Taxi Driver

I have this pressure to think of "Taxi Driver" profoundly because it is Mihir's favorite film. I think, though, that because it is so old, I'm having trouble appreciating it. I seriously need to work on that.

"Taxi Driver" is the story of Travis Bickle, a war veteran with insomnia who capitalizes on that unfortunate illness by driving taxis during the night. The film shows the grittiness of New York--the hookers, the pimps, the dank streets. The cab drives through steam rising from the manhole covers and splashes into deep puddles of water. This film shows the dark parts of life.

Bickle sees Betsy, a gorgeous activist who is running a politician's campaign in a building with large windows through which Bickle can watch her. Travis is, as Betsy later calls him, "a walking contradiction"--he can simultaneously see Betsy's loneliness and discontent with the people around her, yet he doesn't have enough sense of what is socially acceptable, and takes her to a porno on a date. However, Travis is incredibly insightful. And when a young girl gets into his cab, only to be taken away by her pimp seconds later, he knows he has to do something.

I think the core of this film is found in the third act, in Travis' attempted and actual killings. At first, Travis tries to kill the presidential candidate. My only guess as to why is because earlier in the film, Travis suggests that the city should be cleaned up as he drives the candidate and his advisers to their destination, a chance cab selection. However, the candidate does nothing. So, out of anger, Travis goes and tries to kill him. I have another theory, however. After the porno, Betsy severs any hope of a relationship with Travis, an act that hurts him deeply. After he goes to the campaign headquarters and demands to see her, he is escorted out. Maybe he tries to kill the candidate out of anger towards Betsy, to eliminate the hard work she has put in or whatever. I think the former theory is right, because it has a second part.

After he tries to kill the man who was supposed to clean up the city, Travis decides to take matters into his own hands and do it himself. He is motivated by the enslavement of young Iris (played fearlessly by a young Jodi Foster), a 12 year old prostitute who has known many men and satisfied their abhorrent desires. Travis buys her but doesn't abuse her; instead, he asks her if she wants to escape, if she wants to get out and go to school and be a young girl. She laughs and says she can leave any time she wants, which both she and the audience know isn't true. She tells how her parents don't want her anymore, and if she were to leave she would have no where to go. Prostitution is her inescapable pit.

So for Iris, for himself, Travis blows the shit out of the pimp and his workers. But he does not go unscathed--he is shot and shot just like he does to his enemies. And he ends on the couch, his blood draining from his wounds, and he dies in the presence of Iris and her now-dead captors.

Or does he die? The following scenes show newspaper clippings depicting him as a hero, the taxi drivers in a diner, accepting Travis when before he was awkward and unsocial. The last scene is Travis driving his taxi with Betsy in the backseat, who seems to give him a second chance, due to his heroics. Is she interested in him because he proved to be a good guy, or because he gained celebrity?

Do I like this film? I don't know. Why should I? Because this character is interesting? Eh, he's all right. I think this film resonates with people like Travis Bickle--people unhappy with the way the world is now, people who will take action to change that world, and people with trauma lingering in their minds.

Editorial

I discussed the film with Mihir, and he said the film was not about the killings, that was just what happened. The film was about Bickle's loneliness. And that's why he loves the film, because he can relate to Travis. The film is about Travis' loneliness, and lonely people get that. People who aren't lonely miss it. Like I did.