Taxi Driver analysis

I will focus on the title sequence for this analysis to give me an idea about how I might incorporate the titles. It features close ups of taxis, smoke, eyes, lights, and people walking by.

Camera

A close up of smoke is seen first and is typical of thriller. It blocks what is going on behind it and gives an eerie, creepy and mysterious feel. As it is also used first it keeps the audience in suspense which is typical of opening scenes as it sparks an initial interest and hints at the rest of the film.

There is another close up as a Taxi as it drives forward slowly. This shows hints of what the film will entail (again, typical of open scenes) and the slow speed of the car used with the intense music makes the taxi seem scary in some way precarious.

An Extreme Close up of eyes shows his furrowed brow and cold angry stare. It also it creates a dark and dangerous feel as the lighting is mostly red, which has connotations to danger, making it seem like the character could be dangerous or scary.

A wide angle of looking out a car window showing blurry lights is also used. This sets the scene also the colours of the lights are mostly red and blue, coming across as being dangerous and cold, like the character appears to be. It also has connotations with sirens and the police, maybe foregrounding parts of the story. This again is very typical of thrillers to drop hints to the audiences.

There is another wide shot of people walking across a city street, over the top of this there seems to be an image of red and blue smoke or fire, again hinting at danger and maybe something involved with the law being broken and people needing to be in forced upon the law.

Mis en Scene

There is a taxi, this is used to relate to the title and plot of the film, as the man is a taxi driver and the film is also called taxi driver. This is quite typical of thrillers as it reflects some of what is going to happen in the film. There are also people walking across the street, this again is to show the audience an introduction to the film and also the character as it looks like a view the characters would see on most of his days out. Thrillers usually do this when the plot revolves around one character, it gives the audience an insight to what the character sees daily.

The fact that the opening is set during night is also quite typical of thrillers as most start of being dark and sinister. Hinting at the darkness that might follow.

The lighting is interesting in this, especially the close up of the eyes. It is a contrast between dark night time shots and bright dangerous looking reds and cold menacing blues.

These aspects all help create a good opening scene as all the objects and mis en scene features hint at what the rest of the film will include and hints at the potential plot.

Sound

At the beginning the music is very dark, drum heavy and brassy sounding. Powerful. It also sounds quite sinister as well. This then changes to light sexy sounding music which features the saxophone, that is known to be a sexy sounding instrument. This change immediately occurs when it gets to his eyes. Then changes back to the scarier music when the camera shot changes, but returns with the close up of his eyes. This could be used to represent the two possible two sides to him. It also creates a contrast between how nice and appealing he may seem but actually when you look more closely at his cold eyes there is something much more menacing to him. It leaves the audience questioning whether this character is good or disturbed, which thrillers are commonly known for doing, leaving their audience quite in the dark at first. This mysterious music also is typical of an opening scene as it again gives hints about what is going to come up in the rest of the film, openings often to this to show the audience the general feel of the film, have the audience gain an interest and keep the audience guessing as to what might happen next.

Editing

The editing in this is also very similar to the editing in American Psycho. It features slow takes, which appear calm, relaxed but yet a bit sinister as the shots tend to linger a bit too long, especially the ones during the close up of the eyes, it’s like a stare that remains too long. It’s uncomfortable slightly for the audience and makes them feel wearing and on edge from the opening scene.