To Taxi or Not To Taxi? - Taxi Driver Analysis

Prologue

"When I was talking to the nurse, I realised I hadn't spoken to anyone in weeks... that was when the metaphor of the taxi cab occurred to me. That is what I was: this person in an iron box, a coffin, floating around the city, but seemingly alone."

-Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver

An addicted, isolated, destitute, insomniac roamed the city at night. Broken up with the woman he left his wife for, he was alone. The only places open so late were porno theatres. He lived in his car and ate junk until he found out he had an ulcer. That man was Paul Schrader.

Insight

Part 1/2: The method

Paul Schrader's method for coming up with a story is as follows:

Step 1: Identify a personal problem

Step 2: Come up with a metaphor

Step 3: Drive your personal problem through your metaphor

Part 2/2: Deconstructing the method

Step 1: Crippling isolation and an increasingly declining mental state.

Step 2: A Taxi. Always being with but never with.

Step 3:

An Observer

Travis gets rejected the whole movie, by everyone. His attempts to assimilate himself into society always fall short. It's because he doesn't really get it, he doesn't get people. What Travis tries to do is mimic common social practices, like taking your date to the movies. It's just he lacks the reason behind it, the nuance, which is how he ends up taking her to an adult theatre. This constant failure to connect leads him to withdraw, and places him as strictly an observer. When Iris first wanders into Travis's cab he just watches. When the jealous passenger begins to ramble about his own violent fantasies, Travis just watches. That's what the cab is. A vehicle to peer into other people's lives, without ever engaging. Example, even when he actually interacts with Betsy he isn't interested in engaging in anything he can't copy or understand. He's more concerned with the idea she represents, or rather the idea that he projected on to her. An ideal, perfect woman who's secretly just as lonely as Travis.

Fear* (read note first)

"Very fear based people, who don't for a minute, admit that they're afraid and deny their fear to themselves (...) act against their fear, to disguise their fear from themselves and do very very destructive things. They're very attracted to the military, to guns, to militarism. (...) They focus the danger on one particular race, on particular gender, I mean a lot of these men who kill women. "They're evil, I'm good and I'm doing a good thing for the world by eliminating them. Or killing them." And inside of their mind (...) there's no corrective possible, no way you can get in. It's all a self-validating system, inside of their own brain. Notice how many of this masked killers or loners who live in little cabins somewhere, and justify their entire world view."

-Richard Rohr on the Counter-phobic type 6 enneagram

Sound familiar? Fear is a prevalent part of Travis's life, and the screenplay.

"But behind that smile, around his dark eyes, in his gaunt cheeks, one can see the ominous stains caused by a life of private fear, emptiness and loneliness."

-Taxi Driver screenplay by Paul Schrader.

It's this externalisation that leads Travis to act out so violently. He scapegoats. He can't bear to handle himself so just like how he projects onto Betsy, he projects onto Palentine, and then the pimps. He needs some way to act on his own self-loathing, his own disgust. Speaking of disgust,

Yee-Haw

If you don't know, the Taxi Driver screenplay was largely inspired by "The Searches" (1956)*. The actual movie is littered with cowboy imagery, from Travis's own wadrobe to other's input. This philosphy of an outlaw, a vigilante is at the forefront of Travis's mind when enacting his wrath. The reason this is relevant is because Travis Bickle is very openly disgusted with his surroundings, he believes in his own self-righteousness. This self-proclaimed moral superiority manifests in the Taxi, literally separating himself from the masses. What's usually a reflection of Travis's separation is now a stand in for a horse. All in order to support his own twisted narrative.

To Taxi or not to Taxi?

In the end, the Taxi is predictably a metaphor for Travis's loneliness. Okay bye

*Title:

You don't have to know or agree with the Enneagram because this description still applies to Travis. If you would like to see the clip I refernced it's here, 21:36-24:03. That's all!

*I haven't actually seen the movie yet but I just know trust. Or trust Roger Ebert I guess idk.

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