Taxi Driver: Variety of Notes & Questions
on the Film
TAXI DRIVER as Metaphor
1) Someone who is isolated, apart from usual
social interactions
2) Someone who is in control (of cab); but
control is temporary
3) Someone who watches life go by outside his
window / passive onlooker
4) Informal "confessor" -- someone who
hears others' life stories; myth of wise man (wizard)
5) Someone who connects others with experience;
but lacks that experience himself
6) Short-term relationships: cab full vs. cab
empty
TAXI DRIVER: TRAVIS' INNER WORLD
1) First ten minutes: smoke, blurred
windshield, ECU of his eyes, bird's eye pov shots, his pov shots from cab,
reaction shots
2) Slow motion of Betsy
3) Cab ride as metaphor of inner self
4) Glass of Alka Seltzer in rest.
5) Reaction to Iris in cab; reaction to the
$20 bill
6) The empty hallway scene
7) With the crazed husband in cab
8) Outside cabbies restaurant
9) Following Iris down the street
TAXI DRIVER: THEME OF COMMUNICATION
1) Travis'
journal: private, personal
2) His gaps in communication:
n chit-chat, gossip, b.s.
n flirting, sweet talking, flattery
n irony
n talking up, talking down
n listening skills
n storytelling, narrative
3) Travis'
style:
n
submissive vs. Aggressive
n direct, earnest
n naive vs. vindictive
4) Encounters: compare Travis and:
n porno clerk
n taxi interviewer
n Betsy
n Palantine
n Crazed husband
n The Wizard
n Gun Salesman, Easy Andy
n Secret Service Agent
n Iris
n
Sport
TAXI DRIVER: QUESTIONS
1) Why does he want to kill Palantine?
2) Why does he want to "rescue"
Iris?
3) What is symbolic about his preparation for
assassination?
4) Why does he cut his hair into the form of
a mohawk?
5) Why does he attack Sport & others
after assassination fails?
6) Why does he want to kill himself after
killing the men?
7) Why does Scorsese use 3 min. of film to
show aftermath of killings?
8) What is ironic about the media response to
the killings?
9) What does Scorsese convey after Travis
drops off Betsy?
TAXI DRIVER: After Travis Buys Guns
1) Bird's eye point of view--fate, destiny
2) His "purification" and
"rituals," no more "destroyers of the body," exercise, will
power
3) Guns an extension of his body
4) Travis about to explode, on the edge,
mentally imbalanced
5) Motive: "the idea had been growing in
my head," like a tumor
6) Transformation: from "God's lonely
man" to "God's messenger"
7) Creative, mechanical genius: becomes
mechanical man, robot
8) Clock ticking in apt: determinism
9) Alone, in front of mirror,
rehearsing
role, stares death in the eye; now he's somebody;
but
doesn't see irony that he is self-destructive
TAXI DRIVER vs. THE VIRGIN SPRING
Travis enters Father enters with Mother
building alone
Locale: seedy hotel for Father defending home
prostitution
Acts on impulse Motivated by revenge
Travis' rituals Father's
rituals associated with culture & religion
empty of meaning
Travis lacks component Father
prays after killings
of faith
Travis shoots Father
waits until dawn
On
impulse
Travis uses guns Father uses knife and bare hands
Travis kills Father kills
the "father" "bad
guys"
WHO IS TRAVIS BICKLE?
1. Vietnam
vet, discharged 1973, ex-Marine (war = sanctioned violent behavior)
2. Poor
education, inarticulate, can't express feelings, doesn't read, tv viewer, lacks
multicultural perspectives
3. Absolutist
values, good/evil, right/wrong, pure/filth, us/them
4. Sexually
dysfunctional, porno movies, impotent?, awkward with women, views women as
whores/virgins
5. Physically
dysfunctional, headaches, hypochondria, depression, alcohol abuse,
amphetamines, poor diet
6. Alienated,
lonely, introspective, out of touch with parents, no friends or social life
7.
Dysfunctional
social environment, peer group is limited (taxi drivers as outsiders),
threatening, violent, dangerous external world, monotonous, solitary job
Notes/Questions
written by Robert Yahnke
Copyright, Robert E. Yahnke, © 2001
Professor, General College, Univ. of Minnesota,
Reprinted by permission of the author for educational use only