Martin Scorsese Regrets That The Figure Of Travis Bickle Is A Norm In Today’s Society – THE USA PRINT

Taxi Driver – 98% is one of the most shocking and important films in the history of cinema. Its premise, its setting and its main character continue to be analyzed by experts and still work well as an influence for other works. In fact, some could say that Travis Bickle feels more current than ever in this social context, and that is reaffirmed with each new release that takes him as a platform to create his protagonist. For Martin Scorsese, this shows the importance of tackling monsters in cinema, but also how unfortunate it is that characters like this become the norm today.

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Travis Bickle is a monstrous protagonist

Taxi Driver tells the story of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a lonely and apathetic man who takes the night route in New York to do something with his nights that are usually filled with insomnia and negative thoughts. Nightlife is much more violent and each new experience accumulates inside the protagonist who does not know what to do with his life or where he fits in the world. When Travis meets Iris (Jodie Foster), a teenage prostitute who has been on the streets for some time, the man decides to take justice into his own hands to save her and give her a future that he no longer has.

The film generated great impact upon its release for several reasons, from the violence of the third act to having an underage actress play a prostitute. But beyond these controversies, the film explores the darkness of the human mind and the background of war veterans who, upon returning to the United States, were excluded from society and abandoned by the government without taking into account their experiences, traumas and wounds. of war. Paul Schrader, screenwriter of the film, always had the intention of portraying a dangerous and even unpleasant man, which is not easy to achieve.

That is why the mixture with Martin Scorsese It turned out so well, because the director also understood that it was important to follow this character at all times even though he is not exactly a hero, or a person with relevant virtues. In fact, the third act of Taxi Driver That’s exactly why some people misinterpret the ending to say that Travis is a good person, when in reality what it shows is that he has so much violence inside that on this specific occasion he used it to do good, but next time he won’t. It will necessarily be like that.

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As happens with titles like Fight Club – 80%, American Psychopath – 67%, A Clockwork Orange – 89%, Joker – 91% and even The Boys – 90%, many approach Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver from admiration instead of criticism that arises about toxic masculinity and the society that borders or incites its men to follow certain patterns of violence. For the director, this effect is quite curious and even regrettable, since the idea was to demonstrate that a being this aggressive and monstrous also had a soul, heart and motivations, but not enough to be admired superficially, something that he also explored in Raging Bull – 98%.

During a presentation for GQ about his career (via Variety), Scorsese talked about the difficulties of creating this protagonist who at times could be truly detestable:

We continue to think in terms of the character and his loneliness and his behavior, without justifying his behavior, but he does present bad behavior and yet you empathize with him, which is really complicated. In the end, what stayed with us was the psychological and emotional state of that character. As we now know, tragically, it is a norm for many people to be like Travis Bickle.

Extending the thought to the creation of Jake LaMotta, also played by De Niro, the director added:

We put everything we knew into it (Jake LaMotta’s character), not knowing how it was going to be received. We understood that people didn’t like him, and even the crew, although I didn’t know until later, why are we making a movie about this guy? It is a horror.

This man may be like that, but he is still a human being. He has heart. He has soul. In the end he finds some kind of peace with himself and perhaps with those around him. I think I went there to try to find a part of myself.

Travis Bickle continues to inspire many characters in film and television, and his moral ambiguity continues to pose a very important social and even political criticism. In that sense, Scorsese knows well how to portray characters that test the viewer who feels contempt and admiration for them, as has already been seen in Goodfellas – 96%, The Wolf of Wall Street – 78%, The Departed – 91% and up to Silence – 84%.

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