1. The film, Taxi Driver, is about a regular taxi driver, Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro who is trying desperately to make a living in New York and hopefully find someone to love. The film takes an awkward turn when he gets dumped by a girl, Betsy, he meets who works in for the one of the presidential candidates. Travis realizes that he as nothing left to do with his own life and is going to take the one chance he has at getting her back, assassinating the presidential candidate. This film shows the seedier side to the 1970s. It takes a darker point of view of 70s life of strip clubs, crime, murder, prostitution, and politics. I'm not saying this is how the 70s were, but this is Scorsese's interpretation of the grimier side of the decade. Not many films look at that part.
The films about the 1970s that we typically see, hell, films of almost any decade that we see are typically brighter in terms of the plot line, and this film completely doesn't do that. Everyone down to the main character is an anti-hero. You want to root for them, but they're such bad characters in their own ways, that we really can't relate to them or even root for them. We just sit and watch, and that's what is special about this film. It captures a different side of the decade, the side we read about in the newspapers or see on the news. And it was one of the first films to do this. It's captivating.
2. ?
3. Basing off what I said in the second paragraph of the first question, I do believe this film should be listed as one of the top 100 films ever produced in the US. This film was a completely original look at a horrible event that fictitiously happened. We have had films before all based on the cops or the heroes of a certain event, but this one looked at the bad guy. Not that he was a complete bad guy, but Travis Bickle was a misunderstood character. He was the first film anti-hero. The film showed the decline of the common working man. It was a semi-realistic take about a man who thought he had nothing in his life, and went on to do something about it...although he definitely did not do it in the proper way. When Travis talks to the secret service agent at the first speech by the candidate, he seems polite, but we know as the audience, that Travis is planning something diabolical and cannot be trusted, but we still want to see him accomplish something.
The way the film was filmed is another reason it should be listed. I loved the noir-ish feel of the film, with Travis' semi-constant inner monologue talking about how he feels, what he did, etc. It was a dark film, sort of hard to follow, but DeNiro's narration served as a guide to the characters slow demise into obscurity. A specific scene to look at in this film is when Travis is driving his cab at night, picking up street scum and narrating how he cannot sleep, and is slowly being fed up with society. These scenes are a cornerstone into the mind of the character, and probably many Americans who felt unimportant in that era.
4. The final scenes in the film signify the emptiness of the era. I'll relate this to another film we watched, Saturday Night Fever, where all John Travolta's character wants to do is dance, because there is nothing for him to do in life. He is lost, just like Travis. These final moments glorify Travis because, although he attempts to assassinate the candidate, he ends up fighting off street scum such as pimps and drug dealers and becomes a hero because of it. He accomplishes something better in his life than what he tried to do, but all this is because of the emptiness he felt being in society.
This relates to Bruce Shulman's quote, "What kind of nation has America become?" America is lost in themselves. They have pulled out of Vietnam, not a win nor a loss, and are just sitting in an age of blandness and contemptness. America had no self identity.
This blog is for Nick Cvijovic's DePaul University US History 183 class.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
In the Heat of the Night Film Questions
1. The film relates to Chapter 25 in the Foner textbook in quite a number of ways, the main two being The entire struggle for civil rights in the south, as well as the emergence of conservative thought that happened in the 1960s.
The film takes place in a small town in Mississippi, a breeding ground for racist thought and civil rights struggles in the 1960s. The film is set in 1967, the tail end of the civil rights struggle, although the film is based upon one man's fight for equal rights. The film is about a black homicide detective, Virgil Tibbs, from the north who is framed for murder because he is black. When found innocent, he uses his detective skills to help the racist white cops solve the murder. Virgil, the main character, is experiencing what millions of African Americans faced in the whole southern US during the years prior: fighting to get equal rights everywhere in the US. Virgil has to endure racist actions and unfortunate circumstances solely because he is a black man in the south. Virgil represents the entire civil rights movement. He has to endure horrible conditions and racist actions against him, fight to prove his worth/innocence, and then make the tough decision of letting it all go and helping out the murder case.
The topic the film looks at is the emergence of conservative thought. Now, regardless of political opinions, this film does this in a fantastic way. The film brings about conservative thinking through the white characters in the film, not because they're racist, but because they view society in a very traditional way. At the start of the film, when Virgil gets picked up and arrested for the murder, it is because he is an out-of-towner and Sam Wood thinks that he committed the crime because of that. But then Sam notices he is black and that makes things a whole lot worse. This is a good example of the conservative thought process of many whites back in the 1960s.
2. The symbolism behind the quote, "You're just like the rest of us, ain't you?" said by Sheriff Gillespie to Virgil, is very representative of many Americans during the 60s. After the whole civil rights era, many Americans began to see no difference in African Americans besides appearance. Gillespie is having a great realization that he can get along with a man of a different race, and respect him as a person, an individual, not as anything else. I feel that this quote represents what many Americans came to realize post-civil rights era.
3. In my opinion, the film has a very hopeful outlook to the topic of racism. The film uses characters like Gillespie who evolve from racist thinkers to understanding the mistakes and stupidity of their thoughts. The writers clearly saw hope for African Americans in this country because of the way they integrated Virgil into the case, without him just being the suspect because he's black. The film shows that a black man in those times was just as worthy of rights as anyone else. A good example of this is when Gillespie is interrogating Virgil and Virgil shows him his badge. Gillespie asks how he got that badge and Virgil tells him that he is a homicide detective from Philadelphia. Gillespie then asks him how much he makes up north and Virgil responds with a number higher than Gillespie's salary. Gillespie begins to start seeing Virgil as an equal, or almost more qualified than himself to solve the case.
The film offers a very realistic version of the way blacks were treated in the south by whites. The whites in the film are conservative thinking racists. A good example is when Sam Wood picks up Virgil for the murder specifically because he is an out-of-towner, and because he is black. The jobs of the civilians in town are pretty normal, as well as the tone of the film. The film also offers a realistic, optimistic outlook on life for African Americans, because, although it took some getting used to, people accepted them and do to this day.
4. Gillespie is my favorite character in the film besides Virgil. Gillespie is the classic sidekick character, though many do not realize this upon viewing the film. Gillespie is the one character that learns something about himself, and attempts to show it to the rest of his colleagues, though they don't seem to care. Gillespie realizes he can be around different races and respect them as people of the earth, not viewing them as animals or beneath him. Gillespie has the most character development in the entire film and I believe the writers used him as the classic southern man example, except they made him into this evolving character who realizes the stupidity of his racism.
The film takes place in a small town in Mississippi, a breeding ground for racist thought and civil rights struggles in the 1960s. The film is set in 1967, the tail end of the civil rights struggle, although the film is based upon one man's fight for equal rights. The film is about a black homicide detective, Virgil Tibbs, from the north who is framed for murder because he is black. When found innocent, he uses his detective skills to help the racist white cops solve the murder. Virgil, the main character, is experiencing what millions of African Americans faced in the whole southern US during the years prior: fighting to get equal rights everywhere in the US. Virgil has to endure racist actions and unfortunate circumstances solely because he is a black man in the south. Virgil represents the entire civil rights movement. He has to endure horrible conditions and racist actions against him, fight to prove his worth/innocence, and then make the tough decision of letting it all go and helping out the murder case.
The topic the film looks at is the emergence of conservative thought. Now, regardless of political opinions, this film does this in a fantastic way. The film brings about conservative thinking through the white characters in the film, not because they're racist, but because they view society in a very traditional way. At the start of the film, when Virgil gets picked up and arrested for the murder, it is because he is an out-of-towner and Sam Wood thinks that he committed the crime because of that. But then Sam notices he is black and that makes things a whole lot worse. This is a good example of the conservative thought process of many whites back in the 1960s.
2. The symbolism behind the quote, "You're just like the rest of us, ain't you?" said by Sheriff Gillespie to Virgil, is very representative of many Americans during the 60s. After the whole civil rights era, many Americans began to see no difference in African Americans besides appearance. Gillespie is having a great realization that he can get along with a man of a different race, and respect him as a person, an individual, not as anything else. I feel that this quote represents what many Americans came to realize post-civil rights era.
3. In my opinion, the film has a very hopeful outlook to the topic of racism. The film uses characters like Gillespie who evolve from racist thinkers to understanding the mistakes and stupidity of their thoughts. The writers clearly saw hope for African Americans in this country because of the way they integrated Virgil into the case, without him just being the suspect because he's black. The film shows that a black man in those times was just as worthy of rights as anyone else. A good example of this is when Gillespie is interrogating Virgil and Virgil shows him his badge. Gillespie asks how he got that badge and Virgil tells him that he is a homicide detective from Philadelphia. Gillespie then asks him how much he makes up north and Virgil responds with a number higher than Gillespie's salary. Gillespie begins to start seeing Virgil as an equal, or almost more qualified than himself to solve the case.
The film offers a very realistic version of the way blacks were treated in the south by whites. The whites in the film are conservative thinking racists. A good example is when Sam Wood picks up Virgil for the murder specifically because he is an out-of-towner, and because he is black. The jobs of the civilians in town are pretty normal, as well as the tone of the film. The film also offers a realistic, optimistic outlook on life for African Americans, because, although it took some getting used to, people accepted them and do to this day.
4. Gillespie is my favorite character in the film besides Virgil. Gillespie is the classic sidekick character, though many do not realize this upon viewing the film. Gillespie is the one character that learns something about himself, and attempts to show it to the rest of his colleagues, though they don't seem to care. Gillespie realizes he can be around different races and respect them as people of the earth, not viewing them as animals or beneath him. Gillespie has the most character development in the entire film and I believe the writers used him as the classic southern man example, except they made him into this evolving character who realizes the stupidity of his racism.
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