[Scarface]

Excellent analysis Triple HHH. 'Taxi Driver' is my second favourite Scorsese picture, with 'Raging Bull' being my first. I think 'Taxi Driver' is also a companion piece too Scorsese's earlier 'Mean Streets', in a way, with characters seeking redemption, De Niro playing unstable characters, getting shot in the neck (from what we can make out, it looks like Johnny-Boy is shot in the neck, and I'm pretty sure he is - as was Travis in the shootout), New York, constant reference to taxi's (okay, this was probably a coincidence, but still...), and Keitel holding his finger over a flame several times (like Bickle holding his fist over the stove). I, too, got the feeling that Bickle was feeling guilty (again it's debatable), and if so, the opening line of 'Mean Streets' further connects the two movies:
"You don't make up for your sins in church, you do it on the street..."

Travis is in love with Betsy, but why? She's pretty, she stands out in the crowd, and she looks innocent. Like a little girl who never grew up, as she wanders happily through the crowd in her gleaming white (innocent) dress. She rejects him, yes, and so he moves on, this time to Iris, a girl who doesn't want help. She's young and not innocent, she's a prostitute, takes drugs, has ran away from home, etc.
Travis is a loser, he has no friends, he can't fit in, and the only way he can be accepted by society is through a misunderstanding (or was it?) of violence. Johnny Boy was a loser, he kept stealing money, letting his friends down, running away. Jake La Motta, too, is a loser, and is also the ultimate irony, as he was the middleweight champion of the world, yet he was still a loser.