"On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody."
The five stages of grief are - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. I was watching the movie Taxi Driver few days ago, and it struck me how appropriate this pattern applies to Travis Bickle, a disturbed Taxi Driver waiting to explode any moment.
The grief that is portrayed by Bickle is introduced via De Niro's monologue. While writing his diary, Bickle identifies himsel
f as the "God's lonely man". As a psychotic loner, he manifests the sheer emptiness in his life; an awkward goof, who lives in an unkempt apartment with no friends. Around a glittering urbanized cosmos of New York City, Bickle finds himself alienated to everything. Right from the first scene - a steamy whiff of flaky white smoke erupting from one of the ubiquitous manholes of New York City and than cut to the neon street lights flashing on Bickle's forehead - we are shown a schizophrenic, deluded and a confused Bickle, an insomniac Taxi Driver, who drives around the city form Brooklyn to Bronx at nights, holidays and over the weekends. He cannot sleep, is disgusted at the filth smeared all the over the place and wants to bring a change; wishes for a flood that could drown all the waste and scumbags. Such is not an appropriate measure of response. We do not know what bothers him, his past is not explained much. An uneducated war veteran, he poses no threat to anyone.
He deliriously confronts this lifestyle by watching pornos and day-gazing Betsy - an ethereal beauty, from the rear window of his cab. In a constant denial of the same shit new day routine he seeks advice from the "Wizard". In what can be only described as a stroke of genius, Wizard explains him what any job does to a person. Bickle dismisses him, but ultimately fulfills Wizard's prophecy when he gazes death in all its might. That he is cheated by death is ironical, which falls flat in the face of his anti-hero rebellion and sociopath-y. He should not be enamored, and deserved to die like a dog in the street.
Betsy dumps Bickle after a date night realizing what a sick freak he is, leaving him devastated at his own tomfoolery. His head spins and he tries to get squared but is rejected. Meanwhile, he encounters a passenger who has a demoniac plan of killing his wife. He talks about a pistol. Bickle reabsorbs this thought and cuts an arms deal. In an interesting turn of events, Bickle confronts Iris, a low life hapless fragile teen, working for Sport- the pimp. He sees in Iris a beacon of ray, something that had he could bargain for in exchange of Betsy.
He advices Iris to get back home and reunite with her parents. Iris refuses, she likes Sport and wants to live with him. Bickle wanders around with competing conceptions of destruction in his head. He is depressed of not getting what he desires, Betsy, Iris or the freedom from his solitary. He decides to shoot a Senator, in anticipation of getting a famed death. At least in death he wouldn't be forgotten. Conspicuous by his mohawk and sunglasses, this cold blooded plan also fails as he misfires the shot. However, he flees the scene unscathed. Unable to do anything, he goes on a killing spree in the Sport's brothel. This event comes across as a meticulously planned suicide that Travis seeks in acceptance of his own life.
However, Bickle runs out of the bullets for his own good! Camera pans from his nape and we are shown a childlike smile sticking out from his disfigured face. He points his bloody index finger on the side of the forehead and laughs in a dark-deranged manner as if showing the finger without giving it. It is at this moment he realizes that he has to go back to the cab again. The cab is his microcosm through which he observes the world and people around him. In fact the cab and cabbie are synonymous in as much the same way as Travis Bickle and taxi driver.
The five stages of grief are - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. I was watching the movie Taxi Driver few days ago, and it struck me how appropriate this pattern applies to Travis Bickle, a disturbed Taxi Driver waiting to explode any moment.
The grief that is portrayed by Bickle is introduced via De Niro's monologue. While writing his diary, Bickle identifies himsel
f as the "God's lonely man". As a psychotic loner, he manifests the sheer emptiness in his life; an awkward goof, who lives in an unkempt apartment with no friends. Around a glittering urbanized cosmos of New York City, Bickle finds himself alienated to everything. Right from the first scene - a steamy whiff of flaky white smoke erupting from one of the ubiquitous manholes of New York City and than cut to the neon street lights flashing on Bickle's forehead - we are shown a schizophrenic, deluded and a confused Bickle, an insomniac Taxi Driver, who drives around the city form Brooklyn to Bronx at nights, holidays and over the weekends. He cannot sleep, is disgusted at the filth smeared all the over the place and wants to bring a change; wishes for a flood that could drown all the waste and scumbags. Such is not an appropriate measure of response. We do not know what bothers him, his past is not explained much. An uneducated war veteran, he poses no threat to anyone.He deliriously confronts this lifestyle by watching pornos and day-gazing Betsy - an ethereal beauty, from the rear window of his cab. In a constant denial of the same shit new day routine he seeks advice from the "Wizard". In what can be only described as a stroke of genius, Wizard explains him what any job does to a person. Bickle dismisses him, but ultimately fulfills Wizard's prophecy when he gazes death in all its might. That he is cheated by death is ironical, which falls flat in the face of his anti-hero rebellion and sociopath-y. He should not be enamored, and deserved to die like a dog in the street.
Betsy dumps Bickle after a date night realizing what a sick freak he is, leaving him devastated at his own tomfoolery. His head spins and he tries to get squared but is rejected. Meanwhile, he encounters a passenger who has a demoniac plan of killing his wife. He talks about a pistol. Bickle reabsorbs this thought and cuts an arms deal. In an interesting turn of events, Bickle confronts Iris, a low life hapless fragile teen, working for Sport- the pimp. He sees in Iris a beacon of ray, something that had he could bargain for in exchange of Betsy.
He advices Iris to get back home and reunite with her parents. Iris refuses, she likes Sport and wants to live with him. Bickle wanders around with competing conceptions of destruction in his head. He is depressed of not getting what he desires, Betsy, Iris or the freedom from his solitary. He decides to shoot a Senator, in anticipation of getting a famed death. At least in death he wouldn't be forgotten. Conspicuous by his mohawk and sunglasses, this cold blooded plan also fails as he misfires the shot. However, he flees the scene unscathed. Unable to do anything, he goes on a killing spree in the Sport's brothel. This event comes across as a meticulously planned suicide that Travis seeks in acceptance of his own life.
However, Bickle runs out of the bullets for his own good! Camera pans from his nape and we are shown a childlike smile sticking out from his disfigured face. He points his bloody index finger on the side of the forehead and laughs in a dark-deranged manner as if showing the finger without giving it. It is at this moment he realizes that he has to go back to the cab again. The cab is his microcosm through which he observes the world and people around him. In fact the cab and cabbie are synonymous in as much the same way as Travis Bickle and taxi driver.
