Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle and his similarities to Eric and Dylan (in my opinion)

I'm sorry if this has already been discussed (I honestly can't remember seeing it before on any board, correct me if I'm wrong) and for creating another thread that may be similar to the "other duos that remind you of Eric and Dylan" thread. I'm creating this because I'm not going to post about duos that remind me of both Dylan and Eric (I can't think of any right now), but I'm going to post about a character that I just realized could have easily been what Eric might have turned into if the attack on columbine never happened, and he'd grown up but had still not sorted himself out.

I have seen the movie Taxi Driver more times than I can count. (in all seriousness, I've actually seen it more than 20 times in my life so far--not "more times than I can count".). I've always felt an incredible empathy for the main character, Travis Bickle.

I had to watch it again last night and analyze it in a photographic sense for one of my courses (called the Art of Film). I had to really scrutinize the lighting, camera angles, colors, and types of shots used, as well as describe what I believed these things were being used to convey. It really made me see this film in a way I hadn't before, and I didn't think that was possible having seen it so many times previously.

So many of the scenes, and so much of the dialogue reminded me of both Dylan and Eric last night. But, the core of the Travis character really made me think of how Eric might be in his mid 20s had he not received any kind of help.

Travis has this incredible moral center within him, but he is incredibly eccentric and isolated. People do not know how to handle him even though he has his own almost weird, but undeniably unique charm that initially draws them in. After a while, though, it pushes them away. After being so withdrawn and isolated for so long, he has absolutely no social skills. I don't mean "he isn't social"; but that he has NO kind of social skills at all. He can not really connect to people even though he desperately wants to. He begins to believe that the only way to effect change regarding deplorable behavior (exploiting children in prostitution) is to kill them. He doesn't care how many others have to die while he kills what he believes is the source (the pimp), and he doesn't care that he does all of this right in front of the very child he is trying to protect. It is so off kilter, but it comes from the greatest, most raw place within the human soul.

It is also quite ironic to me (while my thoughts drifted to this context and this comparison) that in the beginning of the film, Travis tells one of the superiors at the taxi stand where he's applying for a job that he was in the Marines and was honorably discharged when he was 23.

It just reminds of a lot of Eric's views (that he wrote about that we have access to). Particularly this famous set of quotes. He was just much more accelerated in his anger about it, (as opposed to the character of Travis) and decided to attack others and end things much sooner.

Travis' comments about loneliness made me immediately think of Dylan and the things he wrote. But, Eric was just as lonely.

It also made me realize that Eric and/or Dylan living in and experiencing a more diverse, urban setting still might not have done the trick. I've seen people say that if both Dylan and Eric had left suburbia and experienced a more open minded culture in a larger city that it could have helped them. I have said and thought the same thing for a long time. It does not mean that it wouldn't help them, but seeing this film this way made me think that perhaps witnessing all of that degenerate behavior and soulless decay could have made them even more infuriated and hopeless.

Does anyone else feel the same way about this character and this film? Have you noticed any similarities between either Dylan or Eric and the character of Travis?

I've never seen Taxi Driver but after reading this post I really want to. And Eric does sound ALOT like Travis from what you described.

CatherineM813 wrote:

I've never seen Taxi Driver but after reading this post I really want to. And Eric does sound ALOT like Travis from what you described.

This.

I'm only familiair with the "Are you talking to me"scene

I definitive love this movie and watched it a lot. But Im not sure, If Travis really remembers me of Eric and Dylan, although there are a lot similarities. Both, Eric and Travis try to justify their rage and anger with good reasons. Travis moral codex seems a bit influenced by Catholicism, because he often criticize people, who experience sexual things. I never have seen the movie in english, so I dont know the original wording, but analogously he calls people, which he dont like (Whores, fags...) . Eric seemed less focused on a rationalization and only uses the bullying motive.

The reason Travis doesnt remind of Eric is hard to put finger on it. He just doesnt act like I imagine Eric.

Hale-Bopp wrote:

I definitive love this movie and watched it a lot. But Im not sure, If Travis really remembers me of Eric and Dylan, although there are a lot similarities. Both, Eric and Travis try to justify their rage and anger with good reasons. Travis moral codex seems a bit influenced by Catholicism, because he often criticize people, who experience sexual things. I never have seen the movie in english, so I dont know the original wording, but analogously he calls people, which he dont like (Whores, fags...) . Eric seemed less focused on a rationalization and only uses the bullying motive.

The reason Travis doesnt remind of Eric is hard to put finger on it. He just doesnt act like I imagine Eric.

I see some things that remind me of Eric and Dylan in him, but what I mostly thought about and realized while I scrutinized this film that I've already seen so many times, was that it could be Eric as a man in his mid 20s. Things may or may not drastically change in a decade or so for a person, but they can. It was just a different view of the film. I've been researching columbine for about a decade, and I've been watching Taxi Driver for almost 2 decades, but I've never connected them before until yesterday, and I'm finding the similarities very interesting.

"Loneliness has followed me my whole life. In bars, cars, sidewalks, stores everywhere. There's no escape, I'm gods lonely man."

(Time for a rational post.)

I read somewhere that Eric watched Taxi Driver and liked it. So he already had watched this movie. Same thoughts, honestly, as the OP.

It is very funny, how a lot of people think exposure to some kind of "broader world" i.e, city life, would have made Eric (or Dylan) happier and more content. Though I refuse to indulge the discourse of mental illness and the invalidation therein, except to refute it, I think their disillusionment went deeper than a lack of...perspective?...as though we're equating perspective with cosmopolitan life and arbitrary age standards here.

Watch? (youtube link, tales from the crypt. It's relevant.)

(and warden mclusky's head on a stick, allah mohammed char yaar)

People don't change. Cities don't change people. More people doesn't mean less problems with humanity or society. Different viewpoints, same old shit, different day. San Francisco, Denver, Littleton, Butthole Iowa--places consumed by people. Spirit of place eaten alive by human ignorance.

Eric Harris wrote:

America:

Love it or leave it, mother fuckers. All you racist (and if you think I am a hypocrite, come here and let me kill you) mother fucking assholes in America who burn our flags and disgrace my land. GET OUT! And to you assholes in Iraq and Iran and all those other piece of shit desert lands who hate us, shut up and die! We will kick your ass, if you try to fuck with us or at least I will!! I may not like our government or the people running it or things like that, but the physical land an location I DO fucking love! So love it or leave it!

America, love it or leave it! Not necessarily American society though, because it sucks, but we do have some nice land over here...

Nation as landform, instead of nation as culture/social structure.

CatherineM813 wrote:

I've never seen Taxi Driver but after reading this post I really want to. And Eric does sound ALOT like Travis from what you described.

CatherineM813, have you seen this film yet? I really hope you do watch it if you haven't. It is an older film, it is from 1976, but I really think you'd find it thought provoking. I don't know that you'll like it, but it is a very powerful story.

Not yet but I really want too and see the similarities between Eric and Travis for myself. Plus Robert De Niro is an incredible actor.

CatherineM813 wrote:

Not yet but I really want too and see the similarities between Eric and Travis for  myself. Plus Robert De Niro is an incredible actor.

Yes, DeNiro is absolutely brilliant. He was only 33 when he made that film. You may actually like it even though it deals with very dark and unsettling themes, but it is still a truly stunning film.