Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver

Narratives, that display a character’s journey, usually, demonstrate a character’s progress rather than their regression, showing positive character development. However, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) illustrates the main character, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), experiencing a regression in character development and a descent into madness based on the actions he commits. Throughout the film, Travis seems as if he lacks some understanding in human interaction but as the protagonist, the audience experiences the film and its universe through his eyes and requires that the audience connects to him in some way. However, towards the end, Travis along with the other characters become distant to the audience, specifically during the sequence, (1:34:49 - 1:36:14), where Travis attends a Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris) rally in the hopes of shooting him. Through examining the cinematography,
Two aspects of this scene that relate to the sound accomplish this, the microphone and the clapping, specifically Travis’s clapping. Not only does the microphone cause Palatine’s voice to sound muffled but it has an effect that places him in a different than the one he currently occupies. As a result, he becomes detached from his environment, confusing the audience on the event is taking place. While this may be a product of the actual microphones during this time, that doesn’t negate the fact that Palatine sounds disconnected from the setting. Also, while everyone’s clapping sounds in sync when Travis claps, his claps seems disconnected as if recorded at a different time. During each medium shot, his claps sound jarring to the audience because they disrupt everyone else’s clapping, causing him to separate from those in the crowd. As a result, this effect on his clapping focuses the audience to disconnect from Travis as he has done with the rest of