Taxi Driver Analysis
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TAXI DRIVER
"Taxi Driver" is a film that portrays "the world of dark, slick city streets, crime and corruption," just as film noir is generally described (Schrader, Notes on Film Noir). Travis Bickle is a product of Post-war trauma, which goes along with Paul Schrader's claim that the following four elements are responsible for the emergence of film noir: War and Post-War Disillusionment, Post-War Realism, The German Expatriates, and the Hard-Boiled Tradition; the first two being closely related to "Taxi Driver." Post-War disillusionment, Schrader states, demonstrated "the whole society something less than worth fighting for," while Travis Bickle begins to view the world in the same way. He becomes consumed with the idea of cleaning the trash off the streets. At one point in the film, he makes his opinion of New York night life"All the animals come out at nightWhores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, Sick! Venal! Some day a rain'll come and wash all the scum off the streets."
Many of the techniques of film noir are also applied in "Taxi Driver." Schrader states that the majority of scenes in film noir are at night. Bickle takes a job as a cab driver who works the night shift because of in inability to sleep, thus meaning film noir is evident in the film...