Comparing Taxi Driver1, The Shining2, And Misery3

Representations Of Madness

This essay discusses how the films Taxi Driver1, The Shining2, and Misery3 show the state of madness and why this can be understood as a representation of madness. With every film, I begin by giving a brief outline of the film and then continue discussing the most prominent themes of madness in the film. I reference to relevant readings that give context to the state of madness represented in the films and explain where the filmmakers are successful in creating this effect. In addition, I explore how these representations can reflect a collective concerns and understandings. Taxi Driver is a 1976 drama film which was directed by Martin Scorsese, an American filmmaker who was born and raised in New York City. The film follows a Vietnam War veteran Travis Bickle(Robert de Niro) who works as a night-time New York City taxi driver while battling his mental instability.

Danny’s psychic abilities and the fact that the hotel was built on an ancient indian burial ground create a feeling that what is unfolding is coming from an outside force and cannot be stopped. Again, the madness takes up the space between us and them, the human and the inhuman. In Framing Monsters8, Joshua Bellin explains that when it comes to mental illness in film, the mad individual becomes the metaphor for madness. He says:“Not only does it externalise the threat of one’s own mind becoming a monster, turning in violent insurrection against itself, but it makes identifying the mad a stunningly simple matter.”9 In this case, the reason why it is so simple for the viewer to distinguish Jack’s madness from the beginning of the film is due to his violent tendencies. The hints of his previous violent acts prepare the viewer for what is to come and make the decent to madness more understandable as perhaps he had been closer to madness than we had previously thought. Jack does not simply become mad, he becomes