Taxi Driver (1976) - God's Lonely Man? - (First time Reaction & Commentary)

Comments · 125

• LA

  @LauraWatchesMovies · 3 months ago · pinned

  From what I understand, this movie is a safe place for many of you and it was not my intention to drive over it like a tank (if that is what could be perceived that I did). I just wasn’t able to connect to Travis. <br> <br>Travis says that he sees Betsy and I say that he is full of shit. And now I say that I see Travis and, perhaps, you say that I am full of shit as well. There might be a high chance of that. That being said, I think, at least there is some difference of perspective. It is always nice to look back and think “Oh, how dumb I was back then!” because that means that there has been some progress. Some growth. Many of you might see more than I do now. And that is good. I am still quite young and have much to learn. <br> <br>I called Travis “dumb”. I don’t blame him for ending up in the place where we first meet him. He was born with a naturally harder time connecting to people (in a sense, he was a “special needs kid”) and not only did he not get a “normal” upbringing, he got a ton of trauma and abuse. He has closed himself off to not die from the pain. Now, my slight issue here is that he isn’t doing what he needs to do in order to get out of this mess. Sadly, I can’t blame him much here either, because he DOESN’T KNOW how to do it. From somewhere he has heard that drinking, drugs, bad food and absence of exercise isn’t good for a person. But, he seems to have no idea that he could go to a library, that he could go into nature, that he could go and pick a martial art and train under a stable man figure that would show him the ropes not only in the sport but also in how to be a balanced man - one who is not only strong physically, but also emotionally open and flexible. So this is a deeply tragic tale. He needs help, he himself can’t figure out what to do, and there is NO ONE that can guide him. So he drowns. He explodes, gets mistakenly proclaimed a hero, and decides to turn himself off completely. His last glance in the mirror is the last time there was even a sliver of Travis. He has become an automaton. He is existentially dead and gone. At least, that is my interpretation. &nbsp; <br> <br>If you feel open in doing so, please help me understand a little bit more of the feeling of male loneliness and isolation by providing your stories and experiences. Or recommend movies, where, in your opinion, I could get that experience through a very alive, yet deeply damaged, character. ♥

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• DA

  @danyukhin · 1 month ago

  I appreciate that you give yourself time to form your thoughts and that you don&apos;t cut out the silent parts

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• DA

  @daron85 · 2 months ago (edited)

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsIFHrcfL0&amp;t=80">1:20</a> he did kill the main pimp. He went back and shot him to death after getting shot in the neck by him. <br><br>Also I always loved how his act of heroism could&apos;ve easily went the opposite direction had he not been spotted by the bodyguard. He could&apos;ve been in the papers as a shooter instead of a hero. I&apos;m glad it went that way though. He&apos;s an antihero but still I&apos;ll take that over him killing an innocent person. If anyone needed to be killed it was those scumbags. This is one of my top 5 favorite films and probably my favorite character study. Martin Scorsese&apos;s direction, Robert De Niro&apos;s acting and Paul Schrader&apos;s writing is top notch.

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• TR

  @tru2thastyle · 3 months ago

  I love Travis I can relate to his loneliness, but I appreciate your honesty! I love honest reactions!

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• MI

  @Mike-x2w6q · 2 weeks ago

  In Travis&apos;s defense, the streets are a little cleaner. <br><br>✌️ ❤️ 🎥

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• BE

  @beatnixnthings · 1 month ago (edited)

  the movie hints at ex-military service and potentially ptsd. he is also probably a sociopath. he learned nothing, he didn&apos;t change. he exploded but was so invisible to society that because he chose the right targets, he was a &quot;hero&quot;. At the end of the movie, he starts looking around with the same intense, paranoid rage in the taxi&apos;s mirror. &nbsp;He&apos;s no one behind his eyes, but one way of looking at the movie is that we as a society don&apos;t want to look any deeper to see how damaged someone like him is, and so he&apos;s not healed, he&apos;s not seen really. And he&apos;ll probably explode again. As you said earlier in the movie, a cautionary tale, but not for the Travis&apos;s of the world so much as us.<br><br>Another movie sort of in that vein (different story but similar character traits) is American Psycho. I think it&apos;s a great movie, you probably wouldn&apos;t like it for a lot of the same reasons. There&apos;s a lot of ambiguity and another character with no there there (but a little more self awareness of that fact).

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• DA

  @davidgagnon3781 · 3 months ago

  Well, Iris asked Travis &quot;Haven&apos;t you ever looked at your own eyeballs in the mirror?&quot;

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• MY

  @myfreejoe · 1 month ago

  The rage inside us dates back many millennia when the earliest humans needed it just to survive.

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• PI

  @pierreracette49 · 2 months ago

  Hello Laura. You just started your chanel a few months ago and already you watched 3 of my all time favorites. Blade runner, Stalker and Taxi driver. Now the latter is going to stay in your head for a long time i&apos;m sure. And you will want to rewatch it some day. Anyways thanks for your very cool and intelligent reactions. I will continue to follow your Chanel.

• ID

  @Idontwanttohearit · 3 weeks ago (edited)

  Laura, if you decide to re-visit the film, I strongly suggest you watch it with Robert Kolker&apos;s commentary track. &nbsp;Also, I love that your intermission happens before the phone call scene. &quot;It&apos;s devastating that you can see all the colors, but you&apos;re led into a black room.&quot; &nbsp;I love that.

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• VI

  @victorzuniga233 · 3 months ago

  Probably the best film analysis I’ve ever heard. Like listening to a commentary for a Criterion Collection film. I really like this movie and I don’t think we’re supposed to like or identify with Travis although unfortunately a lot of people have turned him into a hero. Like Fight Club, this film has captivated some people who didn’t get the point. Scorsese is very good at making films about deplorable people like Raging Bull, Wolf of Wall Street, and his gangster films. Again, fantastic reaction!

• T1

  @t1000tnt · 3 months ago

  Perhaps the most profoundly cynical aspect of Taxi Driver is its ending. Travis doesn&apos;t achieve spiritual clarity or traditional redemption. Instead, he succumbs entirely to his violent psychoses, launching a bloody, stomach-churning massacre.<br>In a traditional Hollywood film, this would mark him firmly as a villain or a tragic cautionary tale. But in the cynical reality of the 1970s media landscape, the press and society misinterpret his unhinged vigilantism as an act of pure heroism. He is celebrated in the newspapers, thanked by Iris&apos;s parents, and returns to his cab as a local legend.<br>The film&apos;s final punchline is incredibly dark: society is so desperate for a hero, and so profoundly broken, that it cannot tell the difference between a saving angel and a ticking time bomb.

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