Travis Bickle thinks he's Shane

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2000)

Travis Bickle *is* Shane, only instead of living in the mythical old West, he lives in a real New York City where the separation of good and evil is not nearly so clear. Both Travis and Shane come from a violent past of which we never really get to learn anything about. They yearn for women they can't have, they recklessly venture to dangerous places, they find moral strength in the eyes of a child. They would like to start a new chapter in their life and leave the violence behind, but they both find that impossible as a final confrontation results in a classic shoot-out.
When Shane in the rancher's bar says "you speakin' to me?", it is an obvious villain who answers him "I don't see nobody else standing there". When Travis Bickle asks this question, he answers himself. The real world does not have obvious villains. Having been through a war and living in the hard reality of New York City, Bickle has completely lost the ability to understand the ways in which society can tolerate some evils while refusing to accept others. Good and evil become clear only when the world is seen through his delusions. Believing he has recognized evil, he is now capable of becoming good. Unlike Shane, however, his tormenters come entirely from within and cannot be slain with simple violence. Welcome to the real world.