Taxi Driver
I normally try to avoid most spoilers in my articles, but it is not possible to talk about this film without a spoiler warning here.
Marty’s fifth feature film, Taxi Driver, follows Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) as an unhinged and lonely man who slowly becomes more and more unstable, until he hits his breaking point. There are several terrifying scenes in this film, as after a certain point you know he is going to hurt someone. You just don’t know who.
This film feels like a dream – which is exactly what Scorsese wanted. Seedy characters literally disappear into the shadows. Bickle glides through the streets of New York, a phantom of violence, willing to kill anyone who he deems unworthy or beneath him if he’s having a bad day.
Bickle tries to pursue a relationship with political volunteer Betsy (Cybil Sheppard). They get along okay at first, but once she picks up on some red flags and rejects his advances, he is pushed closer and closer to the brink of madness. He trains his body and buys four handguns. He is going to try to kill Charles Palatine – a senator and presidential candidate that Betsy is volunteering for. When the Secret Service spots him and forces him to retreat, Bickle redirects his need for violence and ends up killing three people involved in child trafficking.
The ending of this film makes your jaw drop. After brutally murdering three (albeit objectively evil) people, Travis is regarded as a hero and released from the hospital. He then reunites with Betsy, who is suddenly interested in him. Is this real life, or a dream as Travis slowly bleeds out from his wounds from the shootout. There’s no way to know, but either interpretation recontextualizes the film.
This is a fascinating film to watch, but also to learn the history of. Would-be Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr. drew inspiration from the film as his motive to attack the President (Bickle attempts to kill a senator in the film). Obviously horrified, Scorsese almost quit filmmaking after this. He created a character so convinced of his own dogma that real people used it for evil. That’s incredibly scary, and incredibly telling of America.
This film is just as poignant today as it was in 1976 (it was released 48 years ago this month). Travis Bickle isn’t real – but he lives in every city in America. He believes in conspiracy theories, has staunch political beliefs, owns multiple guns and weapons, is a racist and a misogynist, believes he’s always right, and thinks he deserves anything he wants, but above all has a strong moral sense of judgement – which is why he is so dangerous. He is a villain. Of course, to him, he’s the ultimate hero… destined to save the city from evil.
Scorsese Ranking
This was an incredible film. It captivates throughout its entire runtime, and then makes you want to take a shower.
- Taxi Driver
- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
- Mean Streets
- Who’s That Knocking at My Door
- Boxcar Bertha
Join me next week for New York, New York. I don’t know anything about it – but I’m excited!
