Travis Bickle says that he's "God's Lonely Man." Making isolation a theme in Taxi Driver. Isolation leads Travis into misery and hatred for humanity. He deliberately places himself in an isolated situation by means of his taxi, which serves as a metaphor for Travis’s isolation and loneliness. The city is full of people who don't pay attention to each other and people who get in and out of his cab hardly pay any attention to Travis as if he is non-existing. Travis is not the only lonely character in the film. Wizard and the other cabbies frequently meet at a dinner in the middle of the night and express that they don't have much of a home life. Furthermore, Taxi Driver contains many shots of crowds, displaying each person keeping to themselves.…show more content… The camera focuses on black people and has a slow-motion effect several different time. During these shots, the viewers are put into a first-person perspective through Scorsese’s lingering camera shots, representing Travis’s stares of suspicion at African Americans. A key point about Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is that the main character Travis is a racist, however, Taxi Driver is a film about racism and distinguishably not a racist film. Also, using close-up shots, eyes become a source of meaning in the film. Travis is introduced to the viewers by an extreme close-up that only frames his eyes. The final shot of Travis is him looking into the rear-view mirror after he dropped off Betsy. Martin Scorsese’s camera work generates expression through his character’s eyes when they become the focus during close-up shots. Moreover, Viewers are often put into Travis point of view. A perfect example of this is when Travis meets the black-market gun salesman in a hotel and the camera uses the first-person perspective of Travis holding the magnum revolver. The camera also uses a panning movement as it follows Travis’s hand as he holds the gun. First person perspective doesn’t mean that the viewers needed to empathize with Travis during situations, it aids in analyzing
