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Synesthetic Intertextuality of Delusion and Anger Revealed in the Movie Taxi Driver

  • Journal of Popular Narrative
  • 2023, 29(1), pp.249-277
  • DOI : 10.18856/jpn.2023.29.1.008
  • Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Interdisciplinary Research
  • Received : January 6, 2023
  • Accepted : February 6, 2023
  • Published : February 28, 2023

Sa-Bin Shin 1

1중부대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article examines the rhetoric and characteristic beauty of delusion and anger revealed by Travis Bickle in the movie Taxi Driver from a synesthetic aesthetic perspective to rediscover the stylization of audiovisual synesthesia in film aesthetics by seeking the truth of the real and serious problems of outsiders, such as loneliness, depression, and powerlessness, as shown in film narratives, images, and music. The screenplay by Paul Schrader reveals the paradigm of “everyday-disparity-decisive action-stasis.” Travis suffers burnout and insomnia, fails in his efforts to integrate into society through anger and delusions that cross boundaries between reality and illusion, fails in decisive action at a turning point in life, and focuses on diaries, letters, articles, movies, and dramas to create narratives of self-realization. This movie is an existential work relating to human relationship that depicts Travis, weighed down by the anguish of finiteness, as a figure struggling for liberation and transcendence of enlightenment. From the cinematography of Michael Chapman, the snapshots of New York seen through the windows of a taxi are more complex and personal and shine darker than in film noir. By combining the image of “New York gothic” with the “poetically morbid” music of Bernard Herrmann, Martin Scorsese prefers a musical beat that heightens excitement through overlaps from start to finish and continuously emphasizes the previous imprints. The narrative of Taxi Driver pursues a transcendental style, and the cinematography and music aim for an aesthetic reproduction of delusion and anger that cross boundaries between reality and illusion. This kind of filmmaking leads to a dramatic stylization that connects the aesthetic domain of social psychological drama to the areas of art, photography, music, and film. This article has significance in confirming a series of audiovisual motifs through this movie.

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