SNEAKO - How Taxi Driver Predicted the Future of Masculinity

00:00:00.000 All right, this is Taxi Driver, a study of masculinity and existentialism.

00:00:03.860 I've tried to watch it in previous streams, but you guys got bored.

00:00:06.080 Let me watch this video today. I really want to watch it.

00:00:07.960 First thing that people often note about Taxi Driver is how...

00:00:11.280 L-Stream.

00:00:11.580 ...hypnotic it is.

00:00:13.000 The film depicts a nightmarish portrayal of mid-1970s New York City

00:00:17.320 with its stark use of shadows, vibrant reds, and omniscient camera movement.

00:00:23.280 Director Martin Scorsese has explained that the idea for the film arose from his feeling

00:00:27.920 that movies often behave as dreams or drug-induced reveries,

00:00:32.160 and that the hypnotic sensibility of the film

00:00:34.240 operates as an attempt to incubate the viewer

00:00:37.160 with the feeling of being in a limbo state

00:00:39.480 between sleeping and waking.

00:00:41.500 I'm not gonna lie, drugs are bad,

00:00:43.400 but oh my God, do they give you good inspiration for art.

00:00:47.020 In writing the script,

00:00:48.180 Paul Schrader has cited the diaries

00:00:49.780 and assassination attempts of Arthur Bremer

00:00:52.380 as inspiration for Travis's destructive ambition,

00:00:55.260 as well as Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground

00:00:58.940 in which an isolated and bitter narrator delivers rambling monologues

00:01:03.480 much like the diary entries that are ever-present throughout the film.

00:01:07.480 And Schrader states that he saw the script as an attempt

00:01:09.960 to take the European existential hero and place him in an American context.

00:01:15.600 And by doing so, the subject matter devolves to become more juvenile in nature.

00:01:20.660 And if you listen to Travis's journal entries, you'll often find that they're

00:01:24.340 Chad, have you seen this movie?

00:01:25.360 WRL.

00:01:27.540 Highly recommended.

00:01:30.020 I love these entries because it sounds really deep,

00:01:32.400 but then you realize like,

00:01:33.400 oh, he's actually not talking about anything.

00:01:35.240 And that kind of boils down American frustration.

00:01:37.460 Even this movie came out in the 70s.

00:01:38.960 It's like people have this innate nature.

00:01:40.660 This is the character of Travis Bickle.

00:01:42.260 They have this innate feeling in America,

00:01:44.140 especially in a city like New York, a grimy place.

00:01:46.020 A lot of people end up developing these thoughts of like,

00:01:48.600 we need to just clean it up.

00:01:50.020 This is, we need to,

00:01:51.760 but people don't really know what the problem is.

00:01:53.840 the problem is masculinity but he blames it on the dirt and the rain and politicians but he

00:02:02.460 doesn't realize what he's really what he really should be focusing on and you could hear it in

00:02:07.940 diary entries all my life needed was a sense of someplace to go i don't believe that one should

00:02:13.980 devote his life to morbid self-attention i believe that someone should become a person like other

00:02:19.600 people i believe a person should become a person like other people like it just sounds like yeah

00:02:25.320 when you write it and say it in a voice like that just become a person like other people what the

00:02:29.860 okay his worldview isn't intellectual but rather shallow and conceited dravis struggles with

00:02:37.300 existential grief but isn't smart enough to recognize the source of these issues

00:02:41.520 his biggest problem is he can't understand the source of his turmoil and this causes him to

00:02:47.360 project his anguish externally through strokes of brutal violence. Now, Scorsese has remarked that

00:02:53.920 much of the film was inspired by John Ford's The Searchers, and that Travis in many ways is a

00:02:59.460 contemporary manifestation of Ethan Edwards, a character who was also narratively focused

00:03:04.720 with rescuing women. And there's tons of Western and Native American imagery littered throughout

00:03:11.740 the film. Travis dresses and behaves like a cowboy, his taxicab operating as his horse,

00:03:17.400 metaphorically speaking. Sport can be noted as wearing Native American clothing,

00:03:26.140 and Travis dons a mohawk haircut in his most destructive phase of the narrative.

00:03:33.540 And like The Searchers, racism plays as a subtle backdrop to the film,

00:03:37.540 stoking Travis's violent nature.

00:03:41.740 You see, much like Ethan Edwards, Travis is a societal reject.

00:03:46.800 In fact, Betsy remarks on his strange personality early in the film.

00:03:50.900 He's a prophet and a pusher. Partly truth, partly fiction.

00:03:55.480 Walking contradiction.

00:03:57.060 And she's right. Travis is a walking contradiction.

00:04:00.420 He hates the scumminess of New York, but frequents porno theaters and drives around prostitutes. 0.99

00:04:05.180 He talks about maintaining a good diet, but he pours liquor on his breakfast and pops pills constantly. 0.97

00:04:10.660 The truth is, Travis is lonely, and as a result, he's a mishmash of various ideologies.

00:04:16.480 For example, note how even though Travis mentions he isn't political, he puts Palantine stickers all over his apartment.

00:04:23.120 Why? Because Betsy, the woman he's attracted to, is a political supporter of him, so he latches onto this.

00:04:29.500 His whole courtship with her is based around this notion that Travis is desperate to fit in,

00:04:34.160 to re-assimilate himself into a normal life after his time in Vietnam.

00:04:38.660 And this segues into what I want to talk about, the women of Taxi Driver, because this film is

00:04:44.440 at heart about Travis's relationship with these two women. And whether it be the violently

00:04:49.400 sexualized world of Iris or the politicized superficiality that Betsy surrounds herself with, 0.88

00:04:55.360 the lives that these characters lead are paralleled and furthermore mirrored by

00:04:59.760 Travis's clouded attempts at heroism. So let's begin by looking at Betsy.

00:05:05.300 She is first introduced to the audience in an angelic manner, as a woman who is pure.

00:05:11.440 Travis remarks on this in one of his first journal entries, saying,

00:05:14.640 They cannot touch her.

00:05:23.220 And notice how this shot in specific makes an overt attempt to display the distance between the two.

00:05:28.680 Travis only looks at her from afar, as if window shopping on a lifestyle that he can never truly be a part of.

00:05:34.440 But while Betsy is pure, Iris is anything but. She's dumped into Travis's car like a lost child. 1.00

00:05:40.940 Come on, man. Get me out of here, alright?

00:05:44.440 But for Travis, the bridge quality between these two women is the men and their lives. 0.71

00:05:49.440 What Travis notices and clings onto with Betsy and Iris is that both of these women are puppets to social and political figures. 0.99

00:05:56.440 But this perception is largely formed after Betsy rejects Travis romantically.

00:06:01.440 He's incapable of seeing Betsy's dismissiveness as anything other than a superficial perception of his persona.

00:06:13.480 And this is key to his character.

00:06:15.400 Travis develops hatred for the lifestyles that reject him.

00:06:22.760 And as a result, his repressed...

00:06:24.800 Kind of like Daz Games, huh?

00:06:26.420 ...egotism grows.

00:06:27.400 He labels Palantine in sport as figureheads for his vexation.

00:06:31.440 Travis expresses this frustration early in the film, ironically, to Palantine.

00:06:36.360 I think that the president should just clean up this whole mess here. 1.00

00:06:40.800 He should just flush it right down the fucking toilet. 0.99

00:06:43.000 And Palantine's reaction is to feed him a political limerick to flex his 1.00

00:06:47.940 personality. Well, I think I know what you mean, Travis. But it's not gonna be

00:06:55.920 easy. We're gonna have to make some radical changes. Damn straight. Now if

00:07:00.600 If you compare this scene to the one in which Sport is first introduced, the framing demonstrates

00:07:05.380 just how different these men utilize their strengths.

00:07:08.560 Palantine was in full view in Travis' cab, using his power of speech and charisma.

00:07:13.920 Alternatively, we aren't shown Sport's face, only his torso is shown through Travis'

00:07:18.640 window.

00:07:19.640 And Scorsese frames this strategically because Sport is a man characterized by his physical

00:07:24.280 qualities, whereas Palantine relies on charm.

00:07:27.840 And this contrast of physicality vs. personality is demonstrated in other ways throughout the

00:07:32.520 film as well.

00:07:34.080 For example, take this scene in the beginning of the film with Betsy and Tom.

00:07:40.440 Notice how when Betsy is initially bothered by Travis's presence, she sends Tom, her

00:07:44.500 guardian, to verbally excuse Travis.

00:07:46.880 Hey, you're blocking our doorway, you think you might want to miss the cab?

00:07:52.320 I love the way this movie's shot, I want to make a movie like this.

00:07:54.860 I'm really sick of the movies that they're pushing now.

00:07:56.760 She uses politics to dismiss her problems. 1.00

00:07:59.260 On the other hand, when Iris is bothered by Travis' presence, she grabs the arm of a man

00:08:03.520 to protect her.

00:08:05.520 And so these themes of status and masculinity begin to sink into Travis' psyche, triggering

00:08:12.580 his destructive rampage.

00:08:14.280 He decides that he must defeat Sport and Palantine in this pseudo-Westernized battle in order 0.97

00:08:19.740 to give his life a sense of purpose, as he puts it.

00:08:24.360 In a 1976 interview with Roger Ebert, Scorsese and Schrader explain that Taxi Driver in many

00:08:30.060 ways is a feminist film, and that Travis is an exploration of the confused masculine character.

00:08:36.700 Scorsese remarks that Travis exhibits the goddess-whore complex, a psychoanalytic condition

00:08:42.080 first identified by Sigmund Freud, in which men cannot achieve intimacy in a loving relationship, 0.98

00:08:48.200 and thus tend to define women as either Madonnas or whores. 0.75

00:08:52.720 In Travis's mind, Betsy and Iris become symbols of status and purity, and so he deludes himself 0.93

00:09:00.840 into believing his avengement is motivated by altruism to rescue them from oppression.

00:09:06.280 But in reality, his actions are larger attempts to display his masculinity towards the aggressors

00:09:11.560 in his life.

00:09:12.760 And because he was romantically rejected by Betsy, he resorts to expressing his masculinity

00:09:18.400 in a psychosexual form of violence.

00:09:20.520 Now, what's fascinating about the final act of the film is Travis's immortalization.

00:09:30.300 He becomes an accidental hero, and it's no secret that he's monstrous in his intentions.

00:09:35.420 In Betsy's world, Travis is a vigilante eager to advance the decay of society.

00:09:40.000 In Iris's, he's a cowboy, a lone ranger ready to rescue a captive.

00:09:44.760 And in this regard, Travis is mistaken by the public as a hero.

00:09:48.620 Ironically, the film fulfills Travis's self-declared destiny in an accidental and superficial sense.

00:09:58.220 Now many have speculated that the film's final scene is a dream sequence,

00:10:02.860 but I take issue with this for a number of reasons, because while this scene has a dreamlike tone,

00:10:09.300 there is an underlying hint of unease that, to me, defines the ending more definitively.

00:10:14.780 The narrative perspective of this film is singular and because of that we view the world through Travis's eyes

00:10:21.060 And if you study this scene, you'll find it's entirely composed of tight close-ups of Travis

00:10:27.020 Betsy is only framed through his rearview mirror as if to present her a step removed from reality

00:10:32.540 But none of this is to say that what we're seeing is a dream

00:10:35.460 You don't see these shots in movies anymore

00:10:38.020 I love the way they portray New York these 70s movies with when it was still filmed and developed rather than all

00:10:44.500 digital like it is now the storytelling the it's not even fast-paced it's not

00:10:50.140 trying to grab your attention the whole time it's a character study I want to

00:10:53.980 make my first film like this my first feature film that's always been my dream

00:10:57.340 was to be a film director Betsy's presence in this scene makes sense 1.00

00:11:00.940 narratively speaking the surreality is simply a product of Travis's fractured

00:11:05.920 view of reality and the pivotal moment is after Betsy leaves when we see

00:11:10.360 Travis's manic being show up again it's in this moment you see the way they

00:11:17.060 changed the color correction they added a lot of contrast and everything to try

00:11:19.820 to show his insanity that we see Travis is still deeply unstable he's a ticking

00:11:25.000 time bomb waiting to blow again this film is in essence a study of what

00:11:29.700 happens to man in solitude how lonely drives him to points of

00:11:34.680 insanity and to me the most interesting facet of taxi driver is how Scorsese

00:11:39.780 fools us as an audience. We're seduced into liking Travis, into finding his condition relatable in

00:11:46.720 some senses. But at some point, he betrays us. And it's in this trick that Scorsese forces us

00:11:53.760 to look inward at ourselves. Good analysis. All right, Chad, I'm about to get out of here.

00:12:03.060 But I love this movie, man. I love this movie. You should check it out. This was by More Than

00:12:07.260 meets the lens. Great, great video. I think he did a good job dissecting it.

SNEAKO - August 28, 2022

How Taxi Driver Predicted the Future of Masculinity

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