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Travis's Gaze

(Taxi Driver 1976)

Travis’s Gaze is a video essay focusing on male gaze relating shot in Taxi Driver (1976). In Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, which is a relatively male perspective movie since the protagonist is male, the main story is about the loneliness of the protagonist and his arrogant illusion. Female characters, especially Betsy, are often being gazed by Travis, and they are presented in Travis’s perspective, or in Martin Scorsese’s perspective of male. In this video essay, shots of Betsy were isolated from the original film and rearranged in chronological order. Jump shots were applied to have the audience compare similar shots effortlessly. Moreover, various shots of Travis gazing were edited between Betsy’s shot, providing the subject to “gaze” and to build the sense of Betsy being objectified. It is not my intension to criticize the original film. However, by taking a different point of view, it may make the audience be more actively aware of some subtle details or decisions that hide in films. Furthermore, to make them aware of the problem of male gaze in the media.

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