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Martin Scorsese's 1976 film, "Taxi Driver" essentially was a character
study of a psychotic vigilante, while simultaneously an implicit indictment
of the Southeast Asian war that produced him.
That vigilante, the film's central character, Travis Bickle (Robert
De Niro), served as a personified guilt-ridden conscience of a nation which
only recently had extricated itself from the war after a protracted, ill-fought and
ultimately morally shattering defeat.
While not stated explicitly, it is likely that Bickle suffered from
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder
that, in some cases, can degenerate into psychosis when not given timely
and adequate treatment, i.e., prescribed medication, psychotherapy, support
group therapy, etc. Symptoms include insomnia, guilt feelings, paranoia,
anxiety, anger, flashbacks, a sense of detachment or dissociation, nightmares and recurring disturbing memories.
Statistics indicate that the Vietnam War had a PTSD incidence rate
seven times higher than in previous wars. This was due in part because of
the war's morally dubious justification - an issue every soldier who fought
there would inevitably have to face when trying to justify his or her own actions
to him or herself, e.g., "was my killing of humans there morally justified?"
Obviously the burden of guilt could get heavy - in the case of a Mid
westerner who had always maintained close ties with his family, the guilt
AND the horror of the war inexorably unhinged his mind.
Internalized guilt can readily be transposed to externalized anger
and redirected away from oneself toward others, as this psychological
defense mechanism can help alleviate one's pain by shifting the blame.
"They" are at fault, not oneself. Those scapegoats to Travis Bickle were
the street hustlers, pimps, drug pushers and other decadent scum that Travis observed night after night in the Times Square District while driving his cab. (The job he took to counter insomnia.) These repeated
observations fueled Travis' indignation and anger.
During the course of the story, Travis meets Betsy (Cybill Shepherd),
a campaign worker for "Palantine For President", dates and is rejected
by her after he takes her to a porno movie. It is here that an important
question arises: why would he take Betsy to a place of smut, when he
obviously loathed immorality in others? Perhaps he was testing her to
see if she would like it or not, if so, then he would brand her the same
as the rest of the street scum, but his strategy backfired.
After repeated rebuffs by Betsy, Travis meets Iris (Jodie Foster), a
12-year old prostitute, and subsequently fixates on her exploitation. It
is after he seeks advice from fellow cabbie, Wizard (Peter Boyle) and is
left unsatisfied, that he decides to "clean up" NYC - starting with Senator
Charles Palantine. Why Palantine? After initally becoming aware of
Palantine through his relationship with Betsy, most likely in his twisted
mind, Travis viewed the senator as representing the ugly specter of Vietnam. Palantine was a politician and politicians got the U.S. involved
in the war, thus Palantine was to blame and needed to be exterminated; to
Travis, Palantine was just higher-level scum. The self-righteous logic of
a madman.
Travis proceeded to arm himself heavily, and undergo a bizarre ritual
of self-disciplinary commando-style training, which included, among other
things, psyching himself up by conducting imaginary scenarios with potential adversaries while standing before a mirror: "You takin' to me?"
However, Travis' assasination plot was thwarted when Secret Service
agents noticed his peculiar "Mohawk" haircut and nervous demeanor in the
crowd at Palantine's presidental rally. Travis escapes and redirects his
attention on easier prey, namely, Sport (Harvey Keitel), Iris' pimp. The
ensuing scene is a gunbattle and veritable bloodbath, with Travis killing
Sport and related scum, while being wounded himself.
In an ironic twist, Travis is vindicated and deemed a civic hero for
saving a child prostitute from her exploiters. This proves cathartic (at
least temporarily) for him, for in the final scene, Travis is shown back
at work, smugly picking up passengers in front of St. Regis.
Perhaps if Travis had not relocated from the steamy jungles of Vietnam
to the neon one of NYC, and instead went back to his Midwestern home, possibly receiving the close support of his family, this unfortunate set of events
might not have occurred.
But, of course, if that had happened, we probably would not have had
the opportunity to experience Scorcese's riveting film and the De Niro
tour de force performance that powered it!

Films/DVD Asylum

"Taxi Driver" : A Review