TAXI DRIVER AND REAR WINDOW

Taxi Driver and Rear Window

Taxi Driver and Rear Window

Introduction

The study is related to the compare and contrast of movies that are Taxi Driver and Rear Window which particularly focuses on editing and cinematography of the movies. From the past reviews of both the movies, it is observed that the cinematography and editing of Taxi Driver and Rear Window are considered as the master piece as both movies lies in the top fifteen in cinematography and editing in the ranking of the movies as they belong to different decades.

Compare and Contrast of Editing and Cinematography

Taxi Driver

Taxi driver was released in 1976. Taxi driver hit the perfect cord to bring great success during the time of the sexual revolution, anti-Vietnam movement, and the civil rights movement. It even did financial better in Europe than in the states. It was filmed in New York, during a real life garbage strike, based on a lonely taxi cab driver and a 12 year old prostitute. The plot is simple Travis a lonely cab driver is directing his anger from his hated life to a presidential candidate and his attempt to rescue a 12 prostitute from her pimp. Directed by Martin Scorsese who was born in New York to Italian immigrants in 1942, Scorsese won multiple academy awards before taxi driver which helped him raise the money for the movie. Taxi driver elevated Scorsese's reputation as a major director. The protagonist Travis Bickle was played by Robert De Niro. Scorsese and De Niro Haver a long time collaboration beginning with means streets in 1973. 13 year old Jodie Foster played a prostitute, which paired with an extremely violent ending brought great controversy (Ablan, 2003, 16-72).

Taxi driver presented real life events going on in New York at the time. The streets were filthy, peep shows and prostitutes were common, crime was on the rise, and there was even an election at the time just like in the movie. Taxi driver also influenced a major event in U.S. History in the form of a presidential assassination attempt. John Hinckley Jr tried to assassinate Ronald Regan as a way to impress Jodie Foster who he was opposed with. I choose this movie because it is very diverse. It has a great director, great actors, grittiness, action, and human drama. I think the major thesis in this movie is clear. Travis's loneliness and what that can do to a man.

Travis loneliness can be seen at the beginning of the move. The first scene in this movie is a perspective from Travis cab driving through New York. Its night time and raining, the rain is causing a distorting effect on the wind shield. The camera shot gets a fuzzy view of the outside world. This fuzzy perspective is very similar to Travis mind set. Loneliness, alienation, isolation, and paranoia all lead to Travis disturbed mind set which gets worse until Travis finally breaks at the end of the movie ...