Travis Bickle – Taxi Driver
Robert De Niro’s “you talkin’ to me?” speech from Taxi Driver has been parodied in everything from The X Files to WWE commercials. I actually tried to count the exact number of times it’s been referenced, but stopped when the number reached 103. Didn’t want to seem lame or anything. Anyway, the point is that more people know this speech than know the date of the first moon landing. Yet surprisingly few people know the name of its orator – Travis Bickle.
Travis is a young veteran of the Vietnam War, who is home on honourable discharge and – to put it nicely – is having a little bit of trouble readjusting to civilian life. In order to cope with his chronic insomnia, he takes a job driving a NYC taxi to while away the hours but becomes increasingly disgusted by his experiences with the people of the city. He falls for Betsy, but then commits probably the worst second-date-venue-misjudgement in all of human history by taking her to a porn cinema (if he didn’t get a medal for bravery in the war, he deserves one for that). Increasingly paranoid and devastated by the loss of Betsy, Travis channels his depressed yet destructive impulses into becoming a latent vigilante, complete with an impressive arsenal of weaponry. Then he meets Iris – a child prostitute who he has seen occasionally while driving – and his ultimate mission is triggered, his campaign to rescue her swiftly becoming a murderous rampage that leaves three men dead and himself seriously wounded.
It is difficult to say whether or not Travis Bickle is really likeable. His reaction to the world around him is at least partially due to a mental illness, the effect of which is palpable throughout – yet the shoot-out we can only really summarize by saying that never before has anyone had more fun in a brothel. But however misguided Travis’ actions may be, there is no doubt that he is weirdly noble. His attack is on the right sort of people, his attempts to apologize to Betsy are touching, and when it comes to Iris his intentions could not have been more genuinely honourable.
Overall, Travis is someone with values so strong that he is prepared (well – pretty keen, actually, if we’re honest) to kill people to defend them – but he is also a lonely man with few social skills and little hope in the world. He is not just a criminal and a hero – he is also an underdog. And that, in the movie world of shady heroes, I’m pretty sure is a hat-trick.
