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1. Unit 10: Fictional Film Codes and Convention
Genre
Thrillers and more specifically Psychological thrillers are massively infamous in the film
industry for producing some of the most disturbing, ruthless, controversial, introspective
and talked about films of all time. I will be looking at two films in this genre, first, the Martin
Scorsese directed Taxi Driver (1976) and the more recent Joker (2019). Both films have a
heavy focus on characters, and usually in the Psychological thriller genre they follow one in
particular and their mental state. The themes presented can also be found spread across the
mystery, drama and horror genres also. The main character is often found in a battle within
themselves and own head due to mental illnesses or tragedy which may have been what
sparked these illnesses. They must rely on their own mental strength to seek out
equilibrium so they can come to peace with themselves. Suspense is regularly presented
throughout these films, another narrative that is shown in psychological thrillers is mind
games played between two main characters or even just one character. I believe these two
films are a good selection to clearly analyse the themes codes and conventions of.
Travis is in a constant battle as to whether he should stand up against what he spites in the
world he lives, he often refers to the “scum” and “trash” that occupy New York and terrorize
his mind with the idles they live by, he expresses a wish of a ‘real’ rain that will come and
wash them off of the street forever. He expresses hatred for many things like selfishness,
greed, and one in particular he struggles with, the exploitation of young girls in the city
being pimped out. Repetition is used in key moments in Taxi Driver to show the character at
hand, Travis Bickel, struggling or being challenged by himself mentally and his role in
society. This is shown in my first reference:
Reference 1.
Travis begins to repeats himself over, and over, obsessively, stuttering, scrambling and
scrapping each sentence which comes before the next. The "You talkin' to me" scene is now
iconic in cinema, and has been recreated many times. The double mid shot shown in the
scene also shows us that Travis does not repeat himself for practice, as we might tend to

2. when rehearsing something, but each time he completely erases what came before.
Practice usually tends to involve improvement on each additional effort, but Travis acts as if
the repeated attempts have not happened at all. This editing technique of repetition and
difference gives us a glimpse into Travis's plummeting mental well-being and is a key
moment in the films documentation of his downward spiral into insanity.
Another stylistic code of this genre is the lighting, the low level lighting often gives off
shadows and darkness to create fear and tension, mystery and uncertainty of what is to
come for the character. The storylines they follow are also typically dark. Lighting in film is
more than just illumination, it helps to see the action. It can also help to articulate textures.
Taxi Driver and Joker both use low key lighting clearly to suggest themes of darkness and
fatalismto the audience.
Reference 2. Reference3.
In Joker the main character Arthur Fleck, is a middle aged man who lives with his mother
and is shown to have his own battle with mental health and neurological damage which has
caused a Pseudobulbar affect causing him to burst out in uncontrollable laughs at any given
moment, which is ironic as he decides to change his career to a clown and standup
comedian. In my second reference I have included a picture of Arthur in a scene where he
attends a comedy night at a local comedy club and is show in a dim lighting with dark tones
around him and warm light at the tables around him, this is presenting Arthur as lonely to
the audience as he is all alone at his table while others in the club are sat in groups at their
tables. Arthur’s laughs are delayed to the rest of the audience at the club, this could also
suggest his lonely and outsider traits in society.
Arthur takes part in the stand up at the club in the film and is shown in my third reference
with his full body and face struck with light and the dark tones this time are away from him
and surrounded around the glow of light. In this scene he is shown to be a hit with the
audience and that his performance went well, but we learn later when a video clip of the
performance is picked up by a talk show host and is ridiculed on television, this yet again is
suggesting to the audience that Arthur lives in his own world and is secluded to the rest of
society. This again relates back to conventional style codes of the Psychological Thriller
genre as the main character is losing his grip with reality and the lines are often blurred
between what is reality or a pure imagination of the character at hand, Arthur Fleck.

3. Taxi Driver also explores uses of low-key lighting to show the character to the audience as
an outsider to society, although the motives of Travis are more vigilant than Arthur. In my
fourth reference I have included a still of Travis with low-key red lighting on him, the lack of
street lights and sheer glow from signs or cars gives a haunted feeling to the audience, the
red also helps single out Travis, exploring the themes of his different ways of thinking
compared to the next man. He is show to be often introspective and takes a step back to
take a look at society from a place that others do not. He drives Taxis at night because he
cannot sleep so is disjointed from reality at times due to his active working hours and lack of
sleep. The low-key red lighting has been used by Taxi Driver director Martin Scorsese in
some of his other films also. The lighting is used in a Noir style which helps produce a
somber and mysterious mood and emphasizes shadows. The lighting has been uses in his
other Scorsese and Robert De Nero films such as Mean Streets (1973) in which the bar
which the characters are often seen at has red lighting shown giving a warm glow on the
character’s faces. The red lighting can also represent a violent mind state the characters
may have and tense atmospheres presented in the brothel in Taxi Driver well as the bar I
mentioned in Mean Streets, I also think the red can represent power and social status which
are both themes in these films.
Reference 4.
Another example of the stylistic codes and conventions of the thriller genre are the
soundtracks. Both Taxi Driver and Joker both have slow tempo eerie music in their most
intense scenes, both also mix in some upbeat music at times to match the bipolar up and
down personalities of their characters. The ‘Sport and Iris’ instrumental is particularly eerie
and mysterious in taxi driver, the majority of the soundtrack is by Bernard Herrmann and is
played during Travis’ darkest moments in the battles with his mind. I would compare this to
the ‘Bathroom dance’ instrumental in Joker, which is by Hildur Guðnadóttir, and is played
after Arthur has just committed his first murders on the subway to a gang of bully like
working men who decide to pick on him, after the murders Arthur fleas and then finds
himself in a bathroom articulating himself and expressing his pent up emotions through

4. dance, while the grand and creepy ‘Bathroom dance’ instrumental plays. I believe these are
perfect examples of the stylistic music used in the thriller genre, they reflect the character’s
mental states in the scenes they are played and help set the scene of what is coming.
Also, I believe the props used in both of these films are reflective to the stylistic codes and
conventions of the thriller and more specifically, the psychological thriller genre. Both Travis
in Taxi Driver and Arthur in Joker obtain weapons as their beliefs turn radical and their
mental state worsen. Although Arthur is given one by a colleague for his self-defense after a
mugging, he starts to take it everywhere, even on a work trip to a children’s hospital in
which he drops it on the floor, he starts to obsess over the gun playing with it and misfiring
it in his mother’s home. In Taxi Driver, Travis obtains his weapons via a gun dealer, he is
much more committed to the cause of getting the right weapon he needs and does his
research, once he has bought the weapons he then strategically looks for where he can
discreetly keep them on him and how he will draw out the guns if needed, this refers to the
‘You talking to me’ scene I mentioned earlier.
I also believe the stylistic use of costume is used in both these films relating to the thriller
genre. Both Antagonists in the films I am comparing seemto wear dark, dull and lifeless
clothing, this could be to reflect their mind set and feelings in the films, even when Arthur in
Joker decides to go full clown and buy a suit and wear face paint, it isn’t quite the typical
bright colours you’d expect a clown in, it’s almost a sinister take on the classic Joker outfit.
In taxi driver Travis is often seen in a military Khaki green uniform looking outfit, this may be
to reflect his ptsd from serving in the military and the fact he cannot let go of that, even
when not in this attire he is seen a very plain and dull shirt and brown jacket, this reflects
the morbid themes of taxi driver and Travis mind in particular.
Narrative
The stylistic codes and conventions of thriller films are not the only thing that help to
distinguish them as a genre. The narrative of these films often have anti-heroes or
protagonists; they are described as anti-heroes because they lack the conventional
attributes of a typical hero. This shows that the film genres narratives challenge the norm of
a hero vs villain film storyline that so many other genres tend to follow. The viewer can find
themselves not knowing whether to route for a main character or to hope for his downfall,
although on the whole they are still operating for the greater good, Travis in Taxi Driver is a
great example of this. His methods of trying to bring justice to his city may not be the most
ethical, and his idea of a date with the girl he likes, Betsy, isn’t the most charming, he takes
her to the theatre to see a ‘dirty movie’ in which she is quite frankly disgusted by and leaves
shortly after expressing her disgust at the film, Travis chases after her trying to convince her
he thought this was a good idea and that lots of couples go to see this movie. This shows us
once again that Travis exists in a world without a perfect hero who will charm the woman
he is interested in at first sight.
In Joker, similar themes are also looked at as we see Arthur, a misunderstood anti-hero who
finds himself becoming a protagonist villain come end of the film. He sees the world as a

5. cold and cruel place and does try his very best to contribute what he can to make it a better
place, yet it I thrown back in his face at any given moment. In one of the opening scenes we
see Arthur dressed as a clown spinning advertisement sign, he is trying to bring laughter to
the passing citizens, but has his sign stolen by some young kids, he chases them and is beat
up by the kids after the chase. Another example of Arthur trying to bring some happiness to
people but having it thrown in his face is when Arthur is one the bus and is entertaining a
child in front of him, only to be told to leave the child alone by the parent of said child,
Arthur is embarrassed and ashamed. These two events are key in pushing Arthur from man
wanting to bring laughter in the world, into a man wanting to change the world on his own
terms, no matter the method of doing so.
Joker is an extremely controversial filmand turned a lot of heads due to its main character
and story line coming from the Batman comics and films, which are superhero films that
view Joker as an immediate evil villain. The purpose of the Joker film is to bring the
character to life in real world showing an oppressed white male being kicked down again
and again. Although he is trying his best to give back, until he reaches breaking point, the
film has massive reflection on society at all times, giving a different perspective on the
current times. Both films follow men who rattle uncomfortably around on the edges of
society before taking extreme action. However, in Taxi Driver there isn’t as much hesitation
as to whether we should root for Travis or not. another Scorsese De Niro paired film also
shares these same narratives is The King of Comedy (1982), the filmfollows Rupert Pupkin,
a stand-up comedian with a delusional devotion to his stand up career and his imaginary
talk show that he hosts in his mother’s basement. This delusion is extremely similar to
Arthur’s in Joke, so this shows how delusion and hallucination is used in these three films
and across the genre to portray the characters plummeting mental health to the audience.
The Structures of Joker and Taxi Driver both follow The narrative theory created by Tseavan
Todorov. Todorov’s theory consists of a beginning in which all is balanced, a ‘equilibrium’.
The equilibrium in the two films I am comparing is that both Travis and Arthur are newly in
jobs trying to find something they want to do as day to day work to escape demons they
may be facing. The balance is disturbed in the narrative by Travis and Arthur’s on going
battles with mental health which is poked at by society, until the both reach a point where
they decide to act upon the feelings they are having. Both films come to a relatively open
ending. Travis, after infiltrating a brothel and murder the pimps who take advantage of the
young girls by making them sell their bodies on the street, finds himself to be called a local
hero by many, but is still shown in the final scene driving his taxi with Betsy in it, he no
longer longs to be her lover, he has almost reached a point of self-discovery and feels good
about what he has done for his city. Will he return to his vigilant ways? Where will he go
next? Does he plan to continue driving Taxi’s? it’s all left up to the viewer’s imagination. In
Joker however, after causing a mass riot in Gotham City and murdering the same talk show
host who ridiculed him earlier in the film for his stand up on live TV, the final scene shows
Arthur in a mental institution and although to many this may seal his fate, because of the
batman films which are set decades later and include The Joker character. Has Arthur’s
impact been left on Gotham and his actions influenced others to take on the Joker’s
persona? Will he see another day in Gotham City? What happens to the lives terrorized by
him and his fatal actions throughout the film?