Taxi Driver (1976), By Martin Scorsese, Title Sequence

The start is competely silent, as if letting the viewer get a sense of a 'calm before the storm' feeling to it, with thin red words to stand out against it, slowly, letting you wait for something to happen. Of course, you don't need to wait too long as the low music kicks up, with a rhythmic chugging to it, building up in a crescendo until it smooths out into a low, unpleasant note. The whole while it sounds ominous, unnerving, and as it plays, we see fumes through which a taxi drives up. The angle we see the car at is low, and the focus is completely on the headlights of the car. As it drives past, we cannot see who is inside the car. Once it has gone by, the music drops and we are introduced to the title, 'Taxi Driver', left in the exhaust fumes of the car as it dissapears from sight.

The music continues it's slow pitch-changing at unpleasant levels, making each of the credits which appear at the changes seem practically dangerous. Not one minute into the film and we already feel tense. On top of that, we are left wondering the signficance of the taxi. However, once the smoke fades away, the scene changes to a close-up on a man's eyes. The music switches immediately to jazz, which feels more relaxed. Coupled with the various red and white lights which shine on the man's face, it is like this is taking place in a more shifty part of town. The source of the lights are unknown but by the way they come and go infrequently looks like either the lights of cars or flashing neon signs.

Not left wondering for long, we discover that he is driving a car. What we do not know is if he is driving the taxi from earlier, though it's a possibility. The camera angle is from his point-of-view, so we see the wind shield which is soaked from heavy rain, and the lights outside are blurred as a result. We don't know where this is, but we do know it takes place at night (And have known for a while by the dark atmosphere). The wind shield wipers sweep across the window, ridding it of water, but before we see what is through it, the shot changes. It is still through the eyes of the driver, looking out through the window, but it is not shielded by water. Instead, we do see shapes of things outside, but they are lit up too bright to make out what they are, left ambiguous for us. The movement of everything outside is slow and wobbly, as though the person driving cannot see properly for whatever reason.

It is then that the fast, chugging music speeds up, getting louder, and the camera changes to a very clear shot of random people crossing the road, lit up by red and blue lights, clashing with the music and mixing with the fumes from earlier, creating an almost alarming feeling. We come back to the man's eyes, his face still lit up with red. The music switches back to soothing jazz, and his face fades away. All we can see now is fumes filling the screen. The fumes fade and it changes to the inside of what looks like a police department or detective's office, the fumes becoming those of many a cigarette. The fumes were used as a clever transition from one screen to another which links them. The two characters we see in these two scenes are both very important and also connected to each other. The title sequence ends there, though the music continues its dubious sounds.