Travis is psychotic? I'm not so sure

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2005)

Travis is certainly alienated. He has no power in his role as a cabbie. All he can do is interact as a subordinate with all of the characters he meets along the way. He listens to them, and is stunned by their mealy-mouthed excuses for why they don't use the power they have in life. This is particularly well illustrated by Scorsese's own role as the jilted husband, and Travis's reaction is that of well hidden disgust. This guy is going to travel in a cab to watch the window and not do anything? It's pathetic. Actually he's there to talk to the cabbie, to stand on the shoulders of a subordinate to bolster his injured ego. The politician near the end is another example of all talk and no action, ego gratification. Travis sees so much vanity and evil on his travels that he finally decides that he's going to do something about it. He's not psychotic, and he isn't insane. He's just reached the breaking point of passivity. He's been lumbered with the passivity of others, and has had passivity enforced upon him by his job. He commits mutiny in order to choose good. He breaks the law in order to become the law. He reflects upon his position (the mirror scene) and is willing to sacrifice himself for the welfare of others, something no other character in the film is prepared to do. The rescue scene at the end is virtually a fairy tale setting, the rescue of an imprisoned princess from the evil pretender to the throne (the pimp). I believe that Travis is indeed a hero, not a man descending into psychosis. He triumphs over the neurosis handed to him on a daily basis by his superiors (employers) and becomes a man capable of choice. It's all about free will, and the ability to choose good, even though the path to good may involve fighting evil with violence. This film is about the weakness and sickness of a falsehood : "pacifism is the moral high-ground". It is not. One must commit to one's beliefs. Another fantastic thing is that at the end he's broken the law, and committed murder, but the system is so passive that they uphold him as a hero in the newspaper. Yet Travis is still just a cabbie, and he doesn't take it seriously. He doesn't need the approval of others. He's realised that he doesn't need anything from anybody, and is no longer alone, he's self-sufficient.