47. Taxi Driver 1976
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075314/
This is a copy of the first paper I wrote for my Intro to Film class. This was the assignment:
View the first 15 minutes of a feature film. The film you select must be a live action (not animated), non-documentary film on the National Film Registry and at least 60 minutes in length. Count the number of close up shots that were employed by the director. Evaluate the general purpose of the close up shots. Do the CUs elevate the importance of things, or reveal facial expressions for example?
My paper:
The Use of Close-Up Shots in Taxi Driver (1976)
In the first fifteen minutes of the movie Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese throws the viewer into the world of Travis Bickel. Popping pills and driving a cab out of which he needs to clean semen and blood nightly, he sees the worst and best of New York City. He encounters politicians and prostitutes, heroes and heroine addicts, yet Travis does not discriminate; he believes everyone is equally despicable. The camera enraptures the viewer, using different angles to allow the viewer to connect emotionally with our protagonist and the people he encounters. Throughout the use of many close-up and extreme close up shots, Scorsese shows the emotion in DeNiro’s face, the romanticism in Cybill Shepherd’s face, and the world of a single man in the inanimate objects that flash across the screen.
One of the first shots that the viewer sees in the film is the extreme close up of Robert DeNiro’s face, or, more importantly, his eyes. He watches these people as they go about their despicable lives. His eyes follow the citizens, back and forth. A mere moment later, the film cuts to Travis interviewing for his job. The camera stays at waist-level until Bickel cracks a joke to his soon-to-be boss about his conscience being clear. The boss tells him not to joke around, and the camera zooms in on Travis’s face, showing the seriousness of the interview which until then he may have thought was a light-hearted formality.
When first the viewer sees Cybill Shepherd as Betsy, she is a breath of fresh air. She is a symbol of purity and beauty, dressed in white, walking through the dirty city in which the audience has come to expect the worst in a matter of moments. The next scene shows her working at the “Jack Palantine for President” headquarters. She is speaking with her colleague, and as she speaks of her beloved candidate, the camera closes in on her face as she describes him. Immediately, the audience comes to realize that this woman has a deep level of respect for her candidate. Although she tries to hide it, she is enamored by his professionalism and in love with his looks. She is passionate about her cause and her position, and finds meaning in her work, and it is clearly shown in one single close-up shot of her face.
The close-up views of inanimate objects are more prominent in this film than in others, yet they have an understated quality. They could even be overlooked by the untrained eye, or seen as disposable. However, discerning audience members will recognize these shots as having more meaning than those of the actors themselves. Only in this medium of film does the audience become aware of such “disposable” objects. There are shots of the meter in the taxi clicking, the stoplights changing, the stack of papers Travis needs to complete, the wheels turning, the wet road, a cigar box of cash, a dirty apartment, and the journal in which Travis scribbles his every mundane thought. These are things that typical New Yorkers would dismiss, yet they are tangible obstacles in Travis’s life and mind, and they are thrown into the audience’s view. The viewer is shown the same ironic visions which Travis sees, like the close-up of the magazine that the lady working the counter in the movie theater is reading; it boasts a headline to help improve lovemaking, yet she treats Travis like every other loathsome creature that frequents the place. Steam comes out of the dirty street’s manhole and a single shining taxi pierces through it, foreshadowing a story of a lonesome man who would pierce through the evil surroundings in his world. Immediately after the taxi passes, the steam reappears, as if to remind the viewer that the world is engulfed in filth. The taxi represents Travis’s world, his safe haven, in which he can sit protected from the world and the rain, which he so desperately wants to “come and wash all the scum off the streets”.
Scorsese throws the audience into Travis’s dirty world, a world with nothing to live for. The shots in the film, even in the first fifteen minutes, convey his message with absolute clarity. Regardless of whether the viewer focuses on Betsy, inanimate objects, or Travis himself, the shots show the viewer the world of a taxi driver in New York City exactly the way that Scorsese wants the audience to see it, which is truly one of the reasons that the film has been revered as a masterpiece of American cinema.
This is a copy of the first paper I wrote for my Intro to Film class. This was the assignment:
View the first 15 minutes of a feature film. The film you select must be a live action (not animated), non-documentary film on the National Film Registry and at least 60 minutes in length. Count the number of close up shots that were employed by the director. Evaluate the general purpose of the close up shots. Do the CUs elevate the importance of things, or reveal facial expressions for example?
My paper:
The Use of Close-Up Shots in Taxi Driver (1976)
In the first fifteen minutes of the movie Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese throws the viewer into the world of Travis Bickel. Popping pills and driving a cab out of which he needs to clean semen and blood nightly, he sees the worst and best of New York City. He encounters politicians and prostitutes, heroes and heroine addicts, yet Travis does not discriminate; he believes everyone is equally despicable. The camera enraptures the viewer, using different angles to allow the viewer to connect emotionally with our protagonist and the people he encounters. Throughout the use of many close-up and extreme close up shots, Scorsese shows the emotion in DeNiro’s face, the romanticism in Cybill Shepherd’s face, and the world of a single man in the inanimate objects that flash across the screen.
One of the first shots that the viewer sees in the film is the extreme close up of Robert DeNiro’s face, or, more importantly, his eyes. He watches these people as they go about their despicable lives. His eyes follow the citizens, back and forth. A mere moment later, the film cuts to Travis interviewing for his job. The camera stays at waist-level until Bickel cracks a joke to his soon-to-be boss about his conscience being clear. The boss tells him not to joke around, and the camera zooms in on Travis’s face, showing the seriousness of the interview which until then he may have thought was a light-hearted formality.
When first the viewer sees Cybill Shepherd as Betsy, she is a breath of fresh air. She is a symbol of purity and beauty, dressed in white, walking through the dirty city in which the audience has come to expect the worst in a matter of moments. The next scene shows her working at the “Jack Palantine for President” headquarters. She is speaking with her colleague, and as she speaks of her beloved candidate, the camera closes in on her face as she describes him. Immediately, the audience comes to realize that this woman has a deep level of respect for her candidate. Although she tries to hide it, she is enamored by his professionalism and in love with his looks. She is passionate about her cause and her position, and finds meaning in her work, and it is clearly shown in one single close-up shot of her face.
The close-up views of inanimate objects are more prominent in this film than in others, yet they have an understated quality. They could even be overlooked by the untrained eye, or seen as disposable. However, discerning audience members will recognize these shots as having more meaning than those of the actors themselves. Only in this medium of film does the audience become aware of such “disposable” objects. There are shots of the meter in the taxi clicking, the stoplights changing, the stack of papers Travis needs to complete, the wheels turning, the wet road, a cigar box of cash, a dirty apartment, and the journal in which Travis scribbles his every mundane thought. These are things that typical New Yorkers would dismiss, yet they are tangible obstacles in Travis’s life and mind, and they are thrown into the audience’s view. The viewer is shown the same ironic visions which Travis sees, like the close-up of the magazine that the lady working the counter in the movie theater is reading; it boasts a headline to help improve lovemaking, yet she treats Travis like every other loathsome creature that frequents the place. Steam comes out of the dirty street’s manhole and a single shining taxi pierces through it, foreshadowing a story of a lonesome man who would pierce through the evil surroundings in his world. Immediately after the taxi passes, the steam reappears, as if to remind the viewer that the world is engulfed in filth. The taxi represents Travis’s world, his safe haven, in which he can sit protected from the world and the rain, which he so desperately wants to “come and wash all the scum off the streets”.
Scorsese throws the audience into Travis’s dirty world, a world with nothing to live for. The shots in the film, even in the first fifteen minutes, convey his message with absolute clarity. Regardless of whether the viewer focuses on Betsy, inanimate objects, or Travis himself, the shots show the viewer the world of a taxi driver in New York City exactly the way that Scorsese wants the audience to see it, which is truly one of the reasons that the film has been revered as a masterpiece of American cinema.
posted by Susan @ 2:04 PM
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