Scene Proposal

Travis Bickle has been on the clock for several hours at this point, probably sleep deprived of at least a couple days, as well as driven every piece of scum imaginable by this point around the city. While there maybe not be verbal judgement, Travis makes a notorious stare to many different people throughout the film. It is a judgmental process of “the world would be better if you were not in it” kind of stare ranging from random people he sees on the street, his clients he drives, as well as his co-workers. The Wizard has an influence on Travis, his inspirational speech at Pelmore Cafeteria channels Travis’s inner vigilante leading to his act of condemnation.

There are only two people in the film Travis has a mild respect for one being Iris who Travis does everything in his power to help, leading to his life almost being taken. The other being the Wizard, who has been a taxi driver for 17 years, knows the game better then anyone else. More then anything The Wizard seems like the only person in the film who actually has a bit of common sense, hard to give that claim to any other characters.

Travis reveals he has some “bad ideas in his head” he is having issues dealing with them. The Wizard claims when you take a job it becomes you, driving a cab has been this man’s bread and butter the majority of his life. He states he doesn’t own his own cab after this 17 year tenure, simply because he does not want too. The Wizard does have trouble taking in Travis’s disturbing thoughts and urges that he has, A man takes a job, you know. That job, that becomes what he is. You do a thing and that's what you are. You get a job, you become that job."

At first Travis is baffled by The Wizard’s twisted philosophy, however this is nothing new to the Wizard. In fact it seemed like something he probably enjoys a side hobby. Doing my outline for this scene analysis it has to be taken into consideration the range of people The Wizard had driven over that long tenure. From some of the most successful New York has ever seen to the absolute garbage outside Peter Luger in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The magnitude of everything Wizard has seen it is hard to think of the list of things he has not seen. There must not be to many things that shock him.

The Wizard claims Travis will be ok, perhaps by that he meant Travis will go on a vigilante mission almost losing his life but in the end make it out alive. For what's it worth The Wizard could just be a crackhead fool who has just been doing this so long he believes his own twisted philosophy which makes no sense. Through the thick of it, Travis listens and talks to himself, ultimately is his own worst enemy. The Wizard appears as the x factor who pushes Travis to fulfill his needs to go on this vigilante mission.

Gender Pull My Daisy

     Pull My Daisy is a short film made in 1959 directed by Robert Frank identifying several issues during the Beat Generation, this is the main focal point of this film to rely on a stereotype factor. The first thing I noticed invoking the aspect of gender is that women played role of "house wife" and had almost little to no dialogue, the whole short films dialogue was the males. The couple times it appeared the females were speaking there no audio which I'm assuming was intentional.
     The man have the view that women are really only good for one thing, sadly. Never once talking about the women in a positive light but instead how good they look in a "tight dress". Obviously something like dinner is a must for the husband and children. When the son comes out for breakfast it seemed like he is rubbing off from his father adamant about what he wants. He is expectant that he should be served no questions asked
     All the men are focused on is their guy time drinking beer and chain smoking cigarettes like they are going out of style, well their lungs are as well as themselves once they perish. Though they don't imagine what life would be like if their significant others came to the realization they are better then what they are putting themselves through, thought I have tried with previous other films I can not put myself in the shoes of one from this time era, it is un-relatable to today.

The Protective Brother

     The character of Hugh can be described in many different ways. I pointed out in class that I saw him as overly protective, I still attest to that but after watching it again I have come to the conclusion he is about his siblings creating the best lives for themselves. It is evident Benny to a degree coasts off of his success (the little of it he has at least) and doesn't really have a direction. I first get this notion when Benny is asking Hugh for $20 to pay a guy back he borrowed money from for a few beers. This I found baffling, for one how Benny is asking for it, he appears zoomed like he may have been taking drugs, this I can't attest too but it certainly appears that way, though I could relate that too Benny chain smoking cigarettes all through out the film. However, $20? For beer? That today is a lot of money for beer, in 1959 we're talking so that seemed very suspect.
     Hugh is already extremely disdained in the negotiation scene at the night club. He feels utterly useless over having to introduce the girls or as he refers to them as the "floozies". Regardless he takes the two night showcase at $35 a night, leaving everything but dignity in tact. Too bad he is only walking away $50 of it because he feels obligated to take care of his brothers alcohol debt.  It is then that Benny feels he won't get his way locking dead eyes with Hugh, puts on his sunglasses and walks away like he is going to cry. Between his brother, the floozies, the pushy promoter, and manager making his decisions, all Hugh can resort to is a cigarette watching the annoying floozies prance around thinking about being billed third.
    Playing the role of big brother isn't easy, especially when you have multiple siblings and you feel the need to play big brother with all of them. In case Hugh does not have enough issues with Benny, he is constantly on Leila's case. She appears to be doing the best out of them all, young, attractive, decent job, but still big brother Hugh is there to make sure she doesn't walk the streets of New York City by herself and has cab fare. Once the scene with Tony, is where the true big brother comes out and almost leads to violent episode. I though how Hugh handed that situation was great, I thought for sure something was about come about. Hugh kept calm, cool, and collective, around Tony's clear racist thoughts and calmly told him to get out. Hugh, I feel is the kind of big brother and sibling should desire to have in their life.

Taxi friends

     Based off of class discussion of Taxi Driver the only thing that everyone seems to be on the same page is that everyone in the film is "scum". No good, dirty, New York scum. I didn't really think to much of it until the end of the film and recapped on all the characters and their traits. I remember specifically one scene where all the taxi drivers are together drinking coffee on their break at the Belmore Cafeteria. Wizard begins describing a couple customers he had a successful midget and beautiful blonde women, based on the commentary they are biased and jealous. One of the other cabbie's talks about a couple "fags" he picked up. I wasn't around in 1970's that may have been normal to address homosexual men as but regardless the way the cabbie describes them and how they should go to California shows the kind of person he is. At 44:56 the Wizard at least has the opinion of this is a free country do what you want in the privacy of your own home which you can't argue with.
     I found it interesting when Travis arrives to cabbie break spot. He appears hesitant when he walks in and orders his coffee and slice of cake. He walks over to sit down and the African American cabbie asks Travis for five dollars he owes him. Travis pulls out a stack of cash, all singles except for a 20. When he sees the 20 he quickly crumbles in his right hand puts it in his pocket. It seems like he didn't want them to notice but I can't imagine he didn't. He easily had 50-100 dollars in one dollar bills and pays his cabbie back. It's evident that these people are the closest to Travis's friends in his life. It is typical in most cases that the majority of your friends would come from your work place. The cabbie after Travis pays him signals a hand gun gesture toward Travis after Travis asks if he could talk to Wizard, that's something a friend does.
   I am a strong believer of show me 10 of your friends and I will show you who you are. On top of all the issues Travis has of his post traumatic stress disorder this is who he associates with. In his free time not drinking a cab, going to porno theaters and doing everything to avoid sleep. On top of his lifestyle of heavy drinking, excess pill taking, he hangs around cretins who hate everything. They hold nothing but negative conversation to share amongst each other until there half hour break is adjourned they have to go back to cabbing people they will just talk about in a negative fashion at there next coffee and cake break.

Killer of Sheep

There was one specific scene in Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep that really touched me and had me thinking. This film is very genuine in the aspect of that these people are all living a very poverty stricken life in one of the worst parts of Los Angeles, the area of Watts, I can tell you personally from living in Los Angeles this isn’t a very positive vibing place compared to other parts of Los Angeles. When living somewhere like Watts you no longer become content living paycheck to paycheck in your poor household being the primary breadwinner. It becomes harder to support your children and your wife, which causes turmoil amongst the two.

I can’t actually compare my life and situation to a family living in Watts, though I can base my analysis off of what I have seen through out my life and the watching of this film. Stan is a perfect example of being non-content with his life and wanting more to be able to provide for his wife and daughter. He feels that he is failing he hates his job at the Slaughterhouse and makes little to no money. He has an opportunity to make a move with peers of his that could be very beneficial toward his situation, or end him up in jail.

What gets me about the character of Stan so much is his appreciation for life has. It is obvious that he is more then frustrated by his financial situation but he also finds solace in looking into his daughter’s eyes and being so proud, a cup of coffee, and even at one point he shares a dance with his wife that is beyond passionate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjvS8DQpt6c

Stan’s wife, who is nameless similar to the character structure of Two Lane Blacktop makes Stan realize he doesn’t need to get involved with what Stan’s friends are cooking up. It doesn’t need to get to that point where he could end up in jail or worse. At certain points throughout the film I felt like they didn’t really care for each other to much. They are very incentive towards each other and even bias like they don’t like each other, but put on a face for their child in front of her. It seems at the beginning they genuniley don’t really care for each other but I think it’s evident it is the complete opposite after watching this scene with dance. 

Two-Lane Blacktop

            Perhaps I didn’t have the best mentality going into Two-Lane Blacktop to begin with. I’m at the point where I am a little tired of road and car movies so to hear Dr. Lennon say we are done with road movies was very refreshing though I think we could have ended it on a better note rather this droll and slow action movie staring a couple of iconic rock stars, the late Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and legendary James Taylor. I was less then stellar with their performances in the film and just the film in general.

            Considering I have never really been a fan of road and car films anyway I had to look past that and find aspects of the film I could relate too. I have been able to do that with every film except Two-Lane Blacktop, though I did find a few I enjoyed. I liked that the characters didn’t have a name “the Mechanic, The Driver, The girl, The GTO”. That is the only thing you needed to know in terms of characters. While the acting was less then superb I thought the characters did a good job at staying true especially the rockstars leads who felt out of place, not to mention frustrated after doing a hundred takes of the same shot.

            The film’s plot is simple, '55 Chevy takes on a '70 GTO in a race across the Southwest. They put their pink slips in an envelope and mail it to their destination and the first person that gets their waits for their new car. I really enjoyed the sceneria in the film on a side note. I have driven across country to California so despite the filming being 40 years ago I actually felt déjà vu, particularly the scenes going through California and Arizona. The GTO has a lot of hilarious dialogue with people he meets on the road. It seemed like the hitchhikers are doing him the favor of keeping him company versus giving the hitchhiker a ride being the favor. I actually bein to feel bad for the GTO a little bit through out the film, though I think he has the nicest car in the film.

            The final scene of the film has a very awkward ending I felt. The drag race in Tennessee, the Driver’s expression is scary to say the least, I felt as if I was meeting this character for the first time. During the actual race the film slows down and the music drops almost completely. Then it looks as if the film just burns out something I have never seen before. This scene was very dark and dramatic making the final scene in Thelma and Louise where they jump a cliff look like the ending look It’s a Wonderful Life. 

Morvern Callar

During the first scene of Morvern Callar, I along with many others was not aware the man laying on the floor was not dead cuddled up to Morvern. This definitely caught me off the guard and once I realized he was dead my first instinct was he was murdered. Not by Morvern necessarily, but it is apparent something tragic happened, you can put two and two together once we see the suicide note and manuscript on the computer.

     The only real thing I can accept from the character of Morvern is that she isn't all there. How she decides to go about handling the remains of her boyfriend’s body, I felt the scene in bathtub was extremely off putting and something only in the mind of a psychotic. Revenge seems to be key the element of the film. Morvern's boyfriend, James requests that she sell his book, which I don't even think during the film she's ever seen actually reading in it. Instead she pawns it off as her own and gets a big payday in the end result in Brazil.

         In class I tried to get my theory off that Morvern could have murdered James, during the scene where Lanna and Morvern are stranded on the side of the road Lanna tells her she slept with James 1:13:41-1:14:55. It looks as if Morvern may have already known, but it’s that it’s Morvern’s boyfriend and her best friend, even though Lanna refers to it as a “stupid fuck” and it doesn’t mean anything it doesn’t make a difference, it still happened.

         James did commit suicide, which I am well aware of, but it still could have been possible for Marvern to have killed James and to finish off her revenge kill Lanna, sell the book for the astronomical figure she got and just move off starting over somewhere. Not to mention escape the petty, boring, unfulfilling life she has back home working at the grocery store.

What throws me off guard is toward the ending when Morvern asks Lanna to leave with her after she gets the money. Morvern has cleaned out her apartment and probably didn’t put in a two weeks notice at the store. It still baffles me that she asked Lanna to leave with.