“ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?” PONDERS TRAVIS BICKLE
THE ICONIC EMPTINESS AND MAD MONOLOGUE OF TAXI DRIVER’S PROTAGONIST
SONIKA KAMBLE (GUEST AUTHOR @ DIL)
TAXI!
Taxi Driver. A hauntingly beautiful movie about Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro). It’s about an ex-veteran and insomniac who fares on the streets of New York City by driving a yellow cab whilst battling social isolation. Martin Scorsese’s directorial is a melancholic dream, making the viewer empathise with a character that one would typically judge to be strange. Taxi Driver is the perfect testimony to our world’s growing loneliness epidemic, and a window to view the suffering of unfortunate outcasts. This editorial touches upon everything about Taxi Driver, from its iconic character, to its philosophical implications. Let’s take a journey through the 1976 classic!
SCHRADER AND SCORCESE’S VISION
Martin Scorsese drew inspiration from various sources to create the masterpiece that is Taxi Driver. He also added his personal experiences from his time in the raw and gritty streets of New York City. The director wanted the film to resemble a ‘dream’; you might get a sense of that whilst watching the movie. Moreover, screenwriter Paul Schrader once went through a period of isolation, reflected in the film’s themes; he decided to choose the confines of a taxi to metaphorise ‘loneliness’.
THE DICHOTOMY OF TRAVIS BICKLE
Lines recited by Betsy (played by Cybill Shepherd) encapsulate the essence of Travis’s complexity. “He’s a prophet and a pusher. Partly truth, partly fiction. A walking contradiction.” There always seems to be a misalignment between Travis’s actions and words; he’s simply not the saviour he believes himself to be.
Travis struggles to understand social cues. He tries to connect with others, but fails each time. From Betsy to Iris Steensma (played by Jodie Foster), each interaction tries to meet a different need, but he makes the situation worse after some initial success. However, in letters that he writes to family, Travis paints a different and positive picture, which is far from reality. These letters depict the character’s estranged relationship with himself, reflecting his rejection of real life, denial, and delusional thinking.
EMPTY HALLWAYS
Taxi Drivers starts with Travis stating that he’s willing to work “anywhere.” Deprived of human interaction, he accepts an immense workload. He is a socially maladjusted individual, with a skewed perception of the world. The opening scene captures Travis’s tired eyes, followed by a shot of his windshield showing flashing lights and racing water droplets. His obstructed view represents his blurred perceptions.
The film is devastating because Travis does make an effort to connect with others. After a disastrous date with Betsy, he reaches out over the telephone. During the telephone conversation, the camera pans to the side, and stabilises on the hallway, giving the audience a sense that someone might just enter. No one does, and such emptiness is precisely how the character feels almost all of the time. Travis decides to express his inner turmoil by opening up to a fellow taxi driver. “I’ve got some bad ideas in my head,” admits Travis. The disconnect between himself and his colleague is stark and sinister, foreshadowing a descent into chaos. Instead of listening and lending an ear, the taxi driver advises Bickle to purchase a gun (a classic way of showing how men fail to support each other emotionally).
After being rejected by Betsy, Travis searches for a (not so) meaningful purpose. He remains entirely silent when Iris, a teenage sex worker, is exploited at the hands of her pimp. However, he tactically intervenes to ‘save’ her. Over time, Travis becomes convinced that vigilantism is his calling. He rocks a mohawk haircut and fails to assassinate a presidential candidate, reflecting an elusive yearning for both significance and adrenaline. He then goes on to shoot men in Iris’s building, killing her customer as she squeals in terror. Bload-soaked, Travis lays down on a sofa, doing a finger-gun pose instead of comforting the disturbed heroine. He doesn’t care about her. He is using Iris to inflate his sense of heroism.
“ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?”
Over the years, this sensational monologue has influenced pop culture. As iconic as the scene is, we often forget its tragic insinuations. He’s alone in a room and talking to himself, with the bravado suggesting that someone is present. It’s perhaps the height of Travis’s loneliness and incapacity for maintaining connections with people. Oblivious to his shortcomings, he deludes himself, using a fake saviour persona as a means of filling a painful void. Did you know that, once, a real-life assassination attempt, with the perpetrator reportedly ‘inspired’ by Travis Bickle, was carried out? On a lighter note, the depth of Travis’s character has inspired other filmmakers to explore and develop the anti-hero character.
Joaquin Phenoni’s ‘Joker’ tends to be compared to Taxi Driver. The main characters of each film struggle to integrate into society. Both are misunderstood recluses teetering towards violent breakdowns. Due to associations with the DC franchise and The Dark Knight (a masterpiece), Joker received immediate and widespread adulation, sparking important discussions surrounding the suffering of men. Taxi Driver, on the other hand, is a movie that was celebrated and appreciated much later. It’s viewed, in hindsight, as one of the first ever to shed light on the difficulties of the undiagnosed. £2.49 on YouTube. Rent now!
