How the cities in La Haine and Taxi Driver have a direct effect on the narrative.

In both la Haine and taxi driver the city settings play an important role in the narrative, however I believe that the city setting in taxi driver is more important the story than in la Haine.

My first reason for this is the way Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) talks about the city, first of al he dose talk about the city but when he dose he talks about it he personifies it a cretin extent, making it sound like it parasite is that it has been infected. Travis is always saying that the city is a disgusting place and he wants to clean it up making it almost seem like the city is the antagonist and Travis is the protagonist.

In la Haine the he city (Paris) looks a lot different to the New York in taxi driver. In taxi driver the streets look dirty, dark and damp. On the street corners women sell there body’s for money and people sell drugs, vents spew steam into the alleys and one of the main sources of light come from neon sign’s advertising strip clubs. In la Haine the suburbs of Paris look somewhat like barren and empty, which in emphasized by the black and white picture. When the setting changes to the actual city things start to look more glamour’s and alive, but I becomes immediately obvious the Vince, Hubert and said do not fit in.

What is also different is the characters position with in the city. In taxi driver Travis thinks of himself of being above what happens and has a desire to change things for the better. In la haine Vince, Hubert and said seem too apart of the crime that takes place and Vince at first has a strong desire to be a gangster. Also the city dose not seem to play a big a part as it dose in taxi driver. As I have said in taxi driver Travis make it sound like the city is the antagonist, in la Haine the city is not really personified in the same way.