Mise-En-Scene in Taxi Driver

drudge number one wood is or so Travis Bickle, a sick taxi driver who is twain a prophet and/or a mad man. We ar neer allowed to know what the photograph itself come backs of him, we atomic number 18 never told to love him or scorn him and the painting never states whether he is ethically right or wrong. This characterization is non al around the answers to the problems of the association. It is skillful about the questions and unknowns. It is just an interesting move in the modern society that could make deal discuss about Travis hours and hours. Talking with a nonher(prenominal) stack, I was amazed how people can think of him in polar instructions. Some say he is sick, about say he is their prophet.The fast cuts in the editing (when he practices with the guns) make us enter in his state of mind. But withal, rough long takes force us to analyze and understand what happened (Very highschool-angle takes that Scorsese calls Priest snaps aft(prenominal) the m assacre. ). The movie switches dynamically between these styles, which leaves the audience an infinite ways of intellection about the Travis. This is beyond doubt not a journey the likes of Odysseus where the hero ever expireingly moves forward. In Taxi Driver the heros journey is always around the same circle. He does not meet any in the raw people or experience new situations.Same people influence around him, or maybe he turns around the same people and he repeatedly recognizes similar concepts in them. In a existent movie the fact that he meets with those people so many multiplication and in so many different places would be a mistake. However, this is not a realistic movie. Palantine who was already around him (thanks to the posters and Betsy) gets into his car (which is highly tall(a) to happen) he sees iris diaphragm in many different unrelated places (three times) Scorsese appears in the movie twice (the unknown hot flavour of these is in the slam where we branch s ee Betsy.He is also watching her in the back. ). Also different people reminds him of similar concepts Betsy and glad atomic number 18 both woman who are to be saved from the lives they are stuck in, and he sees many different people who cannot communicate with him. This circle with Travis in its center is also represented in the photographic camera movements either the camera is traveling around him or it is panning to bear witness the panorama of the New York life through his eyes. Moreover, in cardinal different scenes the camera and Travis make the other 180 degrees of the circle and meet at the same place.These formal elements process us understand and feel how Travis is also encircled and alone in that sick world. The fact that this is not a realistic movie is also proved by some of the elements in the narrative. First of all, Travis is described as someone who never sleeps, and we really never see him sleeping. Secondly, the time gaps between the shots (sometimes a week , or maybe a month after he first signs up for the job, the next shot is in his apartment, and he describes his daily routine. ) also prove that this is a conventionalised movie.Lastly, although he is al approximately illiterate (- Education? Yes, some, you know, here and there ), he has a diary and we hear him telling us what he is writing. He sometimes even becomes poetic. All of these are almost implausible for an indifferent taxi driver. As a net point about the realism, I think the appearance of Scorsese himself is to remind us that this is just a movie and that we should not get into the story too much. I think he appears at a truly important point, when e precisething starts to boil and the audience risks to be caught in Travis delirium too much.Travis alienation and loneliness is one of the most underlined ideas in the movie. Even when he is with other people he is precise seldom line of battlen as having a real communication with them. One very interesting shot is wh en he first sits in the cafe with his friends. He sits on the other side of the table and they are on the other sides of the frame. They seem like they are very far apart from each other. Also, when Travis talks with other people (except Iris and Betsy) he never looks at them. There are even some shots where we see what he is facial expression at, which shows his disconnection with those people.Naturally, for a person so disconnected to the society exchanges are very important. It could be an exchange of a gun or a paper or feelings. Scorsese emphasizes these using some unusual high angles, looking at the action from above. It happens four times in the movie in the taxi office, in the movie theater, in the gun exchange, and most importantly when he first declares his love to Betsy in the campaign headquarters. In the last one, there is only a shot of the desk from above and the camera is panning in a strange way with no obvious reason.However, we know from the two other scenes tha t this shot underlines the real exchange of feelings between Travis and Betsy. Furthermore, in one of the best shots of the movie, after his useless and empty talk with Wizard the camera just stands and watches his cab going apart and fading in the streets slice Wizard is looking at him. The scene announces his detachment from the people and the society. As Taxi Driver is not moving forward as a movie, there is no reason for an obvious change in style.The vertigo of the colors and the fact that the background is often out-of-focus in the whole movie reminds us that there is no way to see the society in a sharper way and finding solutions. We are almost scatte ablaze(p) in it. Very shiny colors, especially reds, blues and greens, form the primary(prenominal) palette of the movie. However, there are some slight changes of colors. For example, in the scenes where he continues his relationship with Betsy, a peaceful green dominates the screen. In the scenes leading to the final ma ssacre, red becomes the leading and threatening color.Again, after that, green over again becomes the main color as the scenes have a feeling of calm in them. Moreover, the Sports street is unsunger than many of the places in the movie suggesting a mystical feeling, which prepares us to the climax that happens there. Other important things I want to note about the mise-en-scene are the costumes and the hairs. Travis often changes the way he is dressed and his hairstyle according to the situation. He becomes a very nice-looking guy when he is going to meet with Iris or Betsy. He wears his nice shirts brushes his hair.When he is going to show his arouse or his dark side he either wears his marine or leather coat and leaves his hair as it is or even, at the end, shaves it. These changes show the instability of his personality and the two opposite characters of Travis Bickle, a prophet and a sick guy. When he looks nice, we tend to like him when he looks crazy, we are afraid. Further more, the costumes and the hairstyles help Scorsese call attention to one of the most important correspondences of the Taxi Driver that I already mentioned. Betsy often wears red clothes as Iris does when they meet with Travis.In addition, they are both blondes. That forces us to understand the parallelism between them according to Travis they are both to be saved from the lives they are stuck in. The climax of the film is obviously the massacre as it is probably the most intense and shocking scene of the film. It is shot and edited as if it was a dream and we are never sure whether it really happens or whether it is just Travis imagination. The only thing we know for sure is that it is the explosion of his unexpressed feelings toward the society and the manifestation of his hate against the people.The use of red and some unusual high angles stress the lackadaisical quality of the scene. Sports reappearance and Travis survival despite the shot that just missed his throat are out o f our worst nightmares. Again, Scorsese does not expect us to believe in it. He just wants us to meditate in what happened. The following scenes also have the same dreamy mood. The greens dominate the night scenes and an interesting peacefulness is expressed with the very slow panning of camera and the tender voice of Iris father.Also the fact that Travis got away without going into prison and Betsys way of looking that shows her admiration for him make the scene seem like a wonderful dream. At the very end, although Travis is again driving the car, his face is lightened very strongly in a way we are not used to in the movie (It was always dark ). Is he enlightened? Is he a prophet? However, suddenly, something happens and his face seems red in the mirror, but he fixes it. Is he a lunatic? Is he dead or dreaming? You wont find the answer to these questions in this movie.