Taxi Driver has been on my watchlist for a very long time (like, years) and I finally got around to watching it yesterday. I’m currently wrapping up one of the handful of psychology classes I’m going to have to take for my major (I’m majoring in social work) and our final module project involves analyzing a character from a listed movie as well as their suspected mental illness. Besides Taxi Driver, there was also Girl, Interrupted (which I have also been wanting to watch). I picked Taxi Driver not only because I’ve been really wanting to watch it for the longest time but also because I thought schizotypal personality disorder would be fun to write about. I could’ve picked Girl, Interrupted, but since I already highly suspect I have borderline personality disorder I felt that would make things too easy. So, why not pick something I’m not as familiar with?
I knew I was going to like Taxi Driver and feel something regarding Travis Bickle’s character, but I wasn’t expecting this movie to hit me this fucking hard. Is Travis a good person? Absolutely fucking not. There’s a reason why edgelord chud incels cling to him like he’s their messiah. He’s very clearly racist as well as misogynistic and homophobic to an extent. He’s very much flawed. However, I still couldn’t help but deeply relate to him. Basically, I’m Travis Bickle if he was a transgender man, a better person, and slightly more mentally stable. Yeah, I also feel an awful lot of contempt for society, especially the city I live in, but I wouldn’t go around killing people because of it. I guess on the bright side, at least Travis killed some pedophile pimps. Sport disgusted the fuck out of me, especially the scene with him and Iris. I felt a lot of empathy for Iris. I wanted that disgusting piece of shit Sport to die so fucking bad. The ending blew me the fuck away.
For a movie from the 1970s, it’s pretty violent. You can even hear the blood. The old man in the brothel building gets his fingers blown off and you can see the blood spurting everywhere. When a severely-wounded Travis leans against the couch and points a finger gun at his head, you can see blood dripping from his, well, very bloody finger. The same old guy who got his fingers blown off is then shot in the head and you can see the bloody mess all over the wall. The mafioso soliciting Iris at the time gets shot up and when he’s laying on the bed his face looks pretty bloody (unless that’s the cinematography, but he is bloody). Iris sobbing makes that scene hit harder, especially when you remember she’s just an innocent yet troubled child who’s had to be part of this mess. I felt so fucking bad for her.
Even though Travis is, like I said, not a good person in the slightest, I just couldn’t help but deeply resonate with the movie’s portrayal of mental illness, loneliness, and isolation. I see Taxi Driver as more of a tragedy than anything, especially because it’s insinuated that Travis’s violent cycle will only continue. Truly an incredible film and probably one of my favorites of all time. How do you explain Travis Bickle is one of your favorite media characters of all time and that you deeply relate to him without sounding like you just hate women and minorities?
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Fallen Rewind
On a scale of evil characters, he's not very high up there. Very low actually. It seems what really bothered you about him was his thoughts. He killed a robber, and some pimps. He gave some woman the ick, and tried to save a girl from sex trafficking.
It was more his thoughts, yes. That’s why I expressed that I liked the fact he killed pimps/pedophiles. I could go deeper but regarding Iris I believe that while there was some empathy there for sure, his actions were mostly a result of possibly narcissistic/antisocial behavior. He didn’t really have necessarily good intentions, just hated everything about the world around him and wanted to do something about it even if it meant something as extreme as murder. That doesn’t make him downright evil or the best person on earth in my opinion, but I still definitely don’t view him as someone to be idolized, though I relate to him to a certain extent. 👍 I do value your input, though.
by steven; ; Report
Who is saying they idolize him? And how do you think his character is narcissistic?
by Fallen Rewind; ; Report
I’ve seen a lot of people idolize him, particularly lonely men who also idolize characters like Patrick Bateman. And I would say Travis exhibits traits of NPD due to a lack of compassion/empathy for those around him (Iris can understandably be argued as a situation where Travis shows some empathy, but it still feels self-centered to me) and self-centeredness/having a savior complex and all that. I also interpreted the ending as a sort of “wish fulfillment” type of thing, that his encounter with Betsy and the letters from Iris’s parents represent Travis’s desire to be liked/given attention because of his misery with himself and his loneliness.
Again, I do not hate Travis, I just like to analyze. After all, I did say that I relate to him to some extent, probably as a result of my own mental health struggles.
by steven; ; Report
goat
taxi driver is such a phenomenal, and visceral movie for sure, one of my all time favs
imo, travis' deteriorating mental health has less to do with his social environment (though it certainly exacerbates things for him) and more to do with the ptsd and trauma that marines who served in vietnam came home with. in travis' case, he developed insomnia and couldn't sleep, spent his nights driving around and hence became the eponymous taxi driver.
btw - did you know that deniro is a method actor who is 100% committed with all of his roles? prior to filming on taxi driver, he lost 35lbs, acquired a hack license and spent a whole month doing 12hr shifts as a cabbie in nyc, just to prepare him for getting into character! :o
That is a good point! I’d say PTSD definitely plays a role in it. I’ve also seen people speculate that he could’ve had a bad family life based on the fictional letter he writes to his family, which makes sense in my opinion. Travis is a very fascinating character.
And I didn’t know that about Robert! Very impressive.
by steven; ; Report
his family could be a factor, but you don't get much that alludes to it really. also i think the letters are simply him not letting the people that are close to him get too close (e.g. bs about him being in the secret service instead of what is actually happening in his life)
btw, a few similar movies which you may also like
- nightcrawler (2014, starring jake gyllenhaal)
- fight club (1999, brad pitt, edward norton)
- jacob's ladder (1990, tim robbins)
:3
by goat; ; Report
That interpretation makes sense! And omg all those movies have actually been on my watchlist
by steven; ; Report