Taxi Driver, a 1976 neo-noir psychological thriller film, written by Paul Schrader and directed by Martin Scorsese is a first person character study of a New York City taxi driver named Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro who is well known for his distinctive method acting. The movie is narrated from the protagonist’s point of view and so if you want to enjoy the film, you have to fit yourself in his shoes. Travis Bickle is not your typical boy next door, but most of us can relate to this character. If you cannot relate to Travis, then this movie is not your piece of cake.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Travis Bickle is a 26 year old Vietnam War veteran (dis)honourably discharged from US Marine Corps. He is a lonely person who doesn’t have any real friends or a girlfriend. He eats from fast food restaurants and drinks coca cola all the time. Apart from all this, he is an insomniac who rides around town in buses and subways at night and goes to porno theaters to combat his sleeplessness. It was at this time that Travis decides to take up the job of a taxi driver since he thought it might pay him as well instead of riding around for nothing. He approaches a taxi booth owner and tells him he will work anytime, anywhere. When the taxi booth owner inquires about his driving record, Travis replies jokingly, “Its real clean, like my conscience.”
Travis keeps a diary in which he records his thoughts and daily happenings regularly. He has a lot of interesting thoughts that he records in his diary like, “You are only as healthy as you feel”. Also, he writes in his diary about his aversion to the dirty sidewalks of New York City which is filled with trash and garbage. He also loathes the nocturnal people in the city. He claims that all the animals come out at night, whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick and venal. He hopes someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. When he meets the presidential candidate Charles Palantine, he tells him the same, anyone who become the President should clean off the streets first.
“I don’t believe someone should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people” –Travis Bickle
Travis meets Betsy at Palantine’s campaign. He describes her in his diary like this, “She appeared like an angel, out of this filthy mass. She is alone. They… cannot… touch… her.” Betsy describes Travis using a Kris Kristofferson song, “He’s a prophet and a pusher, partly truth, partly fiction, a walking contradiction.” Travis’ character indeed is a contradiction. He says all the animals come out at night, but he himself works all night. He complains about the filthy streets but he is a sleep deprived junkie who takes pills regularly when his shift gets over. Travis takes all kind of people in his taxi, he even allows people to have sex in his taxi but he hates pimps and prostitutes. He stares at black people with contempt, but is disturbed when he sees a child prostitute.
Travis’ social life is an utter failure. His social ignorance is visible throughout the movie. On his date with Betsy, Travis takes her to an X-rated Swedish sex education film which disturbs her and she leaves the theater. We can’t blame Travis, because that’s the kind of movies he always watch and he doesn’t know about the interests of a girl. Travis apologizes to her but she just says they are different and walks away. Later he visits her at Palantine’s campaign but he got kicked out of there by her colleague. He says to her before leaving, “You’re in a hell and you’re gonna die in the hell like the rest of them.” It is clear that this incident affects his views towards women as he says, “Women are like a union, they are cold and distant.”
After his breakup with Betsy, we can observe noticeable changes in Travis. He is out of the world most of the times. He even loses interest in the worldly happenings. This is the time when Travis is starting to have a psychotic breakdown. Travis consults Wizard, a middle-aged cabbie and tells him he is having some bad ideas in his head. Wizard wants to help Travis and advises him to enjoy his youth by getting drunk and getting laid. But Travis dismisses his advice saying that it is the dumbest thing he has ever heard. Travis has some other plans in his head, some really bad ideas.
Isolation and melancholy when coupled together can drive a man insane. Travis begins to show signs of hysteria and violence as he realizes he is not going to be accepted by Betsy. He even destroys his television in anger while watching a soap opera love scene. Later, Travis meets a travelling salesman via one of his friends and buys some handy arms and ammunition. His intentions are not clear at this point. But he wants to organize his life instead of getting organiz-ized. He says, “I gotta get in shape now. Too much sitting has ruined my body. There will be no more pills, no more bad food. From now on, there will be total organization.” He starts working out in his apartment, taking pushups and pull-ups. He even goes out for shooting practices with the revolvers and pistols that he bought. He creates a mechanical device which can draw hidden guns automatically to his hand. He undergoes a transformation, a transformation from a lone junkie to an ‘organized’ maniac.
Travis goes to one of Palantine’s meetings with the intention of killing him. We don’t know why he does that, but by judging his character, we can assume that either he indirectly blames Palantine for his breakup with Betsy because she works for Palantine and respects him a lot or he wants to get recognized by doing something heroic. But the attempt goes in vain as a security officer gets suspicious of Travis. Later, he goes to his apartment and starts a conversation with his own reflection. He repeatedly says, “You talking to me?” to his reflection which indicates that at this stage, Travis has lost contact with the reality. He assumes his reflection as another man and improvises methods to draw a gun quickly before the opponent.
Travis goes on searching for Iris, the child prostitute that he had met earlier in his taxi with the intention of rescuing her from the pimp named Sport. When he meets her, Travis offers to help Iris get out of there. She doesn’t seem to show any interest at first, but agrees to meet him later for breakfast the next day. When they meet again, Iris tells Travis that her parents hate her and that is why she left her home. Travis says, “A girl should live at home. You should be dressed up, you should be going out with boys, you should be going to school, that kind of stuff.” Travis describes Sport as the lowest kind of person in the world. He says, “Sport is the scum of the earth. He is the worst sucking scum I have ever, ever seen.”
Travis burns all the flowers he has bought for Betsy. This indicates his boiling anger and ever ending rage. He is preparing for a battle. He shaves his head into a Mohawk just like the American soldiers did in Vietnam War when they turned to killing machines who are destined to die. This is his final stage of his transformation into a complete maniac, he is ready to fight and ready to die. He goes to attend Palantine’s speech and claps like a psycho standing behind the audience.He even attempts to take out his gun to kill Palantine, but flees the scene as one of the secret service men notices him.
All his attempts to kill Palantine were futile. But Travis is destined to kill someone. In the climax shootout scene, Travis kills three guys on his way to reach Iris, the pimp, the hotel manager and a customer. Travis gets shot twice during this shootout, one on his shoulders and another on the side of his neck, but he never stops until he reach Iris. After his goal was accomplished, Travis tries to shoot himself and die with two of the guns that he is left with, but he fails since both of them doesn’t have any bullets left. Police arrive soon after as Iris continues to cry and Travis sits on a sofa in the room. When the police points their gun on Travis, he raises his hand imitating a gun, points to his head and shoots thrice making the firing sound. He is helpless, he wants to die but he cannot. Then, Travis smiles weirdly as he loses his conscious.
Newspapers celebrate this incident and Travis gets a hero image all around the city. Iris’ parents write a letter to Travis thanking him for returning their daughter. Next we are shown a dreamy sequence where Betsy is sitting in the back of Travis’ taxi. We are not sure whether this is a dream or reality. She says she read about him in the papers. Travis takes her to the destination but he doesn’t take any fare from her. He doesn’t even seem to show any interest in Betsy anymore. The movie ends as Travis drives off and image of Betsy disappear in the rear-view mirror. We are unaware whether Travis has recovered from his previous mental state or not. Maybe he is still searching for his place in this ultimately doomed world.
