Bitter vs Better; Travis and I in the Broken Hearts Club (Emma Rees)

Issues. Everybody has them, and I definitely have a few. Specifically, abandonment problems which have followed me my whole life since I was born. Being adopted from China means that after I was born, my biological parents left me in front of a dumpling shop. It was down the street by a police station and I was found around 3 in the morning, bundled up with a blanket in a small, hand-woven basket. I’m not one to usually discuss my adoption background because of the personal effects it has had on my life. For example, rejection is a natural part of life and it’s an inevitable aspect of growing up. The trick is to not let that ‘no’ keep you from rising to the next opportunity and your true potential. However, when my boyfriend broke up with me three weeks ago, I was devastated. In the wake of my grandmother’s death and the stress of schoolwork, he decided to flip the switch and break things off. It left me unable to eat for days unless my friends forced a bowl of soup in my hands. Now, I work on memorizing words of inspiration about moving on (#BenefitsofbeingSingle) with the help of the support system I have around me. Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky to have the same help.

In the film, Taxi Driver (1976), lonely taxi driver, Travis Bickle, roams the streets of New York at night while paranoia follows his every move. Later, he asks out a woman working at a political campaign named Betsy who indulges in a coffee date with him. However, after Travis is unaware of social norms and common date etiquette, Betsy rebuffs his advances and puts an end to their budding relationship. Because Travis lacks a support system (or an effective social circle), Betsy’s rejection is the catalyst for his degenerating mental state. The term, noir, has spiked many arguments and debates on how to be defined and has been most commonly referred to as a genre, style, or mood. Seeing as how this argument has already been thoroughly discussed and analyzed, the purpose of this essay is to explore how one simple action can create a damaging chain of events.

The opening scene starts with a cloud of steam, and a hissing of steam is echoed throughout the dark, Manhattan night. Background music swells with disorganized chords and that slowly builds up the feeling of doom before plot or character is introduced. And then, we meet Travis, our taxi driver, war veteran, and anti-hero. It’s not your usual introduction to a character; his face can be seen in a close up of eyes flickering left to right in a darkly lit frame. This atypical introduction is noteworthy because it is the very first time the audience meets Travis and he doesn’t seem to have the same cool, collected confidence that other male characters have in previously viewed films. Granted, I have no ‘suaveness’ myself (cue the whirring memories of me falling up the stairs or walking into doors). But then again, I’m not in a noir film (if anything, it would be a comedy) but Travis is from an iconic neo-noir film. Although, I did not realize that Travis was being played by a younger Robert de Niro, he pulled off the alienated war veteran who drives around in his cab quite well; just with an emphasis of a nervous demeanor and a quiet manner.

“Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores. Everywhere. There’s no escape…” Wow. It’s no wonder Travis was so moved and taken aback by Betsy’s rejection- his one spark of happiness had left him. There are other taxi cab drivers who seem to be friends with Travis but he is never seems to be fully a part of the group. He rarely speaks and there’s always an object dividing Travis from the others in group scenes. And initially, Betsy was somewhat attracted to Travis and his advances. Perhaps, this came from her curiosity at what he has to offer as he had been holding stakeouts outside of her workplace. Betsy goes from a coffee date to an actual movie date that turns horribly wrong when it turns out to be an inappropriate film for modest women like herself. I would have a very similar reaction to Betsy’s, but with less assertiveness. My worst date was awkward for completely different reasons. I simply didn’t know how to break it to the guy that I was not interested even though he got a glitter tattoo with me.

There’s a possibility one could argue that Betsey would fit the bill of a femme fatale. It’s true, she did not cause anyone’s death like other films or any harm to herself. Originally, I thought she was simply a mysterious woman, idealized by the righteous male character. Later, I came to the conclusion that she is so much more than a minor female character. Betsy’s introduction and Travis’ obvious attraction to her allows her to have an enormous amount of power over him. True, he did take her to a very intimate and adult like movie that is a completely inappropriate venue for dates. However, Travis did try to make it up to Betsy in several methods that involved phone calls going ignored and flowers being left unattended.

Following the rejection, Travis indeed attempts to undergo a transformation in order to clean up the evident corruption in the very cities that he drives in. More workouts, a better, diet, and several guns are purchased for defense. It seems almost crazy and disturbing that Travis goes to such extremes for this transformation. He would often try to test his strength by waving a hand over the stove and even shaving his head for extreme actions. But what was all of this work for? Was he doing it for his own benefit, in a futile attempt to win Betsy back? To prove to her that he wasn’t some sleazy cab driver? Or was it to get revenge on this woman that he had admired so much? Evidence for the latter comes from Travis’ failed assassination attempt on the politician Betsy actively supports. With his newly shaved head and armed jacket, he goes off to complete this task, with the intention of dying. Travis sends the money off to Iris, a teenage prostitute he befriended, so that she may return home and explicitly tells her of his doomed fate. However, when things do not go according to plan, Travis instead does what he sees as second best; kill the captors of Iris and be that heroic figure worthy of the public’s love and such. And after completing the task that he came for, Travis tries to kill himself. Surprisingly, he has run out of bullets and instead settles for miming the action of suicide, a performance just for the cops who showed up to handle the scene.

And with that, the camera does a pan from up above. It displays the crime scene, dead bodies, the streets full of curious people and the swarming of police. It transitions to a voiceover by Iris’ dad who thanks Travis for his actions as the camera displays articles that praise Travis. It leads the ending up for debate, is it a dream or reality? When it comes down to it, the ending is ambiguous and up for anyone’s interpretation. As evidence for the film’s focus to be on Travis’ mental deterioration, the ending is a culmination of his instability as a dream sequence or the perfect fantasy. We see him with his cab friends, enjoying life and work-no sign of a neck wound from the previous scenes. And miraculously, he is visited by Betsy who enters his cab and tells him all of the things he wants to hear-praise and forgiveness. The articles paint him as a hero who defeated gangs and mobsters even though he was only a taxi driver.

Betsy’s rejection of Travis after a second date becomes the catalyst for Travis physically reinventing himself and attempting to save Iris through the acts of violent murder. It is because of this cause and effect event that proves this movie’s focus to be on Travis’ descent further down the path of mental instability. It didn’t help that he wasn’t completely invested in the relationships of his taxi friends and the only other people he interacted with were passengers who paid him money. Travis lived alone and gave no information about his family; combine it with the limited social circle and you see him as the lonely, isolated protagonist. I’m grateful for what I have and the help that I received from family and friends alike. As I mentioned earlier, rejection is inevitable and heartbreak is, unfortunately, a part of growing up. How Travis and I handled rejection demonstrates an obscure similarity between the two of us. What you do afterwards should not be about being bitter about what occurred, but how you’re going to better yourself and move on to becoming the best person that you were born to be. For Travis, he begrudgingly bettered himself to save Iris directly (even if it was second best) when his bitter plan on Betsy failed. And for me, it means letting go of the bitter burns and bringing back happiness to myself by blooming into a little ball of sunshine chose to move on.