The “Are You Talkin’ to Me?” scene in Taxi Driver is one of the most
famous and widely imitated scenes in cinematic history. Travis Bickle is talking to himself and the world as a whole while he points his gun and threatens into that mirror. This is a breaking point in Travis’ life and his psyche. He has become more and more disassociated with reality and now he must act on his objections to the world.
Scorsese shows Travis’ skewed point of view through a number of effective mise-en-scene, camera and editing techniques. Firstly, he shows Travis mostly as his mirror image, which has an offsetting effect. The mirror’s frame is not in the shot after shot 2a, so it seems like a straight-on view of him, but something isn’t right. This is a genius POV technique because this is how Travis sees himself at that moment and it is chilling to step into his shoes. Travis is starting to take on a sort of God complex where he feels the need, and the right, to go ahead and......
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