At a Glance: Taxi Driver

Rating: 10/10 (22 February 2011)

Giving this movie more than just a quick look should be named a mistake already. Through all of things it covers such as the Political Campaign to Sport and his girls, are only a small thought in the true Character study of Travis (De Niro). Its not really a day in the life of someone who's crazy, but a life of hardship and loneliness that has been brought to this very point the viewer is witnessing. If you watch the movie for more than ten minutes or review and try to get a better understanding you'll notice different details about what the movie is actually trying to display.
** SPOILERS **
The movie starts off in New York City where we first see Travis applying to be a night shift cab driver. He claims to not be able to sleep at night and drives around. Through the movie we evaluate how lonesome and anti-social he is by how many times he fails to befriend or make conversations with others. Through messing up a relationship with a woman working at campaign office, and other faults such as a murderous man in his cab, a teen aged prostitute, and the "Scum" observed on the streets, Travis slides deeper into a disturbed mental state which causes him to become violent and stand up against what he's finds wrong through the film. He attempts to assassinate the presidential candidate through the movie that Betsy supports because like Sport (Harvey Keitel) to Iris (Jodie Foster), he is a man holding her back from being set free or being with him.
**THE ENDING**
If you've seen the movie you would be aware of the ending that almost donned the film an X rating.
Iris is declared free and is sent back home to her family. (this is the only part of the ending we can actually call true)
Ending 1: The Viewers misunderstood, but emotionally well ending.
After the massacre Travis spends time healing in the hospital and is eventually released and named a Hero by the press. Iris's family give him thanks for rescuing her and being such a good person. Life returns to normal and he continues to drive his taxi, he picks up Betsy and a fare. Through confidence they speak and she is impressed by his actions, she asks how much and but he doesn't take her money. Travis is finally known and loved for protecting the girl and taking wrong doers off the streets. Accomplished. Driving off he views himself in the mirror, and a piercing noise dissuades his attention and his mirror gets moved trying to view something in the street. This ending could be called true by the possibility of a sequel in the works.
Ending 2: The Satisfying and perfect character study ending.
Through the film we watch Travis go from being a sort of normal guy just trying to get by, from the end he slips up and finds himself working between assassin and vigilante. We watch him kill the people holding Iris from living what would be a normal life, and see him being wounded in the process. As the police come in Travis his fingers to his head like a gun and you see when his head tilts back his eyes roll back. In film thats dignified as a characters death. Directly after the scene, we notice Travis's life has improved and he has been renown as a hero by the press, thanked by Iris's family, a good guy, and also confident to the woman he's been trying to get the entire movie. Travis finally has the satisfaction he's been looking for the whole time, but doesn't it seem like its happening rapidly together? In the film you have watched Travis's persona changing along with the character analysis. Knowing his goals the entire time you finally get to see them flourish, after the tone of the film changes entirely. To the Point where Travis tilts his head back, to where he adjusts his mirrors, your seeing his fantasy and fulfillment he was always wishing for. To be seen and noticed, as a hero or maybe even less. Travis is finding satisfaction in what isn't actually true, as his last dying thoughts. He doesn't notice something in the rear view mirror with a sharp noise, he vanishes from his sight because he isn't truly there. His life has ended and his fantasy has finished along with the film.
As the movie is a character study for insanity this ending would be perfect because you see him from his good descent to a vigilante to his last dying thoughts of love and being noticed he dreamed of. It makes the movie beautiful and worth all of the hype just to see, his character as detailed and deformed as it is. I can watch it over and over and notice something else every time.
The ending is haunting every time, no matter how you think about it because it leaves you with a 'what just happened'? If it means a sequel to find out what happened with fiction or reality, life or death for Travis. I Think i would rather keep the mystery