Sunday, December 18, 2011

5 Most Valuable Minutes- Taxi Driver


(9:58-14:58)

The 5 minutes of footage that I choose from the movie Taxi Driver was from 9:58-14:58 in part 8 of the movie. In this part of the film, Travis goes to the pimps and kills them in hopes to let Iris free from their games they play. I choose this part of the film because it really emphasizes the anti-hero. Also, we partly see how his character finally comes to action with all the preparation he has been going through. Before we believed that he was going to kill Palentine, but in the end he does it for Iris. 

In these 5 minutes, we see Travis' actions coming to life, whereas before he was just developing his preparation and we the audience became for anxious to how things were going to turn out. Through out the film, we see Travis becoming more and more aware of his surroundings and what is going on with others. This extract relates to the rest of the director's body of work by how we perceive Travis at first. In the beginning we see him as a desperate guy looking for connections with society, but as time goes on we see how he turns to violence because of how society turned on him. But in the end, we see that he was an anti-hero. Not knowingly doing good, but creating good anyways. We see that he kills the pimps in order for Iris to get freedom, but we never expected him to be in newspapers being called a "hero". 

This extract relates to the narrative and plot structure because through out the film, Travis constantly is thinking about killing Palentine and building up his skills in order to do so. In the end, he does end up killing people, but not Palentine. This extract shows the climax and falling action. This extract also helps support the fact that this film has a classical narrative structure. This means that the discrete story teller moves the story forward towards its climax and resolution around the central climax. This is true because without Travis' actions and motivations, the story wouldn't have gone to the places it went to. He doesn't get the revenger he wished for, but he gets revenge for Iris in order for her to be free and go back to her family that she ran away from. This extract relates to the narrative, because it sort of resembles an old country movie with all the shoot downs. Back in the old west movies, the cowboy movies use to always have shoot downs in the end in order for the "survival of the fittest" to be truly known. That is seen in this extract, because of the way the scene is portrayed and how in the end, Travis ends up winning. There isn't much dialogue in this scene, but there is plenty of action which helps indicate Travis' intentions from the beginning. 

In this 5 minute extract, it shows the director's intent by the camera work which was inspired by Hitchcock's The Wrong Man and Jack Hazan's A Bigger Splash. Throughout this scene, especially during the shooting scenes, the camera work is up close in the action. It helps make the audience feel apart of the action and apart of Travis' life. The camera work is constantly on the action and rarely abandons it. Through out the scene, the cutting is fast, especially during the shooting scenes. This helps raise the action and intensity in the scene. The camera work is always so up close in the action because just like Travis's curiosity and desperation to be apart of something, the director makes us instantly apart of Travis' journey. 

Lastly, the extract reveals the genre and historical connections. This movie is historically connected to old western films because of the constant references. The constant reference to guns and gun play shows a connection to modern day/old western films. I also think that his movie may have some connections to the Vietnam war because in the beginning of the movie, we find out that Travis' is a Vietnam vet in the beginning. This would also help us connect to his vast memory of guns and little projects he makes. The reference to these historical connections helps move the story because it helps show who Travis' character is and why he does what he does. 

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