Taxi Driver

Travis is a man who is pissed off at the world especially New York City. In the movie he mentions pimps, druggies, lowlifes i am thinking that he's angry in how society has changed. Morality is dead in Travis's mind and decency has died. Some ways he acts as a vigilante to change the wrongs of society. But before Travis does that he goes through changes. The beginning of the movie Travis is a normal working guy keeps to himself. Along the way meeting Betsy and getting dumped was the first step, shooting the mugger at the bodega, second step and third step meeting Iris helping her escape from Matthew the pimp. Watching this movie for the eight time my perception of Travis Bickle has changed some what. Before i thought he was a normal guy fed up with life taking it out on People. Now i feel when he goes to help Iris later on in the movie and Last five min. he's redeeming himself in the sense of paying it forward.

The taxi driver

When the movie started I was surprised to see a young Al Pacino.  However, once I saw him, I expected for the acting to be good.  The character that Pacino played seem to be a guy who was not only depressed, but also suffered from psychological problems.  His character was kind of lost in his own world. It seemed like he had given up on life.  But then when he met Betsy I thought that things were gonna turn around for him.  Unfortunately due to his lack of social skills he faltered in his attempt  at romance.  From that point he just seemed full of rage.  Basically,  The movie lead you to see that he was coming to a breaking point.  However,  I think it was quite ironic how his character became a hero at the end.  I thought he would have just been dead or in prison, so the end was definitely a surprise.

Taxi Driver

I believe that you will see some similarities in Taxi Driver compared to the previous three films we've watched. There is a strain of existentialism (remember, we talked about this term after screening The Hitch-Hiker) that runs through all of these films, but it is most obvious in Taxi Driver. Can you talk about how your understanding of existentialism is embodied in this film and the others we're viewing in this last unit? Also, what do you make of the burst of violence that happens near the film after all that brooding, all that voice-over driving and solitary watching? What do you make of the real conclusion, when Betsy (Cybil Shepherd) ends up back in Travis' (DeNiro) cab? Scorsese called this his "feminist film" which, I suspect, will be surprising to many considering the small roles that women have in film compared to DeNiro's psychopath. What he meant was Travis embodied all the worst natures in manhood taken to the extreme and that he viewed women as dichotomies, either whores or virgins, but not much in between.

Don Carpenter

As I mentioned before, Don Carpenter had a unique view inside the workings of Hollywood b/c he worked there as a writer for over a decade. Of the three of these novels, I think that Turnaround gives us the most nuanced and complex view of the behind-the-scenes world of Hollywood. This week and next, I'd like you to point out specific scenes that illustrate what this view of Hollywood was like. (This novel was originally published in 1981, so the setting is probably late 70s-early 80s, the years immediately after the Hollywood Renaissance.)

Allied

This weekend I saw the movie Allied and there was a scene that played homage to "The English Patient".  I wonder if I've ever really picked up on these things subconsciously before this class and just didn't pay them much mind or if I only pick up on them now through learning more about film.  Either way it was pretty spot on both movies have a love scene in the car, during a sand storm and it's the first the couple has ever made love.

The movie was pretty good, similar to the idea of Mr. & Mrs. Smith but with less action.

The Conversation

To be quite honest I really liked The conversation. My interest usually pertain to mystery movies and this film played the part. What I really like about this movie was not that Gene hack man was a genus investigator, I liked the fact that he created his own equipment. For instance when he went to the convention he seemed to have no interest in any of the products people were selling at the moment. When people who ask him would he like to partner with them he would reply no. None of his products were for sale and they all severed a huge purpose in his work. What also humored me was that all the items he had seen at the convention were garbage compared to his. For an man to make a microphone to listen through walls using a stethoscope is insane. Not many people are as intellectually to create such items. All his work throughout the movie from the time he put in to his craft to his hours of surveillance, played a positive role. He always tried to do what is best for individuals which is what I like most about his character.

Sound

Confused out of my mind watching Ganja and Hess I relied on the sound aspect to understand what I was watching. Majority of the time It is usually the visual aspects of a film that grasp my attention. Having no knowledge of this movie at all I decided to research the importance of film audio. One of the obvious elements and reasons for having audio is dialogue. The narrative in a film plays the biggest role compared to the music and sound effects. Without it we would not be able to understand or follow the direction of a movie. In fact most of the funds used to produce a movie is put towards the emphasis of sound quality. The sound effects usually pertain to getting rid of the unwanted elements of surround you when filming a movie. The director or sound crew usually use noise canceling options to get more of a crisp effects when creating there portion. Sound is, in many ways, as important as sight and given nearly as much focus by our brains. Even when you are asleep and your eyes are closed your ears are alert and ready. Just a quick blabber of mine about sound because I really had nothing else to talk about.