Use of Slow Motion

The three movies that I've chosen, out of the five Scorsese films that I watched, are Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and Shutter Island (2010). These were the standout films of Scorsese's for me, and all exhibit his unique director's techniques.



The first of these techniques is SLOW MOTION. The frequent use of slow motion in his films takes events out of their natural, realitstic context, and blur the line between reality and the film. For example, in Taxi Driver, slow motion is used when Travis, the protagonist whose descent into madness and violence is the focus of the film, first sees Betsy, his first infatuation of the film. The slow motion adds emphasis to the event, and also alters the natural passing of time in the film. This technique is repeated in Raging Bull, when the central character Jake, has water squeezed onto him by his trainers during an important fight. Again, this alters the natural time of the film, but it also builds tension, as the speed is much slower than previous slow motion sequences in the film. Because the fight is so important, and it is going badly for Jake, the audience is eager to see how it will end. The use of super slow motion increases this tension.

My favourite use of slow motion was in Shutter Island, when there is a flashback of Teddy, the protagonist, in military service in WWII. This enhances the flashback by showing that to Teddy, it is a separate reality, and communicates to the audience the importance that he places on this period of his life in his memory.