Thriller Analysis: Taxi Driver (1976 Martin Scorsese)

(click on the picture for the opening sequence)


Whilst watching the opening sequence of Taxi Driver I was able to analyse the following:



Genre:

• The smoke and close-up of the eyes created enigma and the sense of the unkown, typical to a thriller.

• The loud, raised parts of the music created suspense and tension, which are crucial to thrillers.


• The shot of the pedestrians walking suggested that the normal citizens would be involved as victims, which is often apparent in thrillers.

Charaters:

• We are introduced the main character through a close-up of his eyes which gave a shifty and mysterious expression (as shown by the shot below).

• We can also infer that he is a taxi driver from the shots of the taxi, and how he looks like he is looking out of the front car window at the pedestrians.

Conventions that are present:

• Tense music


• Red and black colours used for titles.


• A night-time setting used to create enigma.


• A city, urban location where there it is heavily populated, therefore easy to loose someone. (shown in the shot below)
  


• A lone character, who will probably be against a system or organization of people.

How it keeps the audiences attention:

• By only giving one close-up shot of the main characer so that we don't know anything else about him.


• By the music which continually increases and decreases the tension.


• By switching between light and dark lighting, creating different atmospheres.

Questions we are left asking:

• Who is that man?


• Why is he a taxi driver?


• Where is he going?


• Why is he intensley looking out of the window?