5 Most Valuable Minutes – Writing Assignment

For this writing assignment we were assigned to analyze and understand an important clip of the film “Taxi Driver” by Martin Scorsese starring Robert De Niro. A clip that I felt fully demonstrated hints of both the film’s intent and relation to the film history we’ve been studying is included below. Taxi Driver scene(9:43-14:58) This scene is very late in the movie, just as Travis’s attempt to kill Palestine he is spotted by the secret police and flees. With that attempt failing, he goes to the Ivy’s pimp-god and demands to see her. When they argue with him, he retaliates and ends up murdering all the men and doing quite some damage to himself. A year passes, and Travis is regarded as a hero for saving the twelve year old prostitute despite the killing rampage he went on to do so.

This excerpt relates to the director’s embodiment of the film. Scorsese strived to create along the lines of a “western-horror-melodrama” genre which resulted in the award winning film Taxi Cab. The director had placed the setting in the busy polluted and congested streets of New York. With the streets filled with so much people and druggies, being an individual is near to impossible. However the director focuses on the first person narrative of Travis, a simple hard working taxi driver. We are given the creative point of view of seeing a film and sympathizing with the protagonist, an example of Classical Cutting and Realism. However, some aspects that do not involve realism is the crazy plot and the use of an Antihero to which the audience can’t help but fascinate over. We see his mental stability being to derail, and the director carefully planned to do so. 

Also, in accordance to the narrative, this the first time we are revealed to the now reborn Travis. He had shaved himself a crazy Mohawk and at the same time has found it within himself to assissinate Palestine as he was linked with Betsy. We see him in a new light, and see his personality changing. Unlike other films which were strictly third person narratives, the audience understands the character as more is revealed chronologically. Along with the plot, more is revealed in the plot during the scene. With his attempts of killing the president, he quickly turns around decides to free Ivy from the sinful life she lives. It is then we realize that Travis is a psychopath, bent on rescuing these women through violence. Yet this is an important element of being an anti hero : protecting the innocent through means of dealing with drugs and/or killing people.

The director’s intent, which is incorporated through this scene, expresses a theme of violence and purging sinful desires. Travis sees the world as a dirty corrupt place, and even tells Palestine of how he wants to clean up his city. Through this we interpret that Travis is just as human as the rest of us. He himself has imperfections and is not like the fake true heroes of this film era. People could relate to Travis, and could understand his emotions, and that is what Scorsese was going after. By basing the film on the struggles of an unstable young man who can be overcome by emotions, and not some infallible character. In the end, after the killings Travis is deemed as a hero and becomes infamous. The genre is horror since it deals a lot with violence and abuse, while at the same time portraying the anti-hero’s actions in trying to stop it. As stated, war was mentioned a lot in the film. Travis has accredited himself to being a veteran of the Vietnam war. Having been troubled by war from the start, it’s not alarming that he jumps to violence in order to protect others. Films after WWII (such as this) had been successful, as people sided with the daring character with good intentions. As Travis had been very isolated from the rest of the world, Americans supported him as the nation had fallen apart due to getting involved with other countries.