Taxi Driver Opening Sequence Analysis

Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese in 1970 is a fairly iconic thriller film. The creepy type of music right at the beginning puts you on edge, along with the dull, misty setting, creating slight tension as the audience waits for this mist to clear, and reveal a bright yellow taxi driving down the street. The mist then covers the street once again, whilst the titles are appearing. The music is still eery so it leaves you wondering what will happen next. This music then immediately switches to a type of jazz acoustic, a very surprising change, to almost lighten the mood. It's also as if there are a pair of eyes staring at you, due to an extreme close up shot of a man's face. This gives the audience the impression you will find out later on who this guy is. It is raining in the street which the taxi is driving down, a slight contribute of pathetic fallacy, conforming to the expected thriller conventions. We mist appears one more time, after the shot has been transferred back to the man's eyes.