Brief Analysis on "Taxi Driver"

Disclaimer - *The following post can is variable to Human Perception and may differ accordingly. Your feedback, comments are welcome* 

Well, if ever there was a story told about Loneliness- Taxi Driver would be in the top 10 list of those stories. Over the time – as you will read further down, this word will appear again and again… and again, for it is this word that drove the entire movie from the beginning till the end. Everything else, plot, events etc. was a result of this nature of the protagonist. 

Let’s talk of the first scene – you see a LONELY man, suffering from Insomnia – in a strange city. He has not a single soul to talk to, I barely find him talking to people in the entire movie – except for the odd times where probably Martin can’t help avoiding any other character to take the movie forward. Literally, when you don’t have anyone to talk to- when the entire night you are driving random couples, half of which, make your cab their bedroom – when every morning before giving back the keys you have to clean up the cum and the blood, you can’t help but hate it. Rather, I should use the term Loathe.  

Here’s a man – who drives all night and tries his best to sleep in the porno theater. What is noticeable is that you never find Travis turned on, by those visuals, they don’t affect him. But a couple of words with the attender at the theater who would sell him gums and pop corns – makes him happy. What does it say? Maybe – that he is living within, and everything out there in the real world is un-real. Un-real, in the terms that he isn’t involved. He is a mere taxi driver- running around with the meter, getting paid for dropping off the residents of this small world to their destinations. What also strikes me is the fact that – Also, put in words by Ashok Sir- is the uses of metaphors that were made in the film.

Let’s start –

Biggest metaphor that I noticed – was the Taxi itself. It stands for Fate, characters come and go, they tell Travis, where they have to go, but barely notice the journey(Life). Either they are too busy fucking inside the cab(having sex would not fit) or they are too busy planning the election portfolio or killing their wives. But it’s only Travis who sees the dirt outside, everywhere and he prays for a rain to come and wash away. This takes me to another metaphor of the rain – Raining not in sense of water, but Blood. Many a times, it has been foreshadowed, “Someday a REAL rain will come and wash all the scum off the street”.  Travis is the cleaner of the dirt – he cleans his own world, his own cab, another foreshadowing element that he shall be the One to clean the outside world also. Notice how the first time taxi’s windscreen is drenched in the rain – it’s cleaned by the wiper, but not everytime. We see a blurred view of everything outside until we see it from Travis’s eyes.

But here’s where the conflict arises. How can a taxi-driver fight? He is JUST a taxi-driver. Someone who can’t even say it out himself, that he is down and lonely and he needs help. “I have got some BAD ideas in my head”.  His alter ego – talks to him via different characters. Wizard – who believes to be knowing everything about the world- but does he – another image of God, we all know he knows a lot, never doubt God’s skill, but well, haven’t seen any authentic proof. Wizard says that a man takes a job and then he becomes what is done to him by this job. 

There’s a conflict of Destiny, fate vs Self-made man. But then, it is the same man who says “Do anything” – and after all that lecture- “It doesn’t make any sense to me” . Loneliness being the pre-dominant theme extends to all the characters that we see in the movie. Be it Travis, or Betsy or Iris or Wizard. Everyone is caught in there trap of comatose destiny. Betsy is lonely – and a typical middle class girl (as Mohit Sir said- Chalu) – she is lonely enough to flirt like a dumb with tom, accept a date with a stranger taxi driver- react with a smile when he hints of inviting himself over to her house(to listen to the record)  – but at the same time – she is educated enough in Middle class morality to go out screaming when it turns out to be a dirty movie, and never give him a chance again. Let’s talk more about this:

Dada believed that – He is a psychotic person- who took her to watch a xx movie, not something that you would want to impress a date with. Mohit sir voted in favour of travis. Aren’t they both right? 

Well, Travis – he doesn’t know anything better- here is a man who drives around red areas at night and sleeps in Porn movie theaters during the day. In the entire movie, he hasn’t shown a single expression of excitement by looking at the flesh – maybe he has seen too much.

Betsy – She is a girl – like any other- She is supposed to get angry at all of this.

Martin puts it out plainly for the Audience – “We’re just different”  

Another metaphor that strikes is the use of the word – “Killer, Copper” and the signs of two fingers and thumb shooting at Travis through the entire movie. Be it  the Wizard or the Dough or the Charlie T – everyone is pointing at him, maybe to intimidate or maybe to point at his inner self or maybe to announce it to him that – you are sitting at the gunpoint- you are supposed to do what is being offered to you. No wonder – he blows off the index finger and the thumb and thanks to Tom, we all know, how difficult it is to light a match without it.

At another instant – another one of his Alter Ego – is brought into the light. When the Suit guy, asks him pull over and puts all of Travis’s thoughts into words, be it his fear and hatred of Black people(whom he believes and sees everywhere on drugs) or be the fate that should be bestowed upon all of them. Here’s another moment when the story is foreshadowed by its own element – when it subtly wakes up the “I will make my own fate” guy in him. Story from there is another fight of how he prepares his own self, and prepares for the surrounding events happenings around him.

Another metaphor – is a 20$ bill, which has been bothering his conscience – it’s symbolizing dirt and the filth Travis is troubled by all the while, and he returns/uses it to the same dirt. He is ashamed of having accepted it, but it keeps him motivated and his hatred alive for that scum.

Images on the television is another example of Metaphor. Here’s a device that has the ability to penetrate the lives of other people out there and on the other hand there’s a lonely man – who is dying to fill in that space – He hates it – he envies the characters that live a life on that set. He wants to kill each and every one of them, pointing a .44 while watching a tv towards the Tv, is a bit eerie otherwise.

Remember that empty pair of shoes he sees when the band playing jazz music scene is on.

Why did he want to kill the Palentine candidate?

I have two answers – he took him, for lack of a better word,  as a personal and professional enemy. Now, interesting thing about lonely people is that – they get attached to the smallest living entity that does them good or even worse, pays attention to them, for eg – Porn Movie Theater. In the same category, Betsy stayed for a while. Mr Palentine – was someone she talked highly about, her FATE. He even supported him for the sake of getting a shot at Betsy(I won’t blame him for that) – And then when things with Betsy(his ornament denying Loneliness is ripped apart) doesn’t work out, he becomes from a Good man to a bad man, leader of the scum who like everyone else – wants a piece of pie without paying for it. Well, he is got to die. Also, we find Travis, ready and “confident” enough for the massacre, now more than before when he realizes/tests/scrutinizes that Secret service is positioned with him.

This now brings me to the final end - 

Was it justified?

Well, let’s use pointers

-          He cleaned the scum

-          He made his own destiny

-          He helped change Iris’s destiny

-          He became a hero

-          He got in touch with Betsy again

It’s ambiguous.

The answer to this lies in the shot before the final scene – remember how the director uses a Floating shot when he shows all three antagonists murdered.  I can bet a thousand bucks, Martin shot it from Travis’s soul’s POV. Why?

Well, answer would come if you are aware of something called Tibetan book of the Dead – which talks about the cycle of Soul, after death and till it enters a new body to be born again as a baby.

The following three shots are typically the soul’s POV ( If anyone wants me to prove it, I shall do it personally- can’t type the entire book here)

Now I am not saying he is dead – but as far as it goes with me, it’s his final dream that he wanted to see- be a hero – not be lonely or Psychotic- it is a heaven that he has gone to.

Notice – apart from the following POVs that how he is no longer scared of Charlie, or the way Betsy just comes into his life or the honors received.

Notice – when cab moves away after dropping her off – her reflection is not seen in the cab’s back window. Yes, it’s seen inside only at Travis’s POV.

And in the last shot – that rearview mirror shuffles and even travis’s reflection is lost. And we see only the city.

A clean city. Washed. 

No Reflection in the mirror - Reflection lost - When it's not Travis POV.