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On the morning of April 16, 2007, twenty-three year old South Korean
immigrant and student, Cho Seung-Hui began his day by coolly and calmly
shooting and killing two people in his dormitory. At about 10 am, Cho, with
his fifteen round magazine Glock and Walther .22-caliber pistol, proceeded
to make his way to a classroom building on the Virginia Tech campus. Over
the next two and a half hours Cho gunned down forty-five people before
turning the gun on himself. Thirty-three people were killed in the rampage.
In such instances the immediate public response is disbelief and anguish at
the senselessness waste of life. Why, becomes the emphatic and insatiable
question. In society’s mind Cho can only be rationalised and discounted as
a madman; yet ironically video footage taken by Cho himself, indicates that
he perceived himself as a hero; a modern day vigilante. The role of the
media and police is also bought into question: Cho recorded his last
moments and sent them to a television network, and the police had a record
of Cho previously stalking women on the campus. The 1976 movie Taxi
Driver is the story of just such a madman; a social misfit who undertakes an
explosive and senseless act of violence. The film, which was highly
controversial for its time, attempts to depict both the outer life and inner
workings of a psychopath.
By focusing on the protagonist Travis Bickle, and portraying and presenting
his perspectives on irrationality, violence and sexuality, the film exposes
insecure post-modern notions of both individual and communal identities
that continue to be polemic today. Taxi Driver is the story of a twenty-six
year old ex-Marine, Travis Bickle. Having left the Marines some time
previously and with no direction or purpose, Travis wanders into a
nameless city assumed to be New York. Alone and unable to sleep, he
takes a job driving taxis at night. Unlike the other drivers, Travis is unafraid
of the ‘nightlife’ and will take any customer anywhere they want to go.
Travis sees it all: prostitutes, queers, punks, pimps, spooks, drug addicts
and every type of vice, lawlessness and corruption. Against the backdrop of
blurred lights and dark wet streets, the film’s voiceover narration as Travis
writes in his journal, reveals his distaste of inner-city life: ‘someday a real
rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets’. Ironically, as Travis
weaves his taxi across the city landscape, he fails to recognise himself as
part of this inner-city world. In contrast to his meanderings at night, Travis
encounters Betsy, a worker in an election campaign for the Senator Charles
Palantine. Travis idolises Betsy, holding her up as a source of beauty and
redemption from the corruption that surrounds him. When romance with
Betsy fails, Travis becomes increasingly disillusioned with modern society
and his already disharmonious world becomes increasingly fragmented.
The director Martin Scorsese combines camera and editing techniques that
not only reflect Travis’ fragmented mind and perspectives but also illicit
audience sympathy and unease for Travis’ character. From the onset to the
closing scene, the audience is positioned to view the world as Travis sees
it, through the rear vision mirror or blurred windscreen of Travis’ taxi. Travis’
loneliness and isolation is encapsulated by his trapped and isolated position
within his taxi (Iannucci, 2005). Moreover, Scorsese's use of conventional
lap dissolves create not only the sense that Travis is drifting unbound by
time but also that his state of mind is continually unravelling and losing
rational perspective (Iannucci, 2005). Low angle and off-centre shots further
position the audience to view Travis as left of centre and not quite balanced
(Iannucci, 2005). At times Travis even moves completely out of frame
almost like a phantom. This gives the audience the impression that Travis is
not being seen or heard.
In one pivotal scene, after Travis’ attempts to get in contact with Betsy have
been repeatedly rejected, the camera tracks to the right and looks down an
empty hallway. The audience is unable to see Travis or witness his
rejection. This has the effect of heightening audience sympathy for Travis
who is understood to be out of sight and suffering in silence. Scorsese’s
filmic techniques simultaneously distance the audience from Travis and
create empathy for his character.
The aesthetics of the film could also be considered to construct Travis as
living in a post-modern world without God. In the opening scene his yellow
taxi emerges from steam rising up from the city street. The dispersion of
steam could be considered symbolic of the loss of spirituality in the modern
day metropolis, the evaporation of water suggestive of the disappearance of
redemption and salvation and indicative of 'a universe in which the True, the
Good and the Beautiful have not only lost their meaning but have
evaporated altogether' ( Swensen, 2001).
Swensen (2001) considers that the diegesis created in Taxi Driver is a
world in which the liberalism and individualism of the nineteenth century has
‘progressed’ into twentieth century indifference and solipsism. In this
spiritually bankrupt world people no longer congregate in churches but in
temples of the cinema (Swensen, 2001). Furthermore, in this world without
God, man’s inner sense of self, and right and wrong have been lost – only
the aspirations for something ideal and better remain (Swensen, 2001;
Mortimer, 1997). The notion that modern man lacks an inner conscience is
expressed by Travis when he attempts to joke with his employer that his
driving record is ‘as clean as his conscience’. Travis’s confusion about right
and wrong is also evidenced in his inability to realise that taking Betsy to a
porno movie is inappropriate. By portraying Travis as a man with no real
concept of God and with fluid post-modern definitions of right and wrong,
the audience is encouraged to view Travis as a man not entirely
accountable for his own actions.
Scorsese’s construction of Travis as an ex-Marine further suggests that
Travis is the cultural product of his nation and his nation’s circumstances.
Though there is no explicit evidence that Travis is a Vietnam veteran,
Scorsese and screenwriter Schrader have stated that language used by
Vietnam soldiers was deliberately incorporated (dramatica, 2006). At the
time of the film’s making, America’s embarrassment about the war meant
that no one wanted to speak openly about Vietnam; nevertheless, Vietnam
was very much on the mind of America and many commentators were quick
to make the association between Travis’ ex-Marine background and
America’s recent failure in the war (Iannucci, 2005).
Cook (1999, pp. 217-219) and Gorrige (1995) assert that Travis’s
sleeplessness and alienation are the consequence of his inability to
readjust after serving in Vietnam. Griffiths (2003, p. 34) further states, that
Travis is a Vietnam veteran still in Vietnam. Ray (1985, cited in Iannucci,
2003, p. 78) argues that Travis’s whole life story allegorises America’s
Vietnam campaign, which could be described as ‘isolationism followed by
violent and ultimately ineffective intervention’. Travis’ sleeplessness and
irrationality can further be interpreted as Post-Traumatic Syndrome, while
his violent actions can be seen as survival mechanisms learnt in the line of
duty (Iannucci, 2003, p. 84). Conceptualising Travis as a Vietnam veteran
suggests that Travis is traumatised by war and alienated by a country that
doesn’t want to talk about Vietnam (Graham, 2002, pp. 71 & 72). America’s
reluctance to consider anyone who returned from Vietnam a hero, adds
further poignancy to Travis’ delusional ideas about becoming a hero
(Iannucci, 2005).
Travis’s awkward interactions with women also imply that Travis is a
product of his times. The feminist movement, which had become well
established by the 1970s, changed the way women perceived themselves
and created tensions between the genders (Woo, 2007). All three women in
the film present themselves as women who can take care of themselves.
Betsy’s ‘take him or leave him’ attitude during her initial encounters with
Travis are indicative of a 70s woman’s new sense of female assertion and
self-possession (Mortimer, 1997). The theatre clerk’s hasty dismissal of
Travis’ advances is likewise suggestive of woman’s new self-assuredness.
Even Iris, the young prostitute, who does not outwardly intimidate Travis,
indicates that she does not need him. Though Travis proposes a way out of
the city, she independently rejects his offer of salvation. Mortimer (1997)
asserts that the film articulates a major cultural shift during the seventies,
whereby women increasingly abandoned their traditional roles leaving men
without a ‘self-consolidating Other’. Field (2003, p. 57) considers that
Travis’s responses and reactions are largely motivated by his heterosexual
desire and his confusion over the enigma of women. The
miscommunication between Travis and the women in the film portray Travis
as a man confused by the changing times in which he lived.
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Travis’s character is further misshapen by his dysfunctional and
unsatisfactory everyday relationships. Though Travis attempts to
communicate and collegiate with others around him he is both unable and
discouraged from talking about his true feelings (Cole-Potter, 1998, p.167).
Travis desire for meaningful community is expressed during his voice-over
diary narration:
motivated by religion or ideology but just illness’. Due to the economic and
social problems in New York at the time of the film’s making, Iannucci
(2005) also considers that the film reveals a New York in the 1970s so
desperate for heroes that it would construct the ‘ideal’ in order to keep the
American dream alive. The structure and self-reflective style of the text
encourages social commentary on American values and ideals.
All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don’t
believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I
believe that someone should become a person like other people.
By coding and constructing Travis as a product of his culture, Scorsese
situates the audience to accept his actions as rational and consequential.
With no inner sense of self, and with his masculinity challenged by the
women in the film, Travis is seen as desperate for some way to define
himself (Iannucci, 2003, p. 108; Cole-Potter, 1998, p. 169). As Travis’
timeless days become punctuated only by television episodes of Bandstand
and dancing competitions, the audience witnesses the broadening gap
between Travis’ real life and his desired and imagined life. After intently
watching the empty and abandoned shoes on the dance floor Travis comes
to realises that he cannot go on living the way he is living. The voice-over
narration again clarifies Travis thoughts and reveals that Travis is a man
who is about to act in order to be,
When Travis attempts to convey his emotional stress to his colleague
Wizard, Wizard meagrely replies,
A man takes a job…and that job becomes what he is…You do a
thing and that’s what you are…..Go out get laid, get
drunk….because you got no choice anyway…Killer. Relax, Killer.
You’re going to be alright.
Wizard’s advice to Travis promotes the social idea that man has no inner
identity, choice or control (Cole-Potter, 1998, p. 168). The greeting card that
Travis sends to his parents, in which he tells of his life in the city and his
‘relationship’ with Betsy, also indicates that Travis has learned to mix truth
with fiction in order to conform to the ideals and expectations of others. The
film portrays Travis in ways that position the audience to view him as not
intrinsically evil but as a victim of his social circumstances (Graham, 2002,
p. 71).
The film further supports a cultural reading of the story through its mixed
use of genre codes. Cole-Potter (1998, pp. 147, 154 & 161) observes that
Scorsese has incorporated elements and styles from film noir, Westerns,
Horror and Documentary genres, making it a striking post-modern
production. Some commentators even describe Travis as the off-spring of
Psycho star Norman Bates and Westerns star John Wayne, (Iannucci,
2003, p. 90; Kolmer, 2000, p. 227). Scorsese draws on common cinematic
understandings of characters and genre codes to define Travis’ character.
In one scene, when Travis is shockingly reintroduced with a Mohawk
haircut he immediately becomes associated as a savage ‘Other’ and
audience sympathy for Travis dissipates (Cole-Potter, 1998, p. 188). The
shoot-out scene near the end of the film has also been likened to the
gunfight scene in the Western The Searchers, in which a defenceless white
girl is rescued from an Indian chief (Cole-Potter, 1998, p. 190). According to
Mortimer (1997) this mixing of genre codes serves to portray identity as a
cultural production forged through the discourse of popular culture rather
than an inner discoverable and stable self. Scorsese’s portrayal of Travis
through genre and character codes supports the contemporary post-modern
notion of ‘imagined identities’ and ‘imagined communities’ (Fitzsimmons,
2001).
The film’s self-reflective voice-over narration also positions the text as part
of an older style confessional genre. Swenson (2001) postulates, that the
voice-over narration distinguishes the film as a confessional story similar to
the written texts, Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky's and The
Confessions by Rousseau. Though the confessional genre is by nature selfreflective it characteristically becomes a commentary on society (Cook,
1999, p.227). Scorsese confirms that the film was intended to be both selfreflective and self-corrective of Hollywood culture (Iannucci, 2003, p. 124;
Cole-Potter, 1998, p. 197). The film openly exposes America’s obsession
with the cinema and with violence, sex and irrationality by its graphic
depictions of sex, violence and crazy behaviour, and its inter-textual
references to cinema and television. By exposing Travis Bickle as an antihero, the film deconstructs the American hero myth (Graham, 2002, p. 54,
Iannucci,2003, p. 127). Dargis (2004) agrees that the film makes some very
sombre comments on American society, stating that Travis’s hero status at
the end of the film reveals America’s habit of making celebrities of murders.
The confusion between America’s ideals of freedom and heroism as
opposed to acts of rebellion and self-centeredness can be seen reflected in
American figures from Jesse James to O. J. Simpson. Dargis (2004) further
states that ‘America’s crazies fascinate the world, even when they are not
Now I see it clearly. My whole life has pointed in one direction. I
see that now. There has never been any choice for me……..
Here is a man who would not take if anymore
Who would not let—
Listen, you……
Here is a man who would not take if anymore.
A man who stood up against the scum...
Travis’ purchase of guns, preparations and training, affirm that he is
determined to find a way to his express identity and confirm his manhood
(Graham, 2002, p. 75). Iannicci (2003, pp. 113 & 118) states that Travis has
come to see violence as compensation for sex, and armoury and action as
a way to gain an identity. The mirror scene, whereby Travis watches himself
drawing his gun is further indicative of Travis’s search for self. As Travis
speaks to his reflection it becomes perceivable that Travis is taking on an
imagined persona and further, that he has become his own ‘ideal Other’
(Graham, 2002, p. 76). The film’s focused account of Travis’s actions and
character leads the audience to consider that for Travis to become the
‘hero’ required by society – the one that wins the girl and saves the
innocent, he has no choice but to be the man who acts. Iannucci (2003, p.
87) offers that Travis ‘bears the burden of succeeding in a way that society
dictates’.
The film’s controversy even today indicates that the film is the site of much
contestation. While the film could be considered a ‘corrective’ text that
counter-balances cultural understandings of the ‘hero’, by presenting an
‘anti-hero’, it could also be regarded as a text that reinforces its own
discriminatory biases (Iannucci, 2003, pp. 122 & 123). The depictions of
black men, in the film do little to dispel racist attitudes. The film merely
presents how black men are stereotypically perceived in society without
condemning their discriminatory treatment. Kolmer (2000, p. 227) states
that the film ‘withholds any political, social or even psychological analysis.’
When Travis shoots a black robber at the grocery store, the white shop
keeper proceeds to bludgeon the already wounded and possible already
dead black man while promising to cover for the white Travis. This scene
could be said to be reinforcing the idea that ‘black scum’ should be treated
as’ black scum’ (Cole-Potter, 1998, pp. 169 &176). Furthermore, though the
women in the film are depicted as assertive and capable of intimidating
men, they are also shown to be frivolous (Mortimer, 2000). Iris is portrayed
as sentimental about the character Sport and passionate about astrology
star-signs. When Betsy and Tom converse in the office Betsy flippantly
jokes about a man’s loss of fingers by mafia hit men (Kolmer, 2000, p. 235).
Betsy’s renewed interest in Travis at the end of the film, further reveals her
as highly superficial. Though guarded in her approach she is also appears
desirous and curious like a child playing with matches. Griffiths (2003, p.
35) considers that as with other movies during the time period the film
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continues to privilege the male point of view and objectify women.
Moreover, while the film concentrates on and questions the notion of
‘character’ it does not question the idea of ‘masculinity; rather, it affirms the
ideal of masculinity by allowing Travis to become a ‘hero’ through his
‘heroic’ actions (Mortimer, 1997). Iannucci (2005) considers that while the
film is post-modern it continues to uphold a long held view, originally
penned by D.H. Lawrence, who described America as ‘hard, isolate, stoic
and a killer.’ While the film contests the idea of character it reaffirms
established American attitudes towards black men, women and the male
American psyche.
Taxi Driver is the story of a post-modern man in a post-modern world
without God and without any real sense of right and wrong. The protagonist
Travis Bickle is carefully constructed as a cultural product of his society. As
a Vietnam veteran he is alienated and unable to readjust into mainstream
society. As a man in the 70s he has trouble understanding and connecting
with women. As a colleague and a son he must relate according to social
rules that are confusing and unaccepting of weakness. The styles and
genre codes used in the film further encourage the viewer to read the text
from a cultural perspective. Established Hollywood characters and codes
lead the viewer to make assumptions about Travis and the story based on
previous cinematic understandings. The voice-over narration and focused
introspection on Travis’s life in the city, additionally enables the text to
explore notions of individual and communal identities. Though the film
contests the idea of individual inner character and exposes the myth of the
‘hero’, it upholds conventional social constructs of masculinity and does not
contest established social ideas about black men, women and the male
American psyche. While the shock ending causes the audience to
reflectively consider society’s values and ideals, the film could also be
considered a pseudo documentary on the predicament of a post-modern
man trying to become human in a confused and corrupt society–Travis’
story therefore, a story that ultimately affirms the notion that man is
culturally constructed.
References
Cole-Potter, J 1998, Martin Scorsese and the poetics of post-classical
authorship, A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School Field of Radio/
Television/Film, Evanston, Illinois, (Infotrac).
Cook, B. J 1999, Let it bleed: production of the meaning of violence in
American film, 1962-1976, A Dissertation Submitted to the University of
California, Los Angeles, (Infotrac).
Dargis, M 2004, ‘Hey, You talking to me? [Review 4]’, New York Times,
(Late Edition, East Coast, 29 December 2004, p. 5, (Infotrac).
Iannucci, M. J 2003, Martin Scorsese’s American antihero, A Dissertation,
Submitted to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Union Institute and
University Cinninnati, Ohio, (Infotrac).
Kolmer, R 2000, A cinema of loneliness, Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese,
Spielberg, Altman, 3rd edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Mortimer, B 1997, Portraits of the postmodern person in Taxi Driver, Raging
Bull; and The King of Comedy, Journal of Film and Video, vol.49, no. 1/2,
pp. 28-39, (Infotrac).
Swensen, A. J 2001, "The anguish of God's lonely men: Dostoevsky's
underground man and Scorsese's Travis Bickle." Renascence: Essays on
Values, Literature, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 267-288, (Infotrac).
Woo, S 2007, Self on self: Inspired by the 1970s, Guggenheim Fellow will
examine gender and sexuality in postwar America, The Brown Daily Herald,
12 April, viewed 24 April 2007
http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/200
7/04/12/Features/SelfOn.Self.Inspired.By.The.1970s.Guggenheim.Fellow.Will.Examine.Gender.A
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Works cited
Dirks, T 1996, Taxi Driver (1976) review, Greatest Films, viewed 24 April
2007, http://www.filmsite.org/taxi.htm.
Guardian Unlimited 2007, Cho is no emblem of America Leader
Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer, viewed 22 April 2007,
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,2062833,00.html.
Guelph Mercury 2007, Questions about Virginia massacre may never be
answered, police say Why killer targeted who he did is among unknowns
officials are struggling with, BLACKSBURG, VA., viewed 22 April 2007,
http://www.guelphmercury.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=mer
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http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/t/taxi-driver-transcript-dialoguequotes.html.
dramatica (a White Brother’s Website) 2006, Story Analysis, Taxidriver,
viewed 22 May 2007,
http://www.dramatica.com/story/analyses/analyses/taxi_driver.html.
Field, E 2003, Only a trickle? Blood in detail and three women’s films,
submitted to the University of Tasmania, (Infotrac).
Fitzsimmons, J 2001, ‘America: an (imagined) community’, NAFF Online,
vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-5.
Gorringe, C 1995, Taxi Driver, Nitrate online .com, viewed 24 April 2007,
http://www.nitrateonline.com/ftaxi.html.
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Griffiths, H. M 2003, Prostitutes in American film: a social analysis, 19602000, A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware,
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