I just showed Taxi Driver to my film analysis class.  From an analytical
point of view, I think it's an excellent film.  The opening, for example,
is almost perfect: we see the taxi moving through the steam/smoke of NYC.
 We see it at a low angle, moving in slo mo.  Then we see Bickle's eyes,
through different lenses apparently, now red, then white, a little blue -
kind of subtle but there.  We see the streets of Manhattan through the
taxi windows - everything outside looks distorted, partly because of the
rain, but things are moving in slo mo, and they seem to have
repercussions on the street - movement seems to move beyond itself,
somehow.  Things are shimmery and attractive but repellent at the same
time.  Also, the opening is out of time (because Travis doesn't become a
taxi driver until after the scene), adrift like Travis.
 
A couple of times we see dissolves that go nowhere, really, that slice a
few seconds of time out but don't take us somewhere else like most
disssolves do.  We rarely see Travis centered in the frame.  The camera
ocassionally drifts off Travis (for example, when he gets the job and
walks out into the garage, the camera follows Wizard, then pans across
the garage, picking up Travis at the end).  Sorry - I'm rambling here,
thinking of bits and pieces.  When he has coffee with Betsy, you always
see him on the edge of the frame with her, but he's almost always alone
(they get a little closer visually later in the scene).  He's detatched
from his fares.  Even when Scorsese is flipping out in the back seat, he
never turns around, only looks through the mirror.  The only person he
involves himself with - the only one he turns around to look at - is Iris
when she first gets in the taxi.
 
So, if I had to pick between the two extremes, I'd say classic.
 
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Craig Russell            *instructor,film analysis
PO Box 1017              *instructor, writing
Broome Community College *tutor, BCC Writing Center
Binghamton NY 13902      *e-mail: [log in to unmask]
 
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