Taxi Driver Write Up

Justin Noddle

Period 6

Taxi Driver Write Up

Taxi Driver is a film directed by Martin Scorsese from 1976 that is set in New York City and is supposed to be just after the Vietnam War. Colombia Pictures distributed this 113-minute movie that had a budget of only $1.3 million. Travis Bickle is a lonely and depressed man who becomes a taxi driver. He meets a girl named Betsy that he really likes and tries to spend time with. He also tries to free a prostitute named Iris. In this process, he becomes a killer.

1.     Even though Travis kills a few men, he is still praised a hero. Why is this?

Everyone still calls Travis a hero even after killing men and shedding blood. This is because he sacrificed his own life to save this little girl’s. He murdered people that were hurting other peoples’ lives and were torturing them. A better approach than murder could have probably have been taken, yet the whole city ignores his murders and Travis becomes famous for his “good deeds.” This shows the type of place he lives in and the type of people that live there. It also reflects on the time period and shows that this was not as big of a deal at the time. It helps establish the setting.

2.     Why is a taxi so important to this film?

The taxi means many things in this film. To begin, the color yellow is rarely used in this film except for on taxis and the color is very bright and this makes them stand out. Also, at one point in the movie Betsy tries to run away from Travis. She calls a taxi to get away from Travis. This is very ironic because Travis is a Taxi driver.  Travis meets many important people in his taxi as well. Travis is the perfect taxi driver because they are usually in need for money, antisocial, and somewhat depressed. This describes Travis very well too. Travis’ job as a taxi driver is what led him to commit all actions that he did in this film.