From the beginning of Taxi, I enjoyed the cinematography and the music that Scorcese used. The narration of De Niro over the entire movie just solidified what was taking place on screen. While he would be writing in his journal, I could actually feel how frustrated he was getting at the city around him. He kept getting hung up on certain words that had tons of influence on the way he was acting. In particular when he was speaking about the filth and the dirt on the streets in the city he went to a skin flick right after. This gave the audience that he could possibly be lonely, we later saw him again talking about the filth and dirt walking along the streets and how sick it made him, but all that was shown on screen were men and women most likely couples.
Perhaps he was working so much so that he wouldn't have to realize how lonely he really was. One man so far from home with nobody to talk to or and friends but the other drivers. After he met Betsy(Shepherd), he also met Iris(Foster). The next scene when he was taking Betsy out for a movie it was of a skin flick. Perhaps he was so desensitized by seeing hookers and johns all night long that he didn't see what was wrong with the movie.
After he shot the robber in the store he was sitting in his apartment teetering a tv on edge. It's not so much the tv that is what was significant, but more so what was playing. A forbidden love story and how the woman won't let the man know she's in love with him. Suddenly he pushes the tv over and it breaks. I feel this is the turning point for his character, that was when his transformation into what he was to fully become was almost taking fruition. De Niro fell over the edge much like the tv did.
After that point, you could see the direct change in his attitude and even the way he spoke. Normally a timid quiet driver he became enraged and would strike up conversations with anyone. When the final transformation happened I knew it was almost time for the big bang at the end. He shaved off the sides of his hair to create a mo-hawk. The signature move of most punks in the setting time. To fortify that he was just lonely, at the end of the movie and after the shooting at Iris's building he became a hero. Everyone loved him, he was a hero to the community and to the city for trying to clean up the streets. When Betsy got in his car, he acted as if he wanted nothing to do with her since he got what he wanted from the beginning. A bit of attention and respect.
Jake H.
Well said, Jake. You catch on to many subtleties that are given to the viewer which create a complex, round character, teetering on the edge of insanity when placed back into a world which in Travis' eyes has gone terrible wrong. Its almost as if he was more comfortable in Vietnam where at least he knew what was expected of him. I agree that his choice of words to write in his diary lets us know how truly close to the edge he is. Perhaps its the crime on the streets, but maybe its just the overall liberal attitude of people that makes him so sick. When he feels Palentine will do nothing substantial to clean it up, he decides he has to die, which will kill two birds with one stone; get him the attention he needs, and take out part of the problem. The fact that plan is foiled and therefore he instead kills the "johns" as you put it, makes him more of an accidental hero than a real hero. He got validation but I believe it was all an accident. Either way, he is very life-like and I imagine many a Marine teeters on the same edge when placed back into society after brutal wars without any support system....great journal.
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