Martin Scorsese is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of his or any generation. Of his long list of masterpieces, his enduring classic “Taxi Driver” remains one of the most beloved. The film is set in New York City during the mid-1970s and follows the story of Travis Bickle, a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran who works as a taxi driver. Travis becomes increasingly alienated from society and develops a fixation with saving a young prostitute named Iris, played by Jodie Foster, from her abusive pimp.
Throughout the film, Travis Bickle is depicted as an individual who is disconnected from society and has very few meaningful relationships. He is estranged from his family, has no friends to speak of, and struggles to connect with others on a romantic level. Martin Scorsese utilizes numerous techniques such as composition, music, and camera movements to alienate Travis from his surroundings and deliberately create discomfort for the audience in order to immerse them in Travis' unique world. Let's briefly examine how Martin Scorsese utilized audio-visual language to convey Travis's isolation and detachment from the world around him.
Let's talk about the opening Image first：
At the beginning of the film, a primarily drum-driven soundtrack creates an extremely uneasy and tense atmosphere. Then, a taxi slowly emerges from the smoke, full of psychedelic colors. The night is decadent and eerie, and the director uses low-angle fixed shots to fill the entire frame with the yellow vehicle. The strange imagery and tense music create discomfort for the audience, while the intense drums and the slow-motion introduction of the taxi create a solemn feeling.
Much like Travis himself throughout the entire film. He is isolated and mysterious, out of place in the world around him, and stands on a moral high ground to judge this dirty world. Ultimately, Travis goes to extremes, using violent means to eliminate the "dirt" of the city.
The shots alternate between close-ups of Travis' eyes and his point of view of the neon-lit streets, which are deliberately distorted and allochroic to portray the unique world as perceived by Travis.
The contrast between these two visual types highlights two important points: firstly, Travis is out of tune with the world, and secondly, his narrow and distorted viewpoint obstructs him from comprehending the world in its entirety. Rather than seeing the world as it is, Travis directs his focus exclusively toward the dark aspects of the city. Ultimately, Travis goes to extremes, using violent means to eliminate the "dirt" of the city.
Score of the film
The film's score also plays an important role in establishing its mood and tone. The haunting saxophone melodies and electronic synthesizers reflect Travis's alienation and desperation, as well as the dark and seedy underbelly of the city. It is worth noting that the film's theme music blends two different styles of instruments, composed by Bernard Herrmann, and won the Best Original Score at the 49th Academy Awards. The alternating use of unsettling and tense drums and surreal saxophones creates a contrasting conflict in the music, which hints at the protagonist's conflicting personality and sense of not belonging.
How the composition of the frame portrays loneliness and alienation.
The disconnection between characters is mainly accomplished through the arrangement of the composition. Whether it’s multiple characters forming their own independent space or whether there are barriers formed by other objects in the frame.
For instance, let's talk about the scene where Travis converses with his boss for the first time.
Watch the scene here:
In front of Travis, we can see behind the boss, Travis's future colleagues are seemingly in conflict over something within the frame of a window. Travis is unknowingly drawn to this gloomy conflict. These three characters display intricate physical movements and appear to be engaged in a heated debate. The frame of the window makes the conflict almost as if a show for Travis, suggesting that Travis is more inclined towards conflicts or the darker aspects of life.
This is the world that Travis sees throughout the entire film. It always has boundaries, with the limitations of Travis's own vision. This is continually emphasized by the director through the use of foreground boundaries when Travis views the world from inside his taxi, whether it be in the rearview mirror or through the windshield. The world Travis saw was framed（by the window or by the frame of the review）, implying that he was only viewing the world from his own narrow perspective, only noticing its dirty side while turning a blind eye to everything else.
The over Travis’s shoulder shot of his boss, the two characters are portrayed as being disconnected from each other until the boss reveals that he too had served in the Marines. The camera slowly dollys up, creating a reverse shot over Travis's head and shoulders until finally, their heads and eyes appear in the same frame. At that moment, they form a brief connection.
The coffee shop scene where Travis talks with his colleagues is similar. Travis sits further away from them, and their conversation topics are drastically different. His colleagues engage in light-hearted, flirtatious small talk while Travis brings up recent murder cases, showcasing his extreme viewpoint.
Travis meets an angelic woman, Betty, who works as a journalist promoting politicians for election. With her pristine white coat, elevated camera angles, and conventional shooting techniques that accentuate her stunning beauty, she stands out from the dirty world Travis inhabits at night. This contrast has already been planted in the subconscious of the audience, setting them apart.
When the two individuals appear in the same shot, the director uses composition to completely separate them. In the restaurant, the food container and window frame act as a dividing line, indicating their differences in status, and making it clear that they do not belong in the same world even though they seem to have a connection on the surface.
When Travis is not in the taxi but among the crowd, Martin Scorsese uses a telephoto lens to shoot Travis, blurring out the other characters, to showcase Travis' loneliness and his mismatch with the surrounding world.
Camera Movement
Martin uses camera movement to manipulate the audience's expectations, but then breaks those expectations, causing discomfort for the audience.
Throughout the film, there are many slow horizontal camera movements that create a sense of unease. When Travis enters and exits the garage, the director usually uses wide-angle panning shots to show the environment in detail. One notable moment is when Matin breaks this pattern by suddenly panning the camera quickly in the opposite direction mid-way through the garage scene (7:30 in the movie). This removes the audience's ability to judge the direction of vehicle movement and spatial awareness, creating a feeling of chaos.
After Travis and Betsy have a fallout, he tries to reconcile with her by calling her on the phone. However, as he continues his conversation, the camera slowly moves, eventually excluding the protagonist out of the frame. This unconventional camera movement often leads the audience to expect something new to be revealed, but ultimately nothing happens. The camera simply lands on an empty hallway, evoking a sense of discomfort and sadness for the audience.
When Travis coincidentally met the presidential candidate Palintaine in a taxi, the two had a pleasant conversation. A tracking shot captured Palintaine entering the nightclub, and in the next shot, the camera remained completely still in Travis's taxi, with Travis sitting in the foreground while the background showed Palintaine entering the nightclub. The juxtaposition of motion and stillness shots creates discomfort for the audience, allowing them to better understand Travis's emotions at this moment. In Travis's eyes, Palintaine， the hero he envisioned as someone who could change the world， instantly becomes a part of this dirty world. This moment is not only shocking but also uncomfortable for Travis.
At the end of the film, Travis sweeps through a brothel, massacring customers and rescuing Iris, the young prostitute. The media hails him as a hero, and Betsy sees him in a new light - on the surface, Travis saves people, but in reality, he goes on a killing spree because he wants to purge the long-standing depression in his heart in his own way.
Eventually, he receives recognition and approval from both society and his colleagues. By the end of the film, he is no longer the narrow-minded, anti-social individual he once was, but rather a typical person. However, it is disheartening that his transformation was not due to improvements in himself or society, but solely because of external validation. He previously held disdain for the majority for viewing him as strange, yet now he no longer harbors animosity towards people since he is perceived as a hero by the media.
In the final scene where Travis drives off to drop Betty, we can tell from the composition of the shot that the two are still existing in different worlds. However, the positive aspect is that Travis has come to terms with the reality of the situation.
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