation of a troubling character, who is able to be humanized in larger society - how he is redeemed. The humanization of an especially troubling character is something particular to the representation of Travis Bickle and his white masculinity. A way in

which a troubling character, a monster, is transformed into a human character that audiences could very well come to sympathize with. We come to understand how media works in our society....