Posted: 1/25/2005 10:57:02 PM EDT
| I must have missed something while watching this last night. It is the first time I had ever seen it in it's entirety. Why did Travis want to kill Palantine? Was it just because of Betsy or was it because of something that happened in the cab? And why did he try to kill himself after "saving" Iris? |
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Travis Bickle Although we become well acquainted with Travis throughout Taxi Driver, his mental instability makes his actions unpredictable, and although Travis seems sympathetic, we never fully understand him. Travis is never part of the normal world. Though he initially wants to fit in and to be like other people, he is too mentally ill to act normally. Even at his best, at the beginning of the film, he can't sleep, drinks heavily, pops pills, and spends his mornings in porn theaters. After Betsy rejects him, Travis becomes hysterical, violent, and obsessive, and from here descends into madness. He loses all self-awareness and deludes himself into believing that shooting a presidential candidate and then shooting himself is a heroic gesture. Travis changes from a wounded man into a hardened one, testing our sympathies and distancing himself through violence. Young Iris prevents Travis from turning into a monster by giving him a reason to look at the world outside himself. Even as Travis plots his heroic act of violence, he worries about how to save Iris. He believes he has cut himself off from all worldly feelings and that he is just training to be a soldier, but his concern for Iris suggests otherwise. Travis's many contradictions make him one of the great characters in film history. We never learn exactly what happened to Travis during Vietnam, and the rest of his past remains unexplored, so there's no way to explain why Travis has become the way he is. His war experiences must have influenced his character, acquainting him with violence and helping to turn him into a killer. Travis's anger wouldn't be so frightening if he wasn't able to transform himself into a warrior so efficiently. When Travis goes to kill Palantine, he sports a new Mohawk haircut. The 101st Airborne paratroopers made this a popular haircut for American soldiers to wear into combat when they flew in on D-Day in World War II, and Travis's Mohawk shows the influence of his experience in the army on his character. Travis has also been influenced by his parents and his upbringing, though we never catch any glimpses of this past. His obsession with and disgust for all things sexual are surely rooted in early experiences, and his many comments about destiny or being chosen by God suggest that he may have had a religious upbringing as Scorsese and Schrader did. We know little about Travis outside of his taxi, and he remains a mystery. |
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I remember he wore a "nomex" aviator's jacket with patches on it? indicating he must have served with a Marine aviation wing or flight crew during the Vietnam war? the jacket was a nomex flyer's jacket often worn by helicopter pilots and armor crews, the back had the name: "Bickle" stenciled on it does anybody remember the unit patches on Travis Bickle's flight jacket? that may give a clue what he did in the Marines? when he applied for the Taxi driver job he said he was in the Marines. |
 This reminds me of a intro to psych final I had years ago. Prof handed out a 20 page test. First page: 1. What? When I left 2 minutes into the test there were people that were starting their second and third pages of answer. As for why, it was in the SCRIPT!!!!! Its a MOVIE!!! |
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When I was in med school, one of the Psychiatry professors said that Taxi Driver was the best case-study of someone going insane that he had ever seen. This prof was a pretty sharp guy. First, he got a Ph.D. in physics, then went to med school and into Psychiatry. His area of expertise was neurotransmitter/brain physiology stuff. He had no use for the therapy and Freudian crap. |
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In the very beginning (about 6-7 mins into the film), Travis picks up a fare that brings in a prostitute, who tells her something to the effect of "I'll tip you well if you do the right things". I think that was Senator Palantine and of course, Travis, with his warped sense of morality, decided to bring the "true rain" to the Senator, despite his feigned amiability when the Senator came into his cab later in the film (remember he had already been dismissed as a pervert by Betsy, so there was no real reason to react favorably to anything associated with her). That's what it seems like to me, anyway. YMMV |
I did not realize that it was Palantine that got in with the hooker. It makes sense now. I know he was crazy and unpredictable but without that piece of info it seemed like he just did it to get back at Betsy. |
This is all interesting information and a lot of it was included in the extras on the collector's edition dvd. After actually seeing the whole movie and realizing how much depth there is to this character I'd be interested to see them make that rumored sequel. |