Walter Neff and Travis Bickle

              In Billy Wilder’s 1944 film Double Indemnity and Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, many similarities can be drawn regarding the male protagonists Walter Neff and Travis Bickle, who both become enveloped within the cities in which they dwell. Neff resides in the centripetal core of Los Angeles, but spends a lot of his time in the peripheries of the city in a centrifugal space, whereas Bickle lives in the center of New York and is engulfed within this centripetal space, never straying far from the city core. He gradually becomes consumed by it, and ultimately obsessed with the state the city is in, constantly observing his surroundings, experiencing brief encounters with his various taxi customers, progressively building on his anxiety and disgust concerning the “scum” of the city. Although these two films are presented in very different ways, pertaining to elements such as cinematography and genre, as well as the very different times in which they were created, it is important to first establish the similarities which can be drawn from them, before exploring the different ways in which they are presented cinematically.

            Walter Neff and Travis Bickle exhibit similarities, as they both become entangled and obsessed with their plans. In both films, the plan is made possible because of the modern advances in technology, such as the automobile. However, simultaneously, these advances also contribute to their demise. Also, Neff and Bickle each develop a liking for a female character. In both films, the woman contributes to the protagonist’s new found necessity to boldly overcome the unfulfilling life he has been passively drifting through. The difference here is that in Double Indemnity, Phyllis is actively engaged in the plan and therefore plays a much more important role. Whereas in Taxi Driver Betsey is hardly included in the film, and is not in any way involved in Bickle’s plan (or lack there of). Furthermore, Neff’s scheme eventually backfires, leaving him unsuccessful and without his trophy woman, paralleling with Taxi Driver as Bickle is unsuccessful in his pursuit to murder Palentine, and also similarly does not end up with the woman. However, in both films, the protagonist city dweller is able to come to peace with himself- Walter through confession and seeing to Lola’s safety, and Travis through freeing young Iris from this corrupting, dangerous city, giving her a second chance to live a better life.

            The remainder of this paper will aim to examine how the represented spaces in Double Indemnity and Taxi Driver produce certain kinds of identity, focusing more closely on gender specifically. While drawing on similarities, let us explore the represented spaces including centripetal, centrifugal, and abstract spaces, while considering cinematography and genre, ultimately distinguishing the significant dissimilarities between these films. The centrifugal space conveyed in Los Angeles in the film Double Indemnity serves as a main catalyst for the downfall of Walter Neff and his identity as a city dweller. In contrast, the centripetal depiction of New York seen in Taxi Driver contributes to the demise of Travis Bickle's identity as he develops an obsessive hatred for the city in which he is enveloped.

            With the modern advances in technology emerging and continuing to do so throughout the 1930s and 1940s, such as the automobile, as well as the telephone, radio, and television, the city became dispersed, expanding beyond the downtown center of the congested city. The popularization of the automobile and its consequential obsolescence of the public mode of transportation, the train, gave people the freedom and mobility to live in the quieter, suburban peripheries, and be able to commute into the downtown concentration of the city to work. This concept introduced the idea of ‘centripetal’ and ‘centrifugal’ spatial tendencies (Dimendberg, 99). The outer periphery people were gravitating toward is known as centrifugal space, while the concentrated core of the city is referred to as centripetal space. “The American city developed a vertical core of skyscrapers together with an increasingly centrifugal movement of population” (Dimendberg, 100). It is not only the geographical and architectural natures that these spaces distinguish, “but a range of attitudes, behaviours, and shared interpretations that crystallize around… ‘centration’ and its sociocultural consequences. These include the lived experience and appropriation of space, as well as representations and conceptualizations of it” (Dimendberg, 99). The population simultaneously centralized and decentralized, forming two distinct spaces, ultimately forming two distinct kinds of identity, as the separation reshaped attitudes and behaviours during the appropriation of space.

            In the film Double Indemnity, which was filmed on location in Los Angeles, protagonist Walter Neff lives downtown in an apartment and his office is located downtown as well, but he travels to the centrifugal boundaries of Los Angeles often as he works as a door-to-door insurance salesman. “Double Indemnity juxtaposes this older public-transportation technology with the automobile and proposes the speed of automotive travel as the fundamental experience of passage through the city” (Dimendberg, 173). This centrifugal space is where the femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson resides, and this is where the two main characters meet for the first time. This kind of space would allow Walter to leave the busy city core and enter the remote, deserted streets of suburbia where no one knew him. Upon his return to the downtown centripetal Los Angeles, his anonymity in the bustling crowds gave him refuge. “Los Angeles itself is strangely absent from the film” (Dimendberg, 173). Walter drives back and forth between the two distinct spaces, but the scenes’ focus is most often restricted to the inside of the automobile until he has reached his destination where a single shot reveals the building or home upon his entering. Very few scenes are included that depict recognizable locations or landmarks of Los Angeles. “Taken as a whole, these relatively fleeting scenes reinforce the geography of the film as one of separate spatial monads with little overlap” (Dimendberg, 173). The centrifugal space serves as an escape, into a realm of hope for a future which promises love and wealth, permitting a confidence in the plan Walter and Phyllis develop, as they go unnoticed, able to avoid surveillance in the empty spaces of the centrifuge. Meanwhile, once the crime has been committed, Walter returns to the centripetal confines of the city where he once felt anonymous among the disinterested, gesselschaft crowds, and suddenly finds himself paranoid and nervous, unaware of who may be watching, who might know what he’s done, unable to know for certain that he isn’t being followed. “One might discern centrifugal space in the redeployment of surveillance mechanisms away from the bodies of citydwellers toward the automobile, the proliferation of electronic media, and the collection of traffic statistics as a strategy of control…These new technologies accompany the transformation of the nature of surveillance itself in late modernity” (Dimendberg, 176). The centripetal spaces presented in the film noir “presuppose the urban center and its complex weave of meanings and spatial practices. Criminals move from obscure locations to more centralized positions, often shuttling between a hiding spot and a center…Characters from different social strata converge in a common location” (Dimendberg, 176). Although Walter has the freedom and mobility to travel to the different locations and meet privately with Phyllis in a crowded centripetal location (Jerry’s Market), as well as having the availability of these locations where he can hide and/or avoid certain individuals, such as his supervisor Keyes when he begins to become suspicious and starts digging for answers, there remains the uncertainty of what surveillance, if any, is at work, and when, and by whom. This uncertainty eats away at Walter’s self confidence in regard to the murder, and he is no longer sure he can pull off such a heinous crime.

            In contrast to this focus on centrifugal space which was a new development at the time of the film’s creation, and therefore often featured in the film noir genre, the film Taxi Driver, made in the 1970s, narrows in on the centripetal space of downtown New York, featuring countless distinguishable neighborhoods and urban landmarks. Travis Bickle, the tormented protagonist, is a recently returned Vietnam veteran, working as a taxi driver in New York City. “This is a place of violence and cruelty that tears individuals apart” (AlSayyad, 178). While Double Indemnity presents both types of spaces, centripetal and centrifugal, alternatively throughout the film, Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is entirely held within the confines of the congested, centripetal downtown center. AlSayyad delves into Lefebvre’s argument claiming that space is ‘vital’ and that “the production of space is the product of social encounters determined by the individual reacting to other individual urban dwellers” (AlSayyad, 169-170). Bickle is having a difficult time adjusting to the chaotic city, and refuses to do so as the observations he makes and the encounters he has are constantly reconfirming his assertive disgust toward the city. He sees the city as a “jungle of decay and disease” (AlSayyad, 170), as he floats among the city dwellers who are not part of the privileged and intellectual class. AlSayyad distinguishes between the two forms a protagonist can take: “the upper-class urban sophisticate and the tortured urban outcast” (AlSayyad, 171), while Bickle would obviously be considered to embody the latter of the two forms, as he is uneducated, socially and culturally inept, living in a cheap apartment in a sketchy neighborhood, and works a low paying job he doesn’t seem to like very much. “The cultural or gender performance of a person is very closely allied with their class. What s/he sees, but inversely, what s/he constructs, are reflected in her or his outward portrayal…The hierarchy of space in the city is one that is forever constructed with regard to a hidden imbalance of power relations between the genders” (AlSayyad, 170). Travis returns to civilization after his service in the military, only to find that he is lonely and unhappy. The longer he tries to abide and conform to the social norms and practices of society, taking up a job as a taxi driver, attempting to pursue a relationship with a woman who “exudes perfection and purity” (AlSayyad, 179) failing miserably, he becomes obsessed with pornography and violence, and progressively becomes obsessed with the thought of taking action and doing something about the decaying city around him. “Angry and tormented, Travis begins to descend into the depths of his own paranoia” (AlSayyad, 180). Bickle has no power to alter his class status in the social hierarchy of the city, so he attempts to empower himself by arming himself with weapons he easily finds access to, after being prompted to by one of his customers, and by pursuing a workout regime and preparation of sorts. These are all examples pertaining to his masculinity. He is psychotically exercising and preparing for battle, adding to his weaponry, sizing up his competition, practicing confrontational dialogue alone in his apartment, etc. During this process of self empowerment, Bickle becomes so obsessed, isolating himself from others. He no longer stops by the campaign office where Betsey works; he frequents the diner where his fellow co-workers socialize less often. His initial social awkwardness and loneliness is worsening. “By the 1960s and 1970s, the city’s poverty was beginning to overcome its more urbane aspects… Pessimism triumphed over hope, the city came to be seen as a celluloid ‘cesspool’, ridden with crime, prostitution, pornography, and moral decay” (AlSayyad, 171). It is through his numerous encounters with his passengers and through the repetition of disturbing observations, day after day, that trigger Bickle’s increasing mental breakdown.

            Consider the opening scene in Double Indemnity where we see the railroad construction sign explicitly stating the location in which the film takes place: Los Angeles. As the opening credits fade, Walter enters the shot, driving toward the camera as it remains still; he is driving into the city late at night, leaving the centrifugal peripheries, leaving the Dietrichson residence, driving hastily into the downtown core of the city. The street is lined with towering buildings, streetlights and streetcar cables. He is speeding toward the Pacific All-Risk Insurance Company where he works, where he plans to confess everything about the murder to his employer Barton Keyes. “Traveling at breakneck speed, his car first becomes visible in a long shot as it approaches a crew of the Los Angeles Railway Corporation Maintenance Department. A welder is engaged in repairing the streetcar tracks, and Neff is signaled by another worker and a set of flares to veer away from the construction site, toward which he initially seems to be heading” (Dimendberg, 172). Fading into the following shot, Walter swerves frantically down the street, heading toward a traffic light which changes red as he quickly approaches. He disregards this and speeds by. He is almost hit by the oncoming traffic and horns begin honking, but he manages to swerve out of the way. The extra diagetic music combined with the sounds of the horns and swerving tires really heighten the excitement and reinforce the urgency the scene portrays. This scene really ties the two spaces together in a cinematically appealing and clever way, as Walter leaves the centrifugal country-side, entering the centripetal downtown of Los Angeles. This scene also demonstrates that it is the automobile which enables the mobility and freedom to drive from one space to the other, which traces back to why and how centrifugal suburban space and the decentralization of the city had emerged. Also, the scene works well to grab the audience’s attention as it dives right into the action suggesting the rushed, urgent tone, before any dialogue is even spoken. Shortly after, it is apparent that the scene serves as an introduction to the narrative frame in which the story is encased, told from Walter’s perspective while he records his confession in the office.

            In Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, there are many scenes showing Bickle driving through and around the centripetal confines of New York City. To compare and contrast the title sequence in Double Indemnity, let us delve into the opening scene of Scorsese’s film as well, as there is much to be said here. Similarly, the opening credits scene in Taxi Driver is also shot at night, in the dark. The first image seen is of an opaque cloud of smoke, and then a low-angle, close-up shot of the taxi cab appears as it makes its way across the screen. It takes up the entirety of the screen as it slowly drives past the still camera, surrounded by billowing clouds of smoke, creating a mysterious, eerie atmosphere. The driver of the automobile is not yet revealed. As the credits play, the shot alternates between Bickle’s view from the driver’s seat of the cab, out the front windshield as he is driving, the windshield wipers clicking back and forth, momentarily clearing the rain which obscures what it is that Bickle, as well as the audience, sees outside of the car. Alternating with this shot is another where the camera is turned around, facing Bickle’s face, capturing an extreme close-up of his eyes and nothing else, while red lights come and go, cast upon his face from streetlights and neon signs outside. As the lights come and go while he drives past, they are creating this blinking, high contrast of light and shadows across his face. There is extra-diegetic music playing throughout the opening sequence, similar to the opening scene in Double Indemnity, although in this film, the diegetic sound is not included. Otherwise, all kinds of sounds would have been going on: rain, the road, people in the streets, honking, sirens, etc. The music played in this sequence, in contrast to Wilder’s use of high-paced, alarming music, is calm, relaxing jazz, which juxtaposes what Bickle must really be hearing downtown New York, but this might be foreshadowing his serenity and acceptance of the city that he finds toward the end of the film, but that is only an interpretation. The rain blurs what is seen as he drives through the streets of New York, but it is clear that there are bright, neon lights lining the streets, traffic lights, crowds of people walking, siren lights flashing, oncoming traffic driving past, and once more the camera angle switches back to the extreme close-up of Travis’ eyes, lights continuing to cast a shadow, and his gaze slowly scans across the screen, from left to right, watching the city from the inside of his taxi. A scene like this accurately demonstrates the focus of the city, New York, in this film, and the overwhelming feeling of all of the pervasive stimuli if you are an outsider looking in, which Bickle often feels like, as he is unable/not willing to adapt.

            In conclusion, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver serve as interesting tools of comparison and contrast, while examining the fundamental differences between the represented spaces in each film, and the impact these spaces had on protagonists Walter Neff and Travis Bickle. While able to mobilize between centrifugal and centripetal spaces in Los Angeles, Neff becomes overwhelmed and nervous, letting his guilt get to him he begins to feel trapped under the eyes of the city, ultimately becoming paranoid and confessing his crime. New York City is represented as a centripetal space where Bickle struggles to adapt and settle down in as he is disturbed by the decaying state it is in. The disruption and disorganization and his inability to cope becomes too much for him to handle and he quickly descends to a state of mental paranoia. In both of these films, there are different representations of space at work. They are each of a different genre, made at different times. The protagonists each have different motivations and goals. Each film is shot in a different city. However, both of these films depict a character whose identity is altered because of the spatial constructs of the city in which he dwells.

Works Cited:

AlSayyad, Nezar. “The City Through Different Eyes: The Modernity of the Sophisticate and the Misfit”. Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real. Routledge, 2006. 169-187.

Dimendberg, Edward. “Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity.” Cambridge, Mass. and             London: Harvard UP, 2004.

Simmel, Georg. “The Metropolis and Mental Life.” The 19th Century Visual Culture Reader, ed. Vanessa R. Schwartz and Jeannene M. Przyblyski. New York and London: Routledge , 2004.