God's Lonely Men: Violence in Service of Masculine Identity Construction in Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Cuomo, Glenn

Keywords

Film, Violence, Masculinity, Scorsese, Martin, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull each take the use of violence to construct masculine identity to be a major thematic concern. Both films’ protagonists, Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle and Raging Bull’s Jake La Motta, each integrate violence into their lives as an extension of their identities. The violence in each film is performed in a very deliberate manner, and its performative status, as well as the performed masculine identities of each film’s protagonist, is emphasized by Scorsese. Violence is also an outgrowth of the masculine body in each film and as such the bodies of both films’ protagonists are up for scrutiny. Scorsese links the body to identity, with a masculine body shown to be more “effective” the better it is at perpetrating violence. The masculine is also viewed in correspondence to the feminine in both films. Travis Bickle and Jake La Motta each react to key feminine figures in their respective films either directly or indirectly through violent means, further making violence a key component to their masculine identities.

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