Friday, August 6, 2010

Travis Bickle, Limo Driver

How would the movie Taxi Driver have been different if Travis Bickle had worked for a limousine service instead of a taxicab company? Well the first change would have been the name. But really, some of the most important scenes of the movie have to do with Travis and his interaction with politicians and the societal elite--those scenes would still exist for a limo service driver. However, it is the juxtaposition of these elites, and the extreme lower class he taxis around all night that help to push his insanity.

If Travis had worked in Washington DC driving a limo, would he have become better or worse? Of course he might not have come across as many criminals, and the like, driving a limo, but it was his obsession with politics that caused his first murder attempt. He was upset that one politician couldn't clean up the streets, so it is possible to say that being surrounded by even more politicians would instill even more anger and frustration in him--resulting from their ineptitude and their own vice-driven lives.

The truth is that Travis comes home from Vietnam ready to explode. It appears that society makes him crazy--but he had the potential all along, and it was going manifest itself in one way or another. His insanity seems justified by the world around him, and so we forget that he started that way. He attempts to become the Holden Caufield of the streets, and only becomes deranged.

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