Blog #4

One of my favorite scenes in cinema comes from Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver starring Robert De Niro. During the notorious mirror scene in Taxi Driver, Travis (Robert De Niro) is in his apartment perfecting his tough-guy image with his gun in the mirror. In the scene we can hear the busy ambient street/apartment building noise outside his apartment which emphasizes his isolation from the world and helps to create a kind of disorientation for the audience. This scene is very audience based due to the point of view we are shown. The scene is filmed as if we are the mirror and Travis is directly threatening us. This helps, in a way, to unnerve the audience because Travis is directing his anger at us as if we are the society in which he has a conflict. However, Travis is not looking directly into the camera but slightly out of screen adding to the off putting and disturbing quality which makes us feel as if he is aiming his anger and violence at us. The use of jump cuts, dissolves and jumps in the soundtrack while Travis narrates his diary in the voice over creates a surreal and distorted atmosphere in the scene and this mirrors Travis’s distorted perspective on the world he lives in and also gives us more insight into his twisted way of thinking.