"Taxi Driver" 5/12 - 5/19

[Morticia]

This is a thread to discuss the technical and/or thematic merits of "Taxi Driver."

The purpose being to foster intelligent discussion of films without resorting to "It's a piece of crap." or "It's the greatest film ever." (And so that we all can gain a bit of a film education from everyone.)

We'll discuss a new film each week. Either slade or I will post the film in this forum in advance, and lock the topic until the first day of discussion.

Thanks everyone. We are excited and we hope this works (we're open to any ideas of how to make it better).

****SPOILER WARNING**** of course this entire thread is going to be full of spoilers.

[MrTony]

The thing that grabbed me about this movie the first time I saw it (Saturday) was the ending. Are we to believe that after the final shoot-out, Travis re-entered the world, went back to his job, and was seen as a hero? Or did he remain in a coma and this was his dream/fantasy while unconscious? Or (and I might really be reaching here) is the rest of the movie the fantasy, and the final scene the reality? Did Travis simply imagine himself as an armed avenger, washing the scum off the streets? My guess would be #2, but I wanted to throw the other two out.

Very few people may be able to identify with the violence and anti-socialism of the movie, but I think everyone can relate to the theme of loneliness. Powerful stuff.

Sorry I'm not being more "scholarly." Think of this post as a gut reaction to my first viewing.

[Scarface]

I'm not that 'scholary' either, but I do love movies. 'Taxi Driver' is an important movie, as it deals with many emotions and themes which run constant. It offers a close character study of an unstable mind, and is also a dark social commentary.

*SPOILERS*

First off, Travis Bickle. Scarred both physically and mentally by Vietnam (unless he was already unstable before he entered the war), Bickle is disgusted by the state of society, the 'scum' that lurk at night. In one scene he claims the 'smell' of the street gives him a headache. He drives a taxi day and night, pops pills, and pours whiskey on his cereal. We could easily interpret that its because of this unhealthy life style that he gets these headaches.

He feels he has to do something, but he doesn't quite no what. He tries to 'save' a woman, but with him not knowing how to act in normal life, he takes her to a pornographic movie. She leaves. He has failed, later calling to her: "You're living in a hell, and you're going to die in a hell." He then has two encounters with another person, a young girl - a thirteen year old prostitute - who he feels he must save from a pimp called Sport.

Bickle is a self-destructive character, which we can tell by his lifestyle, and of course, the ending. He is confused on what to do, and after the encounter with the almost psychotic husband, comes to a decision. Wipe them out.

The ending is ambiguous, did Travis survive? Or was it all a fantasy? We will never know, and it all comes down to interpretation. Many of these themes still play in a part of our society today, prostitution, underage sex, drugs, 'scum', love, anger and loneliness.

Anyway, that's what I think, I haven't even started yet. I could really dig deep into the story, giving references to scenes, speech, weapons, etc. Ah well, maybe when I have more time.

[Triple HHH]

Originally posted by MrTony
The thing that grabbed me about this movie the first time I saw it (Saturday) was the ending. Are we to believe that after the final shoot-out, Travis re-entered the world, went back to his job, and was seen as a hero? Or did he remain in a coma and this was his dream/fantasy while unconscious? Or (and I might really be reaching here) is the rest of the movie the fantasy, and the final scene the reality? Did Travis simply imagine himself as an armed avenger, washing the scum off the streets? My guess would be #2, but I wanted to throw the other two out.

Hey, that's a really good point, I never thought of it that way. I always took the ending, where his life finally brightens up, as reality, but maybe it still existed in Travis' twisted mind.

The most interesting thing I read about the ending was that it had a fairy-tale quality to it. Travis, the vigilante who wanted to clean the scum off the streets (and maybe cleanse himself of the dark feelings within him), he's the knight that "slayed the dragon and won the maiden". Betsy is the maiden who initially rejected Travis, but now that Travis has proven his heroism and is congratulated by the city, she wants him back. But now, Travis rejects her, and maybe that gives him a thrilling sense of power. Whereas before, he was powerless when it came to relationships, he now has the power to reject or accept an invitation from the "maiden" who ignored him before. Maybe he relishes in this little bit of "revenge" too.

Another thing about the ending, the violence used to bother some people -- too graphic, too excessive, and too much. Yet, I think that moment was perfect. (Scorsese, to his dismay, was asked to tone it down by the studio or risk getting an "X" rating -- so he de-saturated the color of the red blood. Now, it looks almost brownish and pale. The studio executives were finally happy with it seemed. But Scorsese noticed it actually looked even worse and more violent and grotesque, much to his surprise. One silent victory for Marty. ) Also, to tone/censor the violence down would diminish the power of the final scenes. The whole point of the violence here is to counterbalance what went on before. Anything less in this scene, and it would have been too flat and anti-climactic. There has to be an explosive outpouring of energy and violence -- it's a sense of release for Bickle and the audience.




Throughout the film, you could sense the pressure, the frustration building up in Travis like angry boiling steam.....the rotten city was breaking him, and he had to let it off somehow. I found what critic Pauline Kael called the end confrontation very interesting -- (paraprhasing) "The final bloodbath was the only orgasm Travis could ever experience in life." That's quite a good analogy actually. Travis, who literally has trouble connecting to women (Betsy rejects him, Iris is way too young) realizes that he's fated to being "God's lonely man." And if Travis could not experience and feel what others around him were (a relationship), than his only way to feel anything was through violence.

Some have called the last confrontation a sort of baptism with blood -- maybe Travis was going to come out of it a different man on the other side. Or maybe the bloodbath was his attempt at suicide -- he was too weak and cowardly to kill himself off so he walks into the lion's den himself. Or maybe, it was simply Travis' explosive lashing at an indifferent society? -- the animal that's been bitten that decides to bite back. That's what I love about the end, because the answer is never clear and I think any interpretation can be a valid one.

This brings up a good question about the message of the film....what was Scorsese trying to say, if anything at all. Maybe there was no distinct message, and Martin was just giving us the story of one man. Travis was a man who was either pushed by society (their fault for not accepting him), or maybe it was his own fault and he kept nurturing the demons inside of him. Either way, Travis was like the phantom that walked the streets at night, not cared for and doomed to walk the streets alone. It is only during the final bloodbath that he is able to come alive again -- for better or worse. Maybe the only thing that redeemed his soul was the violence. It actually brought him out of his hellhole (whereas violence usually damns a soul to hell).

It reminds me of Fight Club's theme. FC was about a generation of men (and women?) lost in a callous, materialistic, selfish, and uncaring society. Every one of them was a Travis Bickle in a way. Unable to connect, to fit in, or to feel anything. It's a lifeless and souless way of existence. But then, once the Fight Club was created, there was a newfound sene of purpose and belonging finally. To be part of something exclusive gave them a sense of possessorship and direction in life. And like Bickle, perhaps the only way these men could "feel" anything in life was through violence. To be literally punched in the jaw and taste their own blood was the only way to feel alive again, and it may have been their only way of "redemption" (in their minds) -- ultimately, though, it was really more like self-destruction and they just didn't see it.

There's so much more to Taxi Driver. I loved this film, my absolute favorite Scorsese picture, with Goodfellas and Raging Bull close behind. I appreciate it for being honest, raw, and intense. The film shook me like no other film in a long time -- so unabashedly personal and uncompromising. It's like they finally made a film where they ripped off the walls and revealed the naked soul of a man to us.

[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.

[Riddick]

You guys coverd it pretty well

What I say to people is this movie changes you, your not the same person you were before you saw it.

I guess its that sense of despair and solitude that gets to you.

GREAT FILM!!

[Bjørn N]

I think we can all agree Travis Bickle was very self-destructive. Regarding the porn cinema, that may be the only type of movies he sees, but I read a comment somewhere that he invited Betsy there as a way of getting rid off her, to make her reject him, which would be another evidence of his self destructive nature.
The young prostitute is another girl he cannot possibly connect to, and I think both his "attempts" to connect with the other sex in this movie is with women he cannot possibly connect with. Betsy might have worked out of he really wanted it to, but he still subconciously picked a girl he didn't believe would be with him. In fact the pornographic movies are yet another piece of evidence of his interest in women he cannot be with.

I also think his attempt to save Jodie Foster was a camoflauged suicide attempt. After all, after all the bad guys are killed, watch as he puts his own gun to his head and pulls the trigger several times, but the gun clicks. He then dumps down into the sofa, and when the police arrive, he points his finger to his head and simulates pulling a trigger on a gun, and shown in the picture further up in this thread.

The final image in the movie of the taxi pulling away, with a boom in the soundtrack, I have also read somewhere that this was intended to show that not everything was alright, that Travis Bickle was still unstable and might "explode" again at any time.

[Riedenschneider]

Some people might not know this.
Scorsese recorded an Audio-commentary for Taxi Driver (and Raging Bull) in 1990 (Criterion Collection Laser Disc #109). Sadly Criterion didn't gave Columbia the rights (they never do) to use it on their DVD S.E. So you have to track down the LD. But it's more than well worth it!

P.S.: There are two Criterion LD's of Taxi Driver and one has no commentary, so be sure to get/auction the one (CAV) who has.

[Scarface]

Any chance the Raging Bull commentary will crop up on the upcoming MGM SE? .... Yeah, I can only wish too..... Maybe they could get Scorsese to do another commentary....

Raging Bull SE is one of my most anticipated discs to come this year, I just hope it is better than the R2 '20th Anniversary Edition'.... Raging Bull = favourite Scorsese movie

Any news on this disc?

[Riedenschneider]

Sorry, no news on this disc (Raging Bull that is). But the RC2 S.E. was a big disappointment. No commentary, no Scorsese interview, no Scorsese anything in fact! And the transfer was the same non-anamorphic as before.

(And I haven't heard ANYTHING about a RC1 S.E. re-release)

But a commentary for the upcoming GoodFellas S.E. is confirmed

You just gotta love Marty

P.S.: Sorry for being off-topic. Won't happen again...

[dvds'r'us]

I'm tardy!



First off, I would like to congratulate myself for watching this film after having it sit on my shelf for over 4 months. I don't know why I didn't watch this blind purchase earlier.

Second, Damn! Jodie Foster is HOT!

Third, I'd like to say that Taxi Driver is now a top 10 film of mine!

There's my report! now where's my grade...

[TwistedByDesign]

I too, just watched it for the first time(Yesterday actually) after hearing such great stuff about it. I'm proud to have it in my collection! It trully is a great movie.

I'll have to watch it one more time to get a good reply on this movie though

[Morticia]

Originally posted by dvds'r'us
I'm tardy!



First off, I would like to congratulate myself for watching this film after having it sit on my shelf for over 4 months. I don't know why I didn't watch this blind purchase earlier.

Second, Damn! Jodie Foster is HOT!

Third, I'd like to say that Taxi Driver is now a top 10 film of mine!

There's my report! now where's my grade...

dvds'r'us! Thanks for coming to class, tardy or no!
And I'm glad you watched it.....

Any other observations rather than the Jodie Foster comment? I realize it's your first viewing and first Film Class, but just thought I'd dig for more detail....your grade will depend on more detail .

And twistedbydesign -- same goes for you! I totally understand about the multi-viewing for comprehension . It'll be cool to hear from you about this movie later.

[Bhist]

Originally posted by Scarface
Excellent analysis Triple HHH. 'Taxi Driver' is my second favourite Scorsese picture, with 'Raging Bull' being my first.

I saw this film in the theater when it first opened. It was a breakthrough film especially with the graphic violence. I almost had to leave the theater during the final bloodbath. Remember, this is around 1976 and the audience was being exposed to stuff not seen before.

Scorsese is one of my favorite directors. I strongly recommend the dvd, "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies" where he discusses his all time favorites (of course one of them being my favorite, "The Searchers).

But, my favorite Scorsese film is "Kundun" written by Melissa Mathison which covers the life of the 14th Dalai Lama through his escape to India.

[Icon769]

I also thought the ending might have just been in Travis' mind. The part I didn't get though was when it looked like he wanted to shoot the senetor. Why would he do that?

[Marq]

So here I am digging through all my old university papers, and I came across a lil' essay I did on Taxi Driver a few years back. I figured, what better place to share these long ago developed interpretations and opinions than here in Film Class! So here it is, and I haven't read it in a few years, so paron anything that sounds out of date. It's long enough, so no need to read it all or anything, just thought I'd throw it out there for any and all and myself to see.

Thematic Elements of Taxi Driver

Perhaps the most important and definitive American film of the 1970s and beyond, is Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese, working from Paul Schrader’s intense script, creates a powerfully poignant film set within the harrowing New York City streets that are home to Travis Bickle, the ultimate anti-hero. Released in 1976, Taxi Driver touches on many themes, centrally loneliness and violence. Both thematic elements end up contributing to Travis Bickle’s altered perceptions, hatred, vicious obsessions, and his overall unbalanced mind-state. Many more themes exist within the film, but the primary thematic elements of Taxi Driver are violence and especially loneliness.

“Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere.
In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere.
There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man.”

The above quote, taken from Travis Bickle’s inner thoughts, emphasizes the film’s overriding theme of loneliness. Taxi Driver’s screenwriter Paul Schrader has said that “[Taxi Driver’s] theme was loneliness, or as I realized later, self-imposed loneliness” (Taubin, 10). Travis Bickle leads a life of insomnia, desperation, and confusion, all contributing to his perceived personality being shy but is one actually filled with rage, anxiety, and by the film’s conclusion, destructive violence. As shown by Bickle’s above quote, he is able to recognize his surroundings and his situational loneliness but he will not be able to control the denouement of his repressed life.

The fact that Travis chooses to become a taxi driver reinforces his solitude. By choosing a job where one is so tightly confined by the car doors and the monotony of faceless passengers, Travis is only feeding his psychosis by inhabiting such close space with the “night-buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies. Sick. Venal” people that he has grown to hate so much By working nights in the dirtiest parts of town, Travis is isolating himself from humanity. Despite his seemingly passive demeanor, his choices throughout the movie will not only emphasize his loneliness, but also contribute to his increasingly irrational state of mind.

Film critic Roger Ebert also makes mention of Taxi Driver as having a center focusing on “utter aloneness... the film can be seen as a series of [Travis’] failed attempts to connect, every one of them hopelessly wrong” (Ebert 2000). It is worthwhile to examine one especially strong failed attempt in order to better understand Scorsese and Schrader’s meticulous portrayal of loneliness.

Travis’ alienation with society and its rules is best exemplified during his surprising date with Betsy. Travis ends up taking Betsy to a porno movie for their date. Shocking as this may seem to Betsy, and the viewer, Travis sees nothing wrong in his behaviour. During his bouts with insomnia, Bickle actually makes a habit of going to these pornographic movies by himself as a form of entertainment (although we never actually see him really ‘enjoy’ them. He simply goes because he knows no other options for distraction). Since his only real interaction is with himself, lonely entertainment has sabotaged the rare chance he actually had for a respectable relationship with another person.

The unbearable isolation that Travis feels after his failed human interaction is painfully emphasized in his subsequent apologetic phone call to Betsy. Travis, is desperately pleading to Betsy for some understanding but as the conversation carries, the camera tracks away from Travis. In a most symbolic exercise, the camera moves from the action and comes to a slow stop on an empty hallway about ten feet from Travis. We still hear his phone conversation, but the viewer is left to stare at the desolate corridor, indicating how empty Travis truly is. The abandonment that Bickle feels is exemplified by the now motionless camera seemingly staring at ‘nothing’. “Looking at this image, we get a sense of the way everything inside Travis freezes when Betsy rejects him” (Taubin, 47). The director of the film, Martin Scorsese reinforces the importance of this scene by stating, “that was the first shot I thought of in the film, and it was the last I filmed. I like it because I sensed that it added to the loneliness of the whole thing” (Thompson & Christie, 54).

The loneliness felt by Travis Bickle in this failed attempt at connection serves as fuel for Travis’ increasing rage. Despite the implications that loneliness, alienation and isolation might create a sympathetic character, Travis is, at heart, a deviant. Marie K. Connelly argues, in her writings on Scorsese, that “anyone who has ever felt he or she has said the wrong thing, anyone who has ever felt ill at ease socially, anyone who has ever felt lonely, anyone who has merely felt anxious as a result of spending the day at home having too much time to worry - can relate to Travis’ experience at this level” (Connelly, 38). Although Travis does show some relateably sheepish qualities from a lack of social skills, it hardly makes him a sympathetic character at all. The alert viewer would recognize being misled to sympathize with Travis and his definitive violence at the end of the film. Rather, Travis remains a product of his underground lifestyle. As a consequence of this lonely life, violence becomes his answer.

While violence can be seen as a plot element rather than a theme, for Travis violence is a state of mind, an answer to his woes, and an alternate reality to persue. After being brushed off by Betsy, Travis immediately begins a fetish for violence. The next passenger that Travis drives in his taxi is fast-talking paranoid husband who alludes to ghastly violent paybacks on his cheating wife and her lover. The explicit diatribe by the passenger seems to startle Travis but what he is hearing actually “refers to the bad thoughts in his head, the thoughts he can’t bring himself to put into words - leaving him in the end no choice but to put them into action. Travis is a classic case of the repressed returning as apocalypse.” (Taubin, 50). The alienation that Travis Bickle feels is the root of his increasingly violence-focused mind-set.

“The days move along in an endless chain, one day
indistinguishable from the next... And now there is change”

The change that Bickle is referring to is the newly formed obsession for violent release he feels. He decides to purchase some guns in what is “the most stunning example of gun fetishism in the history of cinema” (Taubin, 53). With several guns now in his possession, Travis is prepared to enact his rage on the Senator whom Betsy was campaigning for. During the preparation, the two themes of loneliness and violence combine for what is the most recognized and quoted scene of the film. The scene involves Travis talking to his mirror image while aiming the guns that are strapped to his body. The dialogue includes: “you talkin’ to me?... Who you talkin’ to?... Are you talkin’ to me?” and especially the line “...Well, I’m the only one here”. Roger Ebert considers this final line to be the truest words in the film (Ebert 2000). The image of a shirtless Bickle practicing drawing on himself in the mirror emphasizes the dialogue as the absolute thematic element of Taxi Driver. Travis Bickle, so lonely as to be communicating with himself in his desolate room, while also realizing the power of his weapons, allows the viewer to sense that Travis has made the connection that his loneliness will cease to exist through planned violent behaviour.

While Travis’ planned assassination of the Senator does not materialize, the concluding scene of the film is his violent apocalypse in response to repression [see endnote 1]. On a mission to “save” a young prostitute, Iris [see endnote 2], Travis puts his subconscious homicidal fantasies into action. During a brutal shoot-out in darkened hallways, staircases, and bedrooms, the climax of the film is also Travis’ climactic release. Using all the gunplay he’d practiced with the mirror, bloodshed erupts because, for Travis, anxiety can be eradicated only by death (Taubin, 72). Travis is overwhelmed by what he has done, and feels isolated from the carnage he has caused. Just as the camera represented his loneliness while he pleaded with Betsy on the phone, the camera again works to reinforce the themes of the film. A slow overhead tracking shot encapsulates the culmination of the massacre, taking in images of dead bodies, used guns, and bloodied walls and floors, while at the same time embodying Travis’ disassociation with all that has happened.

The film’s last minutes give the anti-hero a moment of gratification through Travis’ becoming a tabloid hero for saving the young prostitute from a life in hell, and also by coincidentally encountering Betsy, and in effect having the last laugh (in that Betsy now slightly admires his deed). However, the final seconds of the film remind the viewer that there is no catharsis for Travis. We see him alone in his taxi, driving in the same grimy neighbourhoods, completely alone. The denouement of violence has finally happened for Travis, but our last image before the end crdits roll, -is of him giving a paranoid stare at himself in his front rear-view mirror as a musical note is distorted on the soundtrack. We are strongly reminded of the moment he decided to “change” and practiced his gunplay, also in front of a mirror. A life of loneliness and violence is far from over for Travis Bickle. A cycle of hatred, altered perceptions, alienation can only continue for this character.

Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader, along with Robert DeNiro, combined the create a masterful study of the lonely, alienated American male and the violent lengths he will go to in order appease his incurable mind-set.


[endnote 1] - a murder of a corner-store customer between the planned Senator assassination and the final massacre acts as a bridge between violent outbursts, but there is no implication of Travis having planned the incident. Rather it is a primer for his final release.

[endnote 2] - Iris is a very important character in the film. While not discussed much in this essay, she exists to further Travis’ anger at the ‘scum’ of New York (primarily Iris’ pimp, Sport), and as motivation for another theme of the film: Travis’ obsession with saving (via violence) of others.

[MrTony]

Originally Posted by Icon769

I also thought the ending might have just been in Travis' mind. The part I didn't get though was when it looked like he wanted to shoot the senetor. Why would he do that?

I was the one who originally suggested in this thread that the ending may have happened in Travis' mind. The funny thing is that I no longer agree with this. My theory of the ending is now more in line with what Marq wrote in his terrific essay - Travis is a ticking time bomb and he will blow again.

I watch this movie every couple of months now and it resonates more deeply every time. I don't think I'll ever get remotely tired of it or stop finding new things in it.

[SephirothClone]

Bloody hell, late as always. Since I am so late I dont have much to say on the movie because everyone pretty much summed it up (Marq... very very cool). But Taxi Driver to me is honestly the single greatest film I have ever seen. I have gone through the movie just stunned at the complexity of the character of Travis Bickle. He has so much hate as destructive energy to the point where Bobby actually makes the viewer open his/her eyes and see this character as whatever he/she wants to interpret. To me Travis was a super hero, maybe not with powers or anything, but a super hero of humanity.

BEST. MOVIE. EVER.