What filmmaking techniques does Taxi Driver use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Taxi Driver (1976): Deteriorating Diary Voiceover, Neon Night City, Mirror Confrontation Monologue, Vigilante Hero Misreading and Dissonant Jazz Underscore.

Who directed Taxi Driver?

Martin Scorsese directed Taxi Driver, released in 1976. CineCode also covers Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), After Hours (1985).

Crime · Drama

Taxi Driver

Martin Scorsese, 1976

A mentally unstable Vietnam veteran drives a cab through the seething streets of New York. His disgust with the city's corruption sours into a violent fantasy of cleaning it up. It's one of cinema's most unsettling studies of a man radicalizing himself and of male psychosis.

2 Narrative 1 Cinematography 1 Psychology 1 Sound

At a glance

Taxi Driver is a 1976 crime and drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (2 narrative, 1 cinematography, 1 psychology and 1 sound), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Deteriorating Diary Voiceover

Narrating the film through a character's diary entries that sound thoughtful and self-aware. As the words drift further from what you see, you realize the narrator's mind is breaking down.

How this film uses it

Travis's journal entries sound like sincere self-improvement, but every observation is paranoid and dehumanizing, and they keep getting worse. He calls himself a person who will not 'allow' himself to do things he is clearly doing. The narration and the images are like 2 different films. Between them, they tell you everything about his state of mind.

Where to see it

The opening voiceover: 'All the animals come out at night'. You hear what is going on inside Travis before you see him act.

Cinematography

Neon Night City

Filming a city at night through glowing signs, steam and rain-slick reflections. The glow makes the place feel dense, futuristic and a little threatening, sometimes like a character's fever dream.

How this film uses it

Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman shoot New York in slow motion, through rain-streaked glass and at odd angles. This is the city as Travis experiences it. The style leaves you unsure whether what you're seeing is real or coming from his head.

Where to see it

Travis driving through midtown at night. You see the slow-motion crowds, steam rising from grates and red neon dissolving in puddles.

Psychology

Mirror Confrontation Monologue

Having a character talk to their own reflection, often rehearsing a fight with an imaginary enemy. The scene puts their inner conflict or identity crisis out where you can see it.

How this film uses it

In 'You talkin' to me?', Travis is acting out the gunfighter he plans to become, playing both the threat and the hero. The mirror cannot answer, and that is the point. Travis is building a self that nobody else confirms. All he has is the reflection, which shows him whatever he demands.

Where to see it

Travis in front of the mirror in his apartment. He draws the gun and points it at his own reflection.

Narrative

Vigilante Hero Misreading

Giving a violent, delusional character the shape of a hero's story, with a quest, obstacles, a climax and a reward. The heroic framing is there to be questioned, and it is the film's criticism.

How this film uses it

The finale gives Travis a massacre, a newspaper headline that calls him a hero and Betsy riding in his cab with admiring eyes. The way it is filmed says 'triumph' while what happens says 'psychosis'. Scorsese and Schrader deliberately used Hollywood's storytelling habits against you. Those habits usually deliver satisfaction, and this ending should leave you disturbed with none of it.

Where to see it

The overhead shot of the aftermath. The camera floats above the carnage before the newspaper montage recasts it as heroism.

Sound

Dissonant Jazz Underscore

Scoring the film with uneasy jazz, often improvised or driven by drums. Its late-night city feel and unstable harmonies rub against the images and track a mind coming apart.

How this film uses it

Bernard Herrmann's final score mixes saxophone solos with clashing orchestral sounds. It scores Travis's inner world like a jazz musician playing in an empty room. The music never resolves. It circles and repeats like Travis's thoughts. Herrmann died the night he finished it.

Where to see it

The night-driving sequences. The saxophone follows Travis's cab through the city, and it sounds like both a seduction and a warning.

Questions

Taxi Driver: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Taxi Driver use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Taxi Driver (1976): Deteriorating Diary Voiceover, Neon Night City, Mirror Confrontation Monologue, Vigilante Hero Misreading and Dissonant Jazz Underscore.
Who directed Taxi Driver?: Martin Scorsese directed Taxi Driver, released in 1976. CineCode also covers Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), After Hours (1985).
What films are similar to Taxi Driver?: Films that share techniques with Taxi Driver include Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), Network (1976), First Reformed (2017), Black Rain (1989).

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