Instead of introducing us to Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), we are introduced us to the taxi itself. Through the use of expressionist mise-en-scene Scorsese manages to make a whole new character in the way he films the taxi, as Scorsese says himself "There's a man on the screen who's a fucking vehicle" . He manages to make the taxi so character like by filming close up shots of different parts of the taxi, by filming Travis's eyes through the mirror, as he stares at the people in the back, and through the windscreen, fusing the driver to the vehicle. Amy Taubin comments on the first few minutes of the film, "we sense that the man (of whom we've seen nothing but a pair of eyes) and the vehicle that encloses him are inseparable" , Lesley Stern comments that "Taxi Driver details Travis's bodily obsession at the same time as depicting the cab as though it were a body, delineating a likeness between taxi and driver" .
Travis is often filmed in a peculiar way; we are first introduced to Travis in the office of the taxi firm as he applies for a job. The camera takes an odd perspective using a very low angle shot, and when the taxi owner gets angry at Travis's "backchat" the film cuts to a shot uncomfortably up close to Travis's face. The filming continues to film him in such an unconventional manner as he leaves the office. Rather than follow him out of the Taxi rank the camera leaves Travis to track another cabbie (he is later introduced as Wizard, played by Peter Boyle) he walks to his taxi, the camera then leaves him, to continue panning round the taxi rank, before rejoining Travis as he leaves the car park, who is then filmed from a great distance as he walks down an empty street, with his head down, alone. Scorsese uses a similar way of filming Travis later on. Travis is using a public phone on the ground floor of an apartment block, having a conversation with Betsy (played by Cybill Sheppard).
