ABSTRACT
Street culture and cinema in the United States have always been inextricably linked. Although there is no specific genre of “street culture cinema,” Hollywood’s use of familiar themes and archetypes are so engrained in the film industry that aspects of street culture are evident within nearly every genre from gangster films to action films to film noir to comedies. The representation of street culture always works as a confluence of overlapping factors which are not identical but always recognizable. The existential questions the film asks in Blade Runner are also linked visually to the tradition of street culture cinema. The Public Enemy questions the extent to which residents in modern urban cities are responsible for the criminal underworld which exists by taking advantage of accepted economic practices. Taxi Driver interrogates the psychological desolation of individuals cast aside by mainstream culture, and the ways self-appointed executioners respond to what they perceive as a lack of morality in the city.
