Text / Film analysis - Essay Example

H. Lawrence and Mark Twain who lived in the area as well as the revolutionist Thomas Paine and other personalities. In addition, he is very reflective and throughout the film, he shares some of his meditations and their influences to his life, in which he shares some important lessons in life. However, perhaps the most interesting thing in the film is his passion and relationship with the city which depicts walking in space and time, as writing, as witnessing, as touring and wild. Walking is very common and therefore, it has become an ordinary, often mechanical and unnoticed activity.

The Cruise reflects this, showing the habitual acts of the New Yorkers who often walk the streets as they go to work or go back home. The greater population walking the streets is unaware of the people around them because of their busy schedules. They pass by each other and do not care that there are other people who are also walking. They do not stop to observe and notice that people are walking, except, of course, to Levitch who speaks about these things as part of his job. The speaker in the film discusses things he observes as he cruises around the city.

He talks about space and time. He attracts the attention of viewers to the space created by the buildings. As he speaks about his love affair with New York, Levitch describes the changes in the city because of the high rise buildings that have evolved in her civilization. As a result, he felt like he was divorcing the city and that he was the loser in the relationship because the changes in the space and time are interfering with his work as a tour guide. In addition, as he shows tourists around the city, he also shows them the commonly unobserved things such as the space created between the tall buildings.

Space is not only described in the film but is also shown. For instance, the speaker tells how he loves to spin around until he feels dizzy and falls to the ground. Doing so, he simultaneously looks up at the tall buildings. This creates a movement in the buildings, like they are falling on the viewer. This is a description of walking in space and time. Space is said to “exist when one takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities and time variables” (de Certeau, 117). The “falling of the building” expresses a direction toward the viewer who is lying on the ground.

Since the building is “falling”, a sense of speed and time variable is also created, at least in the mind of the viewer. In a more practical observation, walking is indeed done in space and time. People walking on the streets are directed somewhere else, either to the right or left, to the north, south, east or west, upstairs or downstairs, etc. Whether a person walks aimlessly or purposefully, there is always a vector of direction. In addition, walking slowly or quickly also shows velocity and therefore, time variable.

Another portrayal of the film about walking is that, it is a way of writing. de Certeau says that, “walking can be traced on city maps in such a way as to transcribe their paths” (97). When a person walks on the streets, he becomes a part of the civilization and therefore writes in part the history or the story that is taking place. For instance, Levitch, being a tour guide who daily cruises the city, writes about his stories. de Certeau further explains that “pedestrian speech act has three characteristics which distinguish it at the outset from the spatial system: the present, the discrete, the phatic”