"I got some bad ideas in my head"

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2019)

Taxi Driver is the kind of movie that totally blurs the line between fiction and reality; because it is built into realistic premises it is almost impossible to watch it without getting a familiar feeling from it. Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) is a lonely man in a big city; he's a war veteran suffering from insomnia. Becoming a cabbie was a way to pass the time. It's important to notice that he's a man that has no significant bonds with the surrounding society; actually, he loathes the society around him. As a taxi driver he's everywhere in the city, he's a part of it, but at the same time he seems to be stuck in his own world - he drives all kinds of people around, but he has ties with no one. Even the other cabbies are not really people he can count on, they're just part of the engine.Travis is stuck in a big city, nurturing some kind of revolt against it; he clearly despises the things he sees, with an emphasis on the many distinct social groups he observes during his shift - "All the animals come out at night [...]. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this sc** off the streets". It's interesting though that Travis seems to be aware that living a life apart from everything is not the ideal; despite his judgemental stance towards society, he also devotes himself to reflect upon his very existence as a part of it - "All my life needed was a sense of direction, a sense of someplace to go. I do not believe one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, but should become a person like other people". However, he seems to lack the basic understanding of how social interactions work; that can be observed for the first time in his failed attempt to talk with the concession girl, a very inappropriate thing to considering he was about to watch a adult movie. Travis' habit of watching adult movies seems to be a plot device to show us how astray from common sense he was - considering attending to erotic movies is actually a taboo. When Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) is introduced in the story we see that almost instantly Travis develops some sort of obsession towards her; the idea he makes of her, in his head, seems to be enough to put her above everyone - "She appeared like an angel out of this open sewer. Out of this filthy mass. She is alone: They cannot touch her". He approaches her in a rather appropriate way at first; he's sincere about his intentions and she seems to be somewhat interested in the weird man asking her out. The initial rendezvous seems to be rather normal, but Betsy makes an almost prophetic remark about him - "No, no. Just the part about the contradictions. You are that." Later on, Travis takes Betsy to the same movie theater he usually goes to, to see the same type of movies he usually does - naturally she feels engrossed by it and leaves. Travis is unable to understand why she would be angry, why she would be disgusted, which only goes to show how of a dysfunctional human he is. Afterwards he keeps trying to approach her, but she keeps rejecting him; his infatuation towards her seems to turn into anger - "I realize now how much she is like the others, so cold and distant. Many people are like that. They're like a union" - some sort of anger that seems to be directed to society itself. Being rejected by the only person he seemed to value in the whole city, having no other people to count on, without a sense of direction, it's obvious his mental health would deteriorate even faster. Being alone is not something easy, especially when you're surrounded by people; Travis convinces himself that he is fated to be lonely - "Loneliness has followed me all my life. The life of loneliness pursues me wherever I go: in bars, cars, coffee shops, theaters, stores, sidewalks. There is no escape. I am God's lonely man". Scorsese comments on how urban centers can be damaging to a person using a taxi driver, someone who has an ambivalent relationship with the city and its people, as a plot device. Society is a complex thing, and also oppressive - even when you're out of it, you're actually in and if you do not learn how to fit it will consume you. Scorsese doesn't try to portrait Travis as some sort of hero, in fact his disabilities are what really get highlited, he tried to portrait a sick person. Ultimately, Travis resorts to extreme actions just for the sake of being noticed by the world around him - "Listen you screwheads: Here is a man who wouldn't take it any more, a man who stood up against the sc**m, the c***ts, the dogs, the filth. Here is...". And in the end, when everything seems to get back to normal, society finally notices him - but ignores totally everything that served as a backup for what he's done. This movie will never really get old due to the realistic nature of the plot; 'tis highly relatable, but at the same time I personally view it as a warning. People can be time bombs and we never know when they'll blow. Theres a bit of Travis in each one of us and that's why we should be careful to not get bad ideas in our heads.

I want to praise the amazing soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann; not only it is atmospheric it is also very memorable. The movie wouldn't feel the same without it. Sadly he died right after completing the recording sessions, but his soundtrack remains one of the best things I've ever heard in my life - and I think that is for many others.