Overrated 70's flim-flam, doesn't resonate today. But it does capture the mood of a time and place - New York City at its lowest point, when cities were considered "dangerous"...
Yep and mostly it's because how loneliness is approached, Travis is somehow the master of his loneliness he knows he is lonely he just bases his life on this fact and carries on.
I wouldn't say he mastered it. I would say his rampage begins when he realized that he failed. I forget which critic said it, but Travis is lonely, because he has no idea how to connect with people and fails at it. He reaches out to Cybil Sheppard and fails. He tries to reach out to the Wizard and fails. He's lonely because he's completely cut off from other people. The person he feels most at ease with is a child.
Overrated 70's flim-flam, doesn't resonate today. But it does capture the mood of a time and place - New York City at its lowest point, when cities were considered "dangerous"...
New York city was far more dangerous from 1981-1990 than 1971-1980. The crack years were more dangerous than the heroin years.
I wouldn't say he mastered it. I would say his rampage begins when he realized that he failed. I forget which critic said it, but Travis is lonely, because he has no idea how to connect with people and fails at it. He reaches out to Cybil Sheppard and fails. He tries to reach out to the Wizard and fails. He's lonely because he's completely cut off from other people. The person he feels most at ease with is a child.
Just to add to your point, Travis treats the whore like a lady and the lady like a whore, taking her to a porno movie Dude was clueless. Great movie, among my all time faves.
By the way, if you don't know Paul Schrader, the writer based Travis Bickle on Arthur Bremer, the assassin who wanted to kill either George Wallace or Richard Nixon and succeeded in paralyzing Wallace. Schrader read Bremer's diaries while working on the script.
Quote:
It was March of 1972 when Bremer began his diary. Increasingly lonely, he dreamed of getting attention through assassination. "'Now I start my diary of my personal plot to kill by pistol either Richard Nixon or George Wallace,'" he wrote in his first entry. Nixon was a divisive figure, and Wallace's segregationist politics had engendered violence since his first Alabama gubernatorial campaign ten years earlier. But Bremer was not concerned with politics. His plot stemmed from his desire "'to do SOMETHING BOLD AND DRAMATIC , FORCEFULL & DYNAMIC, A STATEMENT of my manhood for the world to see.'"
I wouldn't say he mastered it. I would say his rampage begins when he realized that he failed. I forget which critic said it, but Travis is lonely, because he has no idea how to connect with people and fails at it. He reaches out to Cybil Sheppard and fails. He tries to reach out to the Wizard and fails. He's lonely because he's completely cut off from other people. The person he feels most at ease with is a child.
Well he has lost touch because of his war experiences, it's natural that he cannot connect to ordinary people. He is always on the outside looking in and that's why he is pissed at everyone cause as a Taxi driver he has observed people and witnessed everything going to shit. As an alienated war veteran he does not have any problem with killing people who think deserve to die to get what he wants.
Well he has lost touch because of his war experiences, it's natural that he cannot connect to ordinary people. He is always on the outside looking in and that's why he is pissed at everyone cause as a Taxi driver he has observed people and witnessed everything going to shit. As an alienated war veteran he does not have any problem with killing people who think deserve to die to get what he wants.
That's a reading you're bringing to it. The movie only tells us he was a Marine in Vietnam. We really don't know anything about him other than what we see on screen. We don't even know how he winds up in New York.
It also brings up the question of the last scene when he reunites with Cybil Sheppard. Is that real? Is that a dream? Lots of people think that scene is a dream Travis has while dying after his rampage.
That's a reading you're bringing to it. The movie only tells us he was a Marine in Vietnam. We really don't know anything about him other than what we see on screen. We don't even know how he winds up in New York.
It also brings up the question of the last scene when he reunites with Cybil Sheppard. Is that real? Is that a dream? Lots of people think that scene is a dream Travis has while dying after his rampage.
Well yes everything I have been saying about the movie has been my interpretation, thought we were exchanging ideas here. The last scene could very well be his last thoughts, it would be a better ending in my opinion this way.
Well yes everything I have been saying about the movie has been my interpretation, thought we were exchanging ideas here. The last scene could very well be his last thoughts, it would be a better ending in my opinion this way.
My point is we don't know if lost touch with reality because of his experience in Vietnam and there's nothing in the movie to support that.
He could have lost touch before he got in the army and it only manifested when he got out and he didn't know what to do with himself. We don't know if he was in combat or he worked as unloading ships. He is a cipher.
My point is we don't know if lost touch with reality because of his experience in Vietnam and there's nothing in the movie to support that.
He could have lost touch before he got in the army and it only manifested when he got out and he didn't know what to do with himself. We don't know if he was in combat or he worked as unloading ships. He is a cipher.
Damn you are boring man, keen to put the discussion out
I just looked at the trailer and remembered that I used to work near the diner he takes Cybil Sheppard to. Also I had a friend who was convinced that when he ordered apple pie with a slice cheddar cheese on top, it was supposed to indicate he was insane and she should run out of there. I said I think it supposed to indicate he's not from New York.
I just looked at the trailer and remembered that I used to work near the diner he takes Cybil Sheppard to. Also I had a friend who was convinced that when he ordered apple pie with a slice cheddar cheese on top, it was supposed to indicate he was insane and she should run out of there. I said I think it supposed to indicate he's not from New York.
I'm not from New York so what's the deal with the cheddar topping? Although it does not sound like a good idea to me either.
Re: Taxi driver
Dude was clueless. Great movie, among my all time faves.
