Analyzing Evil: Travis Bickle From Taxi Driver

hello everyone and welcome to the 42nd episode of analyzing evil featuring travis bickle from taxi driver this film and character are as iconic as they come and the story they tell of a man caught in a society he feels out of place in is masterfully told by giving us a look into how a man like travis can evolve from a mentally fragile social outcast into a cold-blooded and remorseless killer who practices their own brand of justice this character is one whose actions and whether or not they're evil have been debated by some and in this video i'll be attempting to answer that question while we jump around between scenes to cover every component of travis culminating in a full understanding of just who this character is and whether some of the actions he takes are evil or not without further ado let's begin we know a bit about travis's background which is just enough to give us a starting point in analyzing who he is travis lives in new york city but whether or not he's from there is unknown there's a point in the film where he writes out an anniversary card to his parents and in it he states that he can't give them his address so we know that he's at the very least estranged from his family at this point in time now besides that there are three main things we have to go off of here that give us insight into how travis developed into who he is the first is that travis is fairly uneducated as far as we know showing that perhaps he dropped out of high school or did poorly in school we don't really know but considering he says that he's had some education here and there i think something to that effect is likely true the second is that in a journal entry travis states that loneliness has followed him all his life which tells us that he's been a loner his entire life which is important as if this entry were not present in the film us viewers might have assumed that he fell into a state of loneliness after he experienced our third piece of information about his backstory his service in the marine corps and specifically service during the vietnam war though his loneliness doesn't come from his time serving in the military these two things still go hand in hand as a component of travis's loneliness is that he feels like he's an outsider that he doesn't quite fit in with the world around him and part of the reason for that is because he has a negative view of what he sees as the scum that society at large has evolved into this also leaves travis without a sense of purpose as he's lost in a world where he doesn't fit in but he also yearns to make something of himself to be more than a man wallowing in his run-down apartment festering with the rest of the rats thus it stands to reason that travis joined the military in an effort to combat his loneliness and attempt to fit in with a group of what he hoped were like-minded individuals and to find for himself a purpose however this didn't work out so well for travis as he ended up being honorably discharged which may be true considering the wound we see on his back but it could also be a lie as he's shown himself willing to lie to his parents about his status in life so i assume that he would be comfortable lying about this as well whatever the case may be it doesn't seem that his time in the military had any sort of positive impact on travis only leaving him with ptsd from whatever happened to him during his time in vietnam and that brings us to the beginning of the film where we find our protagonist living a life of perpetual misery one where he can't sleep and has become addicted to alcohol and an unknown prescription drug while also damaging his body further with a diet consisting of junk food sugar and of course more alcohol travis at this point in the film is attempting to fill his time with as many distractions as possible in an effort to quiet the never-ending stream of negative thoughts that bombard his mind for an untold amount of time he never manages to do so until finally after weeks of monotonous ruin a ray of light appears in betsy the woman in the white dress that he views as an embodiment of perfection an angel walking amongst the damn souls of new york city now when we were discussing his backstory we touched on the three points of struggle that travis battles with during this film his loneliness his negative view of society and his lack of purpose travis finds a solution to all of these problems in betsy a person who he's put up on a pedestal making assumptions that this pure woman in white has to be a bastion of good and true humanity whom he can find solace in initially he's unsure of himself and apprehensive about approaching her almost stalking her in a way but when he finally works up the courage to speak with her based upon his assumption that she's living a life not unlike his own to his surprise and satisfaction it works and for the first moments of their new budding relationship travis finds himself connecting with betsy in a way that he's been pining for for a long time however working against travis in this endeavor are two side effects of his self-imposed isolation his social awkwardness and social ineptitude we've seen a bit of this so far with his interaction with his new boss in the beginning of the film and with his less than conversational encounter with fellow cab drivers in a cafe but when he takes betsy out to see a movie is where it really shines through though travis took an odd approach in his initial conversation with betsy when he propositioned her and when they went out for coffee he was making a great effort in wooing this woman which may have in part come from his eccentricity which seemed to be a point of attraction for her this date starts out about the same as their previous two encounters and initially it goes well however this quickly changes as travis's social ineptitude kicks in and he decides to take betsy to an adult theater an idea that is about as exciting and tactful as asking her right out to have sex with him which betsy is keen to point out this scene certainly shows us his social ineptitude but it also succeeds in conveying to us something else about travis that is quite important when he presents his gift of a record to betsy he makes a comment about how he doesn't listen to music much but he would like to this tells us that travis though he has a hard time fitting in and is pessimistic about much of the world around him still has a desire to belong and to try and understand the things that other people like he wants to talk to people about things they have in common he wants to know the proper place to take a girl on their first date he wants to converse with his friends beyond a superficial level but he doesn't know how i think this is important to note as if you pair this notion with travis's claim that loneliness has followed him his entire life it makes travis a person who's tried to fit in and wants to fit in rather than a person who's so overly anti-social that they shun everything and wish to isolate themselves from the rest of society one thing about travis that we haven't touched on yet is the fact that say for the few times we see him happy for the most part he's emotionally passive he has a lot of inner turmoil but it's not enough to penetrate the solemn mask that is almost a constant for him we can see this lack of emotion during the aftermath of his unfortunate date with betsy where he's distraught over her reaction to their date and attempts to converse with her and make up for it but at the same time he doesn't show how heartbroken he is until he eventually cracks and lashes out at her at the campaign office telling her that she'll go to hell and decrying her as being just like the rest of society i realize now how much she's just like the others cold and distant we already know that travis has a negative view of society but is outburst here and the fact that he blames betsy for the lack of communication between them shows us a part of travis that goes in tandem with his inability to fit in and that's the fact that he doesn't see much of a problem with himself instead sourcing all of his problems to the world around him travis can't fathom why a woman would be apprehensive about speaking with a man that took her on a first date to an adult theater and though society and people can certainly be pretty terrible he's clueless to the fact that he's the one who's causing his own misery if you hold a high moral view of yourself in society it would be in your best interest to congregate with like-minded people and not attempt to find in others the values you assume they'll hold based on your own superficial assumptions as one example perhaps you could join a religion an institution that could theoretically provide for travis everything he's looking for a sense of purpose a community that decries the immorality of the modern age and an avenue to building real relationships with people travis's problem here is that he's trying to impose his own views of society onto others who he hopes share the same views as he does but in reality do not you can try to make a change in the world if that's what you feel is the best course of action but you can't look at the world call it terrible and then act surprised when people you assume will meet your expectations don't to further add to the fact that travis is ready to blame his woes on others is the answer he gives to palantine when he's in his taxi here travis while denouncing the city as being full of scum and filth mentions that he goes outside and smells the stench of the city and gets headaches from it it's true big cities do tend to have an off-putting odor but i'm willing to bet that travis is experiencing these headaches from the effects of alcoholism and a substandard diet he says himself during a diary entry that you're only as healthy as you feel and you certainly aren't going to feel very well if you're constantly loading your body with poison now something that further adds to travis's misery throughout this film is how every negative thing that he sees or that happens to him seems to follow him everywhere he goes from the kids who threw things at his cab to the constant reminder of betsy in the form of palantine campaign material travis finds himself hard-pressed to escape the misery he experiences it could be that travis could forget about some of these things and move on with his life but how can he when they follow him everywhere he goes in one of these instances travis makes his own reminder in the form of a worn out 20 bill after matthew pulls iris from his cab when she's attempting to escape him funnily enough matthew tells him to forget about it and perhaps travis could have if he hadn't kept that 20 bill on his person at all times as a constant reminder this adds even more misery to travis's life as he's now tacked on guilt to his emotional corkboard which goes along with his depression hopelessness and angst a guilt that comes from the fact that he went against his own principles as when the time came for him to do something about the scum and filth he hates so much he did nothing now to his credit after his rant towards betsy and his experience driving the man who wanted to kill his wife which i'll talk about in a moment travis attempts to seek outside help for his emotional torment which is a step in the right direction however he reaches out to the only person in his immediate vicinity that he knows well enough that he feels comfortable coming to for help and though wizard tries these words are far from enough help for a man like travis and they do little in the way of helping him with anything now after this moment comes a turning point for travis and besides the obvious build up towards this turning point there are three things that accelerate him towards it the first is his encounter with a passenger who he took to the apartment of his wife's lover whom this man planned to kill i think this moment resonates with travis as though he's quiet for the majority of this scene this man is much like travis himself and the way in which he's willing to take action against something he despises is something that travis can identify with as he's been skirting on the edges of this drastic line of thinking for some time now the second thing is an interview of palantine he watches in his apartment where palantine remarks that the people are beginning to rule i think this phrase struck travis in one of two ways either he took it as an omen because if the people he despises are beginning to rule in his mind that surely spells doom or he was inspired to take action by palantine's words as his encounter with him and his following of his campaign might indicate that he actually believes in palantine and is motivated by the notion he's laid out here considering what he plans to do later on the former might be the answer here the third and final thing is his second encounter with iris i feel the reason he stalks her here is due to his inability to muster up the courage to talk to her and ask for her forgiveness for not saving her before but it also has to do with him really seeing her for the first time and noticing how young she is a moment that pushes down the apprehension he had at acting on her behalf before and edging him towards taking the steps to help her this is what causes travis to seek out the arms dealer purchase several firearms and covertly arm himself with numerous weapons everything that has happened to travis has been building up to this as when a person like travis is continuously put down by others or himself their negative thoughts often lead them to a solution that will allow them to let loose their up emotions violence travis is now committed to realizing an idea he's had for a long time the use of force to make a change in society that will perhaps spur others into action against all the wrongs he perceives in the world up until this moment travis hasn't done anything you could call evil so far he's only been a troubled man ignorant to the misery he's causing himself but now he's moved on to planning an assassination in an effort to improve the world around him this harkens back to what i was talking about earlier travis is finally attempting to better himself he's quitting the drinking and the drugs and the terrible diet and he's trying to improve his physical health but he's doing so in order to solve his problems by correcting the problems he sees in others there's no doubt that crime was rampant during this period in history new york was on the filthier side and people can be terrible but if travis truly wanted to make a change in the world he would focus his energies on doing just that making a change instead in pursuit of solving his own misery by correcting the world around him he chooses to lash out and expel his emotions through violence and chaos an act that would bring about more negatives than positives however it's not just this act he plans on committing with his newfound arsenal but he also has the intent to stand up to any adversity he experiences no longer will he just stand by and watch the filth float along the river of society he's going to cast his net and clean it up himself here's a man who would not take it anymore a man who stood up against the scum so says travis he even remarks before he goes out to attempt his assassination that his whole life has pointed towards this moment and he's never had a choice in the matter now that is obviously not the case as travis could have done anything else in the world besides this and the problem with this line of thinking is again that travis is taking matters into his own hands and attempting to provide the solutions to the problems society has using his own methods instead he could have turned his efforts towards something positive he could have volunteered at a youth center or worked with organizations who are attempting to solve these problems he could have even become a cop if he wanted to fight crime in a more literal sense though a man like travis would probably not make for the greatest cop instead he plans to murder a politician and become a vigilante a profession we see him dipping his toe into when his local market is being robbed now this moment is a delicate situation as if travis hadn't killed this man then perhaps the store owner might have been shot and killed however it could be that this thief would have left without firing a shot after he received the money this is a case where you have to ask yourself whether or not this man deserved to die again had travis not acted it's possible that this man would have shot the store owner but it's also possible that if travis had stayed quiet the man would have left thieves deserve to be punished that's a given that's why we have laws that are in place to punish thieves sometimes these laws don't work out and thieves get away but eventually most criminals are caught and punished according to their crimes death is not an appropriate punishment for this crime i'll say it again this could have been the right course of action considering the circumstances we'll never really know but it's still worth noting that travis chose murder rather than an alternate solution to this scenario but now we need to move on to the greatest example of travis taking matters into his own hands when he shouldn't have which is his efforts to free iris from prostitution now this is certainly commendable that travis is making an effort to try and free iris from this horrifying situation and the people who are engaging in this lowest of the low crimes deserve untold amounts of punishment for these crimes however the way travis goes about doing this is wrong on so many different levels initially what he's doing is actually a step in the right direction as he attempts to convince iris that what she's doing is horrible and that he can take her away from all of it which is great he even attempts to help her by providing her with the last of his money before he goes off to his inevitable death after he murders palantine but here's the thing what was stopping him from telling someone about matthew and what he was doing travis at any time could have driven down to a police station and told them what was going on he could tell them that he knew the location of a pimp who was actively engaged in child prostitution and he could provide names and all kinds of information so they could send someone down there undercover or not to deal with the situation sure you could argue that sometimes the police especially with a heavy load on their plate already would be slow to act or wouldn't act at all but those are some pretty serious and heinous allegations that i doubt any cop would brush off instead of doing that he sends her an envelope of cash which would have likely been intercepted by matthew leaving her to sort out her own fate but it doesn't end there travis's plot to assassinate palantine is never realized which is rather fortunate for not only palantine but travis and society but it's unfortunate in that he's now turned his attention back to vigilantism and specifically to again sorting out iris's problems himself this time with murder to be fair he assumed he would have been dead by now after committing another horrible act so this would have never happened but it's still horrifying that it does now i know nobody feels sorry for these guys at all myself included they truly were scum and this is an act that is often pointed out as being good rather than evil by some people but killing these men did far more harm than it did good iris has experienced hardship and traumas at this young age that no one should ever have to experience and now on top of that she had to witness the brutal murder of three men right in front of her yes travis freed iris but at what cost this already heavily abused young girl now has another source of trauma to draw from and all because travis felt he was the only person capable of solving a situation like this a hero waiting through a world of villains one who would right the wrongs in the world with his will and his gun had he done the right thing and approached this situation in a better way he could have gotten the same results without murdering these men and putting this poor girl through even more than she'd already been through in reality the way pedophiles and their ilk are treated in prison they likely would have met their deaths inside anyway so if their deaths were the result he was looking for he could have had that too and that is what makes what travis did evil because everything he did here could have been avoided and the same goals would have been accomplished had he taken a moment and put aside his own ego to do the right thing of course this is still perceived by the public as the right thing and travis is lauded as a hero because people only know the headline they don't know the man behind it in this film does a great job of highlighting the fact that if travis had killed palantine he would have instead been the villain in the eyes of the public but there's the rub he's still the villain he's still a man who chooses murder over providing real solutions to problems taking matters into his own hands and causing more harm than good with his misplaced good intentions now the ending is something that was debated on for a long time before scorsese and paul schrader the film's writer put the issue to rest a lot of people thought that the ending sequence where travis encounters betsy again was some sort of dream he was having while he was in a coma as the way he's perceived as a hero could have been his own fantasy but they have both since confirmed that this was not a dream and the meaning behind travis looking into the mirror at the end was that this film could have started all over again from that point as travis hasn't changed at all and he's still the lonely aggravated and depressed man he was when the film started and at this end who was travis pickle he was a deeply troubled man one who had experienced loneliness his entire life and who had become disillusioned with a society who he viewed as evil one that he believed had abandoned him in favor of reveling in their own self-satisfied modern age to compound this he suffered from ptsd and his loneliness stemmed from the fact that he was rather odd and unable to connect with people around him in a meaningful way though he desperately wanted to and tried to fit in isolation detrimental habits and negative views led this man to the only solution he found that made any sense enacting violence upon a population that so desperately needed to be corrected in doing so he stopped the robbery of a store and managed to free a little girl from child prostitution but at the cost of committing four murders and damaging that girl's life even further than it already had been travis bickle saw the world and all its flaws on full display but he never managed to find the flaws in his own character believing himself to be the one sane man in a world of insanity and he thoroughly believed that what he was doing was selfless a man standing up when others wouldn't when in reality he was only trying to live out his own desire to make a change and find purpose in his life solving the world's problems real or perceived to satisfy himself no matter how much he thought otherwise misanthropic misguided and self-maligned the case of travis bickel is an unfortunate example of the detriments of unchecked mental health a man who was rife with issues both personal and emotional that roiled in his mind until they coalesced into projecting these issues onto nearly everyone around him and though he may have intended to do good a man like travis is as betsy said a walking contradiction a ticking time bomb of angst and anger just waiting to be unleashed upon the people he believes deserves it and though we can feel sorry for the tragedy that is his inability to understand his own effect on the misery in his life and hope to see people like travis get the help that they deserve his beliefs and the actions he takes and will inevitably take if left to his own devices are clouded by evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on travis did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured in a future episode while you're at it if you liked this video and want to see more like it appearing in your feed click the subscribe button to keep up on the latest episodes and feel free to leave a like while you're at it thank you once again to all of my existing subscribers for your continued and incredible support if you'd like to support the channel even further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon you can find a link to patreon down in the description thank you to everyone who signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to interact with myself and the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed in the description for occasional updates on the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon you

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 533,600

Keywords: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, New York, Evil, Analysis, Villain, Film, Cinema, Anti-hero

Id: mASZwPRyCeY

Length: 24min 54sec (1494 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/XxBiscuit99]

He isn't evil

[u/Confident-March-382]

Just because you have done some immoral things does not make you evil. Travis is a complicated human being with many relatable and understandable aspects of him. For instance, I think abortion is 100% immoral but it’s necessary and should always be legal. That does not make it an evil act. One of the film’s many messages is definitely that things are almost never black and white but nuanced. I think he wasn’t trying to kill palantine because he planned the saving of iris and killing palantine would be risky and with a very high chance hold him back from saving her. Maybe he wanted attention from Betsy? Anyways that’s just my thoughts:)