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An emphasis on the dream-like state of Travis Bickle.
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An emphasis on the dream-like state of Travis Bickle.
THE AVENGING ANGEL:TAXI DRIVER
By Danny Morlock
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Roger Ebert describes Taxi Driver (Martin
Scorsese, 1976) as dream-like: “The end sequence plays like music, not drama: It
completes the story on an emotional, not a literal, level. Is this a fantasy scene?
Did Travis survive the shoot-out? Are we experiencing his dying thoughts? (par. 16).”
I agree with Ebert’s emphasis on the film's dream-state because its primary
character, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), views the world in a surreal, perverted way.
Moreover, Bickle's insomnia forces him to stay awake through the dreary hours of the
night, fueling his hatred for the “scum” that walk the New York City streets. This
dream-like sensation is typical of the postmodern neo-noir paranoiac protagonist, so it
is this characterization of Travis Bickle I will consider. Moreover, I will look at the
film’s usage of mise-en-scene and narration, specifically the New York City night and
nostalgic voice-overs by Bickle and argue that they too reinforce this surrealist dream-
like effect.
When asked by the cab company owner in one of the opening scenes of Taxi Driver, “What do you
want a cab for, Bickle?” Travis responds, “I can’t sleep nights… Ride around nights, mostly. Buses, subways,
figured that if I’m gonna do that, I might as well get paid for it,” (Taxi Driver). At first, Travis appears calm,
sane even. Sporting a red flannel shirt with a veteran’s jacket and primp hair, his appearance is pleasant. When
the cab company owner asks further about Travis’ driving record, Bickle retorts, “It’s clean, real clean, like my
conscious,” (Taxi Driver). Thus, after being handed the keys, Travis agreeably begins his journey through the
“vile” underworld of the New York City streets behind the wheel of his taxicab.
“Twelve hours of work and I still can't sleep. Damn. Days go on and on. They don't end.”
An early, sane Travis Bickle.
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Bickle soon comes to the realization that his yellow
ship is not quite the escape mechanism he was looking for.
His onset of sleep deprivation and ambiguity by the start of
the film only further reflects what Andrew Spicer notes about
the differences from the classic noir to the neo-modernist protagonist,
“Travis conforms to Schrader’s conception of the late noir protagonist
who has lost his integrity and stable identity, the prey to ‘psychotic
action and suicidal impulse,’” (Spicer, 146). Travis sees the streets of
New York City and those that tread along them as little more than
vermin. He begins, “All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk
pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday
a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets,” (Taxi
Driver). Bickle seems to crave a fresh start; this “rain” is then perhaps a
metaphor for a much needed pertinent climactic sleep.
“Loneliness has followed me my whole life. There’s no escape, I’m God’s lonely man.”
New York City night scene.
The “scum” that Bickle despises with every waking breath.
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Travis’ internal anxiety and delirium resonate
with his tempered voice-over confessionals. Curiously,
the streets fumigate thick mist and bright out-of-focus
lights litter the frame, usually encircling the protagonist,
trapping him in “some other world.” According to Spicer,
“[Michael Chapman’s] wide-angle lens captures Travis’
distorted view of the flare and tawdry glamour of the
neon signs in their saturated primary colours, or
the strange eruptions of steam through the
manhole covers in the timeless drift of the cab
through the dark night-time streets,” (Spicer, 147).
This juxtaposition of narration and mise-en-scene
perfectly emulates Travis’ disorientation, both
physically and mentally. Spicer maintains the
manner in which Scorsese went about capturing
these scenes, “[Scorsese] had to create a style that would
create an ambiguous world that hovers between dream
and reality, what Scorsese referred to as ‘that sense of
being almost awake,’” (Spicer, 146; Scorsese, in ibid,
54).
According to Dream Interpretations, “To dream of driving signifies unjust criticism of your seeming
extravagance. You will be compelled to do things which appear undignified. To dream of driving a public cab, could
denote menial labor with little chance for advancement,” ("Dream Interpretation Driving"). Even the very act of
driving a cab around the different boroughs of New York signifies how Travis is engulfed in his own circular plight.
Bright out-of-focus lights that perplex the protagonist.
Hazy fog that fumigates throughout the city night.
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He is going nowhere, both literally and figuratively. The ambiguity that follows only causes more confusion and rage
on the part of Travis, which in effect generates a rampant dream-like sequence of narrative, narration, and mise-en-
scene.
“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.”
Near the middle of the film, Travis appears burnt out. His eyes have large pillows, his dress is less
of a concern and his socialization skills seem to lack any luster, especially after his discouraging
encounters with Betsy (Cybill Sheperd). Bickle’s insomnia has fueled not only an incessant hatred for
others, but also a general confusion for the world he is now a part of. In one scene, Travis seeks the
counsel of the Wizard (Peter Boyle), but only after watching a group of young black teens play around on
the sidewalk, of which his [Travis’] face displays an obvious look of disgust for the “vermin” that he
encounters daily. Travis confesses to the Wizard, “I’m real down, [things] got me real down. I just want to
go out and really do something… I’ve got some bad ideas in my head,” (Taxi Driver). His need for a
second existential opinion makes it apparent that the Wizard has become Travis’ new guide through this
altered dream-like state.
An insight into Bickle’s insanity. He stares off into the unknown.
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According to Larry Gross, “The misplaced erotic
instinct, alienation, and fragmented identity that
characterized the classical noir hero, are incorporated into
a more extreme epistemological confusion, expressed
through violence which is shown as both pointless and
absurd,” (Gross, 1976, 44-49). In one scene (after Travis
has purchased a litany of handguns and other varieties of
weapons), we find Bickle purchasing several
commodities from a local corner store. In the
background, there is a man barking orders at the cashier,
“Okay, shut your fucking mouth and give me the cash out
of the drawer! Let’s go!” The cashier calmly retorts,
“Alright, please don’t shoot,” (Taxi Driver). There is a
robbery in process. Travis proceeds to pull from his
pocket a pistol and shoot the robber down. Once lifeless,
the cashier asks, “Did you get him?” Travis replies,
“Yeah, I got him,” (Taxi Driver). It coldly feels as though
the two acknowledge this man’s death as one would the
death of an insect or a pest. Shortly after Travis flees the
premises, the cashier continually beats the body of the
deceased with a large pole whilst shouting profanities. In
the next scene, Bickle appears unscathed with gun in
hand, and in a very fictitious manner, as if nothing ever
happened (Taxi Driver).
“The idea had been growing in my brain for some time. True force. All the king's men cannot put it back.”
Bickle shooting the robber in the convenient store.
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The narrative thus begins to follow a suit of incoherence, which parallels Bickle’s own
disorientation. Near the end of the film, Travis has shaved his head into a Mohawk, started to wear his
veteran’s jacket without a shirt underneath and strapped a homemade gun holster to his body at all times.
His appearance has floundered, and the frequencies of his voice-overs are reciprocated with animosity. He
decides (almost instantaneously) after his failed assassination of the presidential candidate Charles
Palantine (Leonard Harris) to pay Iris’ (Jodie Foster) pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel) a visit (Taxi Driver).
“Listen you fuckers, you screw heads. Here's a man who would not take it anymore. Who would not let...Listen you fuckers, you screw heads. Here's a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the dogs, the filth, the shit, here is someone who stood up.”
A new, more “war-like” style of dress for Travis.
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In a frenzied dash, Travis finds Sport
fixed on his favorite stoop and immediately after
confronting him, pulls out his pistol and fires a
shot into Sport’s stomach (Taxi Driver).
Interestingly, Travis walks over to a different
stoop and sits in contemplation for a moment,
almost as if to question the true status of his
existence in this ambiguous world that he now
dwells in. Spicer cites Scorsese’s fascination
with the city and the character of Travis Bickle,
“[It’s that idea] of this avenging angel floating
through the streets of the city [that fascinates
me],” (Spicer, 146; Scorsese, in ibid, 54). Travis and Iris discuss her escape in both the house she is trapped in and the restaurant they meet for lunch.
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Thus Travis’ angelic crusade
ferments into a shoot-out inside a run-down
apartment building, where he kills Iris’
oppressors, allowing her to return to her
parents and dissociate her life with that of
child prostitution (Taxi Driver).
“Now I see it clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. I see that now. There never has been any choice for me.”
An angered Travis takes vengeance upon the “vermin” of New York City.
Bickle executes an “evil” man in one of the final scenes.
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Spicer notes, “In an ironic ending this
psychotic slaughter is rendered heroic: the camera
pans slowly over newspaper cuttings of ‘Taxi
Driver Hero To Recover’ as we listen to the voice-
overs of Iris’ grateful father congratulating Travis
on returning their daughter to them. In the final
scene, Travis is once again in his cab, looking as he
did in the opening scene,” (Spicer, 147). Travis’
voice-overs have seized to exist. His conscious is
clean. At the end, he turns the rear-view mirror
from his own eyes to the lights and city that co-
exist him; he is no longer at war with himself (Taxi
Driver).
His appearance is trim, and his socialization
skills seem to be fully restored. One thing is for
certain, either Travis was able to either
recharge from a potent sleep (and relieve the
omnipresent dream-like state) after his personal
war on the world outside (and himself) or his
new existence merely resounds like that of an
ambivalent angel that has truly washed the
scum off the streets.
Bickle mimicking the act of suicide. Bottom: Travis turns away the mirror.
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Taxi Driver. Dir. Martin Scorsese. By Paul Schrader. Perf.
Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster. Columbia Pictures
Presents, 1976. DVD.
Spicer, Andrew. "Neo Noir: Modernist Film Noir." Film Noir.
Harlow, England: Longman, 2002. 130-48. Print.
Ebert, Roger. "Taxi Driver :: Rogerebert.com :: Great Movies."
RSS. N.p., 1 Jan. 2004. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
<http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20040101/REVIEWS08/401010364/1023>.
"Dream Interpretation Driving." Dream Interpretation Driving.
N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2013. <http://www.dream-
interpretation.org.uk/free-dream-interpretation-
dictionary-d/dream-interpretation-driving.htm>.
Gross, L. (1976) ‘Film Après Noir’, Film Comment 12 (2) 44-9.