As an Iraq war veteran, this analysis is spot on. I spent most of two years fighting against some of the worst humanity has to offer. After my second deployment, I separated and was sent home. That's it. No contacts near home, no leads on potential jobs or schools, just a DD214. At 22, I was lost and felt completely disconnected with the world around me. Isolation eats away at you until there is nothing left but a shell of what once was. Thank you for connecting this movie to real world issues. If more people empathized like this to truly understand another's plight, the world would be a better place for us all. #22aday
The US NSA is the one that operates international drug trade, commits genocide and steals American freedom through Censorship and arresting whistleblowers. How did the VA Hospital experience teach you how the State really feels about you? Clearly, the battlelines are at home!
he was going thru a divorce when his ex would go to work he would sleep in their apartment and be gone when she came back the rest of the time he spent wandering the streets
As a Uber driver for 6 years, it is a very lonely job. You really do become a spectator of other people's lives. Sometimes you become jealous and envious of their lives. And I hate it when you meet someone you really connect with through conversations, then you get to your destination and the ride ends. You never see that person again. It takes a mental toll over time.
"After going through a tough war, it can be rough to adjust to regular life" Not even 10 seconds in and this man already answered why i feel so empty after recovering from depression
Modern human situation* This crippling loneliness and depression isn't a part of our human nature, but an ugly and unpleasing part which is inseperable from our modern post-industrial condition. Everything in life comes with a sacrifice, and the sacrifice for our modern comfort is the mental issues epidemic.
Loneliness is a symptom of deadness of soul, no interior life/ Take good care of your mental, physical and spiritual health/ Life is theological, not ideological/
@@theremnant117 On the contrary, the deduction is infinitely expansive and liberating/ My perception comes from personal experience and self-education/ Ideologies are dogmatically coercive and prohibitively controlling/ You're mistaking theology for religious belief/ I am Christian Anarchist/
@@perrytornado " I am Christian Anarchist" I don't see how the religion offers liberty. It's fall in line or be punished. Badly. A mass control mechanism, almost never meant to help the target audience but rather to empty their pockets and make them fall in line. Especially bad for women, with men hiding behind their god so that they can control them. Suffering is guaranteed.
@@perrytornado I'd say the exact same tho about myself, perception wise I mean. I mean I do understand what you are implying, the soul is certainly under attack for sure but I think what you said in your first reply would be some sort of existential crescendo long after the fact. For the sake of sharing back, I am Agnostic and uh, well, I guess I'd say I think about the world enough as to invent my own ideology that bridges every angle and try to actually figure out the entire economics of it into a tangible thing that can be taken as a stance because I don't believe in the red vs blue, or rather, that it is entirely plastic and not even what "American" is supposed to mean to begin with. I don't think it "green" either, I simply think America needs an entire overhaul of thought that does away with that. We didn't come here to talk about that but hey, I liked your openness.
Deniro's best role I would say. I can relate to Travis's pain. Just wandering around aimlessly. I get it. Living perpetually in the grey area. Nothing really mattering because you're all alone.
And especially how travis saw what was going on in the streets with all the scum in 70s new york. And nowdays its the antifa and blm rioters trying to burn down the country..
If you're lonely, you're in bad company. Take the opportunity to know thyself, and you'll never feel alone again. Many people never get the opportunity to sit down and stop looking outside of themselves for answers, rather look within instead.
I worked as a taxi driver after working abroad for many years. Taxi driving feels like the worst place to be. Outside of the world of people with places to go and see. You are literally a ghost driving a machine. No one will recognise you a second time your just the driver.
Reminds me of a quote from Sherlok "noone thinks about the cabby" The man was a serial killer, and managed to get away with it because everyone including Sherlok were fixating on his passangers, completly ignoring the fact someo e had to drive the car
@@brokenhanz-o4m I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say. I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
@@brokenhanz-o4m First of all thank you man, I feel like i was saved by your comment. I can relate to almost everything you wrote and I think that maybe we are a little hard on ourselves sometimes.
In my opinion Taxi Driver is more relevant today then ever before. With 63% of young men being single, the loneliness topic can be relative to much more people nowadays. I was surprised to see that Travis survived his shootout at the end. Instead of dying, he kept on living and kind of get over Betsy. Truly an inspiring movie.
Many young men today choose Isolation as a means of survival. Ever hear of Divorce Court and how the male is being made fun of in a progressive society. If men who choose to be single feel loneliness from time to time it is now being easily forgotton.
I identify so much with Travis, always alone with my thoughts and wandering around the city watching other people live their normal little lives while i remain eternally alone and an outcast who never fitted in anywhere. A man born in the wrong place and time i feel like many times and my resentment for mankind and the culture we live in grows by the day, yet i manage to remain an optimist deep inside but a drastic change is needed to break this vicious cycle.
I can really empathize with Travis, even though unlike him, most of my hate is not directed towards others but myself as I fail to leave the cycle of loneliness I have been in for years. Complete isolation and social ineptitude. I am able to see that my own choices have led me to this place as I refuse to change who I am for the sake of fitting in as I see that completely unauthentic and weak. I am a loner, I enjoy being alone and spending time on my own, I hate being lonely and having no one to create a meaningful relationship with. Being alone and lonely are two different things. Great video man, keep it up, cheers. "He who walks alone, always walks uphill, but beneath his feet are the broken bones of flawed men"
I’ve learned that you have to start think in other ways and also let some thoughts continue to an eventual positive logical conclusion. Even little lies to yourself can delude and eat and you. I’m projecting but really we’re all good as we are and don’t take every conversation seriously and don’t live in the future or the past because if you can’t see what is front of you in the present, what really can you do to either gain purpose or happiness or fulfillment, if none of those things exist then follow a direction that gives you the highest chance to be content which my opinion is if all else fails money probably can wipe the tears for awhile.
Humans are supposed to have connections to others, it's what keeps us compassionate, the ability to empathize with the suffering of others is crucial. I'm something of a loner myself but recognise the importance of staying connected and compassionate
As much of a mockery it sounds to do, crying about it has helped a lot. With my own self hatred being so deeply embedded into me, my knowing what got me here… the things that make me feel like I’m alone…. To cry for me, is to be able to look into myself. Not just to see my own humanity and that I’m not a complete monster, but also that somewhere inside… there’s a small sliver of me that still cares about my existence after all.
I think that many people underestimate the powerful trauma of Travis being a Vietnam vet. He came of age in that war and it distorts him, makes him unable to see humanity and instead fixates on his delusions of honor and grandeur. He becomes seduced by the idea of being the violent hero. And society rewards him, without realizing how they are turning him into a monster.
Yes well he's trained to fight for his country I think that's why he likes Betsy too because politics is like a battlefield too but he's more of a in the trenches gutter type soldier. The incident when he shoots the robber in the convince store too is that heroic he's worried about being busted by the cops himself for that though is it really him in the wrong helping the shopkeeper?
His service in the marines was intentionally vague. Actually he only mentions he was in the marines and discharged in May 73. Whilst he almost certainly was in vietnam its nva actually stated specifically. The only real evidence was the Vietnamese flag in his apartment.
In my opinion that aspect is overestimated in currect reviews. Travis states in the movie that he's been a loner his whole life and this is backed by the fact that he doesn't seem to have even a single friend from his service days. He clearly has a lot of odd personality traits and trouble relating to people around him which I think is the main driving force behind him in the movie.
Can anyone n ame a single benefit to the human condition tnat the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have created amongst those sent there? There really aren't any, whatever benefits one gains from serving for your brothers and sisters in arms is largely negated by the occupation of either country. And then these vets are given a check by the VA every month and told 'Good luck'.
I went from being a very social person before marriage to becoming very isolated the longer I was married. The separation and divorce reveals some ugly truths...like who you can trust. I didn't know who to trust and felt like a forgotten man. I tucked into weed, cigarettes, booze, movies all night... anything that I could do to stay awake because I kept having the same nightmares when I did sleep. Insomnia was at a all time high, eating a lot and being hungry again to food quickly losing its taste to eating nothing unless absolutely necessary. I agree with Jung... everyone wants to be a hero, the question is how.
I think good woman could fix a lot of that also you got over 100 likes from people mostly likely relating to what you said group meeting would be crazy and someone should start organise it.
Modern society has created millions of incels and it is nothing new. The exclusion from prosperity and opression and poverty, Adolf Hitler has to be the most infamous being rejected from the art's and deciding to infultrate the national socialists.
Same here. Marriage didn’t make me less lonely. On the contrary, I realised that even my wife doesn’t understand me, and I don’t understand her. We are just two lonely persons living together.
I find myself in the same exact situation and often times I deeply contemplate ending it. Then I realize one thing, what's the difference between killing myself and completely changing my character? On both ends of the scale you "die" except one is permanent and the other is a rebirth.
06:32 "...and for him this ends up with two choices it's either his problem or the world's and as so very many do especially at that time he chooses the latter." What a great analysis, one of the best I have ever seen on Travis.
Yes people should really realize that the author of his character was not trying to glorify his behaviour and believed Travis was self destructive and would likely be dead soon after we last see him that's why he refused to write a sequel. It should be also be emphasized that the character is a war veteran with PTSD so mentally ill and trained for violence we don't know what he was like in Vietnam either if you watch Platoon you would realize war changes people and some can't reintegrate into regular society after. We don't know what happens to Jodi Fosters character either she might just run away from home and go out working the streets again there is always more drugs and pimps and crime and cops that don't do enough.
I have seen the movie several times and understand that that was the purpose, but I can't help feeling an evil satisfaction when he in principle executes the pimps. A bit sad that he doesn't kill any politicians, though, since those are the ones that sent him out in the war. These bastards are playing God with other people's lives, just like the bastard in Russia right now, though "our" western leaders aren't that much better.
I'm not a veteran but I do have many things in common with this character. I feel awkward and lonely most of the time.. I am depressed and seriously contemplated suicide multiple times and once I got very close to it. It's just sad that mental health issues are something to be ashamed of, still these days.. I never talk to anyone about it.
Maybe you could try a suicide prevention line or a counselling service first? I don't know what your countries programmes are like or whether they have free services. Try not to guilt yourself if you let your life fall into ruin and have stopped taking care of yourself. When you do have a little motivation to shower, make that meal, go outside or do other chores, take the opportunity to relieve yourself of that little burden. I've found over time I will always have my depressive states but they may only last around 2-4 days. If you can build on your self worth then you may find yourself more comfortable to make relationships. In that case try looking in your area for groups of mutual interest and meet ups. Social skills are a muscle that require practice, everyone can improve or let slip. Learn from your mistakes and try not to beat yourself up about them too long. I've done some of the cringiest stuff the world can imagine but after a day or two of feeling embaressed I try to laugh at myself and say I'm no longer that person because I have learned from it. I hope I haven't come across as preachy. My 20s were a miserable time but in my 30s I have a good group of friends and a kind, understanding partner. You are capable.
@@sanderzphillips i am susspecting op could be referencing that, but you never know if this is the case. It might be the feeling of shame or burden or some other x factor. So thats why i asked him that. I mean i dont think asking "have you tried to ask your parents" would really work".
Look dude i hope you can find someone you fell safe to open up to in real life, but i Just wanna say, If you ever felt the need to do such thing Watch out for some bad things if you visit some depresion assitance forus like one of those subreddits. Please utilize such thing with extreme care, from the things i heard a some places(not all, and such info might be overblown) seem it make someone worse then really help them. Its something to do with having só many deppresed people in one place makes all that site so much heavy and dark too be in there, and there was a case of a forum out there with mfs insentivaiting suicide in those foruns, pretty psycho stuff from such people, Theres a vídeo on It but its really deppresing and i think you will be more happy If you dont watch It.
Ditto! It invigorates me. I've always rationed quality time with close people, never pathetically smothered them or obsessed over them for the sake of preserving my quality of life. Frankly, turning socializing/entertaining into a deliberate addiction is tedious. I, comfortably, can do without such dependencies. It's liberating.
Absolutely! Too many narcissists, predators, psychopaths, bullies, people trying to enforce status based hierarchies in attempts to deny people their equal rights, envy, resentment..the world sure done gone crazy!!
Im no war veteran,but i can tell you that complete isolation brings nothing good,just suffering.Im only 20,but have been suffering with anorexia,severe anxiety,depression and drug and alcohol abuse for 4 years now.Recently ive isolated myself from basically everyone for almost 3 months.I didnt smile once,i didnt cry,i just felt completely empty.My innability to talk to people without a drink,or something else tore me apart,and when i realised that i just fell into a hole of nothing and abused benzos and alcohol frequently.Finally i got prescribed an snri that works well,am clean from alcohol for over 2 months and slowly started socializing again,but im more awkward then ever cause of all the isolation.Dont let yourself fall in this rabbit hole of shit please!
I feel quite like you. I've had anxiety for a vast amount of time now and been struggling with drugs and alcohol for around 6 years. I'm 24. A few days ago I've had a bad breakdown and drunk my counciousness away, wasted lots of money and all for nothing. I also relate with the inability to talk with people without alcohol. I feel the need to distance myself, too. Maybe that would be for the better to regain my composure as a person of this world.
One of the best Taxi Driver analysis videos on TH-cam. Taxi Driver is my all-time favorite film, and even though it has become a joke now, Travis is one of the characters who struggles I've related to the most. When I first watched it, I searched up what condition he suffered from, other than PTSD of course, and one article said that Travis Bickle was a clear example of Schizotypal Personality Disorder, which is the first time I ever heard of a schizo disorder other than schizophrenia. A few years later and it turns out I've got it too. It's similar to autism, which many people assume I have to some degree, and I certainly did too. I had an autism evaluation and they said that I have some traits but am more or less not significantly on the spectrum. I'm glad that autism and ADHD are getting their spotlight right now, after depression and anxiety, but I hope soon people will start to destigmatize schizo disorders, as they are much more common than you'd think. I hope people will watch Taxi Driver and understand what it's like to be like this. Much love. PS: Your voice is kind of monotone, I really thought that you were just a good text to speech. Love the video and will watch more in the future, continue practicing your narration skills!
This video really speaks to me. Years ago when I first saw this film, I loved Travis for the anti-hero aspect, but now I find myself relating to him not for the sigma male meme, but as I have bouts of loneliness and no direction. I’ve been at my lowest months ago and it still comes back occasionally even though I’m better now. Depression ain’t a joke, especially if you have trauma or autism. There’s a lot of Travis Bickles in this world Thankfully I can find little things in life and my love for God above to make life worth living. Been with a therapist, too Good video, worth every minute
My all-time favourite movie, I know that doesn't sound groundbreaking as Im sure most others would say the same thing. However, there is truth as to why not only Taxi Driver is one if not THE greatest movie of all time but others put it as their top favorite. This was Robert's best role, the story was perfect, and the character of Travis Bickle is so relatable but can be a cautionary tale. It shows how the Military and Governments disregard the veterans returning home and left more messed up when they went in. The aesthetic of 1970s New York, the music and of course Jodie Foster's Iris, exceptional
Great video man. This is probably one of the more accurate breakdowns I have seen on TH-cam of this film, you covered the very important things about the message of this film and you didn't try to push an agenda one way or the other while you did it. Even with all that, you managed to make this video shorter than those others with the issues I already mentioned. I appreciate it
“He tries to get close to women but his behaviors come off strange and erratic.” He took a woman to watch porn on a first date and like a child tried to detain her when she wanted to leave. Travis tried to become close to her the way men are taught: physically first. To really be close, you have to let yourself be seen and try to see the person in front of you.
Worth noting that he was also potentially sabotaging the relationship since it was going pretty well before the porno theatre. He deliberately keeps himself in a cycle of loneliness and self-hatred throughout the movie, and he’s inspired by Arthur Bremer who was known to do the porno thing.
Dude managed to convince a beautiful woman(Cybill Shepard was a knockout) to go on a date and he takes her to a porno theater? You would have to be borderline retarded to do something like that. No wonder he’s lonely. He’s an idiot. Loneliness is one thing but this guy needed serious psychiatric help.
@@zeltzamer4010 I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say. I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
"the way men are taught: physically first" - what do you even mean? That women alone do things "right" in relationships? Women need to learn to speak their actual mind and not manipulate men to get their way. Get over yourself.
Watched the movie last night, Shows an element of PTSD. In war, changes happen fast. He comes home to a never changing shit hole... He feels a strong need to do some small change. He does this by blowing away all those who have imprisoned a young girl into prostitution. The ending with the letter from her parents reinforces the fact that he did something right. The final cab scene with Betsy shows that he has come to terms with his role in life and he snubs her by not accepting the cab payment and driving away. He realizes she is a woman of frivolity vs the young prostitute who is in the depths of the gutter. Like he said " This fuking place needs cleaning up!"...
taxi driver still resonates because it embodies the fear of being alone and how hard is to overcome that. when you grow older is not picnic to make new friends, even if the friends are male or female. if you add that you are socially akward because the war messed your head up it's a complete nightmare
Great video! I can emphasize Travis so greatly that it scares me sometimes. I feel like my soul was depicted by a movie. Same problembs but different conditions. Your work helped me to understand deeper why I like the movie so much. Thank you.
I related to Travis ever since I first watched this movie as a teenager... and, I suppose, part of me still does. I've always had a hard time interacting with people, particularly my peers. I remember the first day of 4th grade; I came to school and ALL my friends literally turned their backs on me and pretended I didn't exist. I tried to get in contact with them all day, at least to get an explanation as to what I'd done to deserve this, but no, they just straight up didn't say a word to me, nor did they look at me, or anything. I guess that situation ultimately traumatized me; I still deal with my negative and cynical perception of other people, in particular my peers. (Most of my friends are older than me, and I find those easier to interact with.) Sometimes, it unfortunately isn't as easy as "just going out to socialize". If one faces rejection time and time again, it starts to impact one. I've been lucky enough to meet, and connect with, great people who've been my friends for the past decade. I also realized I'm autistic a few years ago, so I guess that explains a lot...
I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say. I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
Holy shit! I was pretty like this guy. Afghan(11b), divorce, and a general hate for everything outside the military. When I was in basic, I remember my senior drill sergeant say “when you get out of the military you’re going to hate civilians. They’re slow, lazy, and they stink.” He also said “You are a dog that keeps the wolf at bay, and because you are a dog they(civilians) will hate you.” I remember wanting to join the Legion after Afghanistan and years later Ukraine, but if I’m gonna be honest with my self I was too depressed and lazy. I got wrapped up in my own head I basically watched years go by. I’m in a way better place now…we’ll at least for now.
Thank you for making this video. There is another certain video on TH-cam about Travis currently sitting in at a million views that seems to unhealthily take the opposing view that Travis Bickle is a character you should aspire to be, all because he finds a purpose and starts exercising towards the end. A million people are so deaf and dumb to Taxi Driver’s horrifying illumination on male loneliness. Isolation does not make you stronger, it will not give you a greater purpose. It will fester and corrode your core, only to breed plaque and rot. Travis Bickle is the outcome of the decay and rot spreading without intervention. Even Scorsese himself recently stated how much it scares him that so many Travis Bickle’s walk among us now and how prophetic the film was. Hope this video overtakes that other cesspit of an essay.
you can be with many people around you, and still feel lonely, like you are just a spectator of a show thats going on around you.. everything seems fake. thats how i feel from day to day.. i cant escape. when i walk around in the city, i feel like im invisible.
"A million people are so deaf and dumb to Taxi Driver’s horrifying illumination on male loneliness. Isolation does not make you stronger, it will not give you a greater purpose. It will fester and corrode your core, only to breed plaque and rot." 100%. I think a lot of those morons that say stuff like that have never actually had to deal with true loneliness. There seems to be a large conflation with being an independent person who can do stuff on their own and people who are genuinely lonely. While the former is a positive, the latter is about as destructive as it gets.
“Isolation does not make you stronger” It can though if you have the right mindset and don’t sink into alcohol or porn or self pity. I think so many people identifying and almost promoting Bickles mindset is disturbing but not surprising. Plus we need to realize a good % of those are very young edgelord types Scorsese shouldn’t be surprised that there are more Bickles now when there is no corrective measure within our society to fix the Bickles. Society is getting even more lopsided in terms of “haves and have nots” and that type of system will breed millions of very lonely troubled, purposeless people most of whom will be men. I have no idea how to fix or even begin to turn that around
I'm like Travis: cope by drinking, am simply unable to socialise normally (autistic traits), and work a socially isolating job (in a warehouse). I'm 41 but I died years ago. Life is just an empty, pointless waste of time. Once my parents are dead, I'll probably end up killing myself. What a life.
The opening line "After going through a tough war, it can be really hard to adjust to regular life" made me realize why literally anyone can fall victim to Travis' fate, as we all have our own personal "wars" or "battles" that we go through which leave us feeling uncertain & anxious at best and disassociated & manic at worst. Our fate in the aftermath of our experiences, however; It's all about the choices we make. Everyone ends up where they deserve to be in life based on those choices, for better or for worse. I think THAT'S the message of this movie. Batman and Joker had the same backstory. Batman decided he didn't want anyone to be hurt the way he had been, whereas Joker decided he wanted others to know the same pain he felt. Choices, fellas 💪
There are multiple themes revolving around this movie and one can't possible get to explain it all with a mere sentence. However, I've always seen this movie as the story of a man unable to connect with society and, after finding something to fight against, -trying then to commit murder,- he actually gets turned into a hero and praised for his bravery. It's like, after trying to find a way out, he's ironically end up being praised by everyone. He literally got into the system by trying to get out, and that was only possible because of everybody's ignorance about his previous attempt of murder. What if he had actually committed murder? Even if he ended up as a hero, if society had knowledge of his attempted crime its vision would be the exact opposite. He's only regarded as a hero because they don't know who he is, that's the brilliance of it all. Not necessary to clarify that he's neither a hero nor a villain, but a lost man with war trauma and a huge inability to connect with the world around him. That's where this video is completely spot on.
I really enjoyed your video. I saw this on the big screen as a student around 1990 and it has stayed with me ever since, even though I havent watched it for decades. Martin Scorsese shows us something universal and human, and the performances, the music, the lighting, editing, everything about the movie is just poetry. I really enjoyed seeing some of that again in your video. I remember being so surprised towards the end when he is suddenly a hero in the papers, because the journey towards that horribly violent event was so terrible to watch. And I remember thinking yeah, that's mad but somehow believable, that he would become a 'hero' in the media. And the final shot in the rearview mirror, where we see Travis Bickle is still totally unpredictable...
I woke up today with unfiltered thoughta about all sorts of issues pertaining to me. Then a bit later while on my way to work, I find the video. I speaks almost perfectly of my issues. Minus the war trauma and heavy-handed actions. I feel i can get some respite from this, i dont feel so alone today now. I'll continue to work hard fixing this
The "airborne mohawk" isn't any kind of ritual behavior for suicide missions. It was just common in some airborne units in times of war when standards usually relax. It was kind of a morale booster depending on your unit. But the tradition you speak of may have come from units I'm not familiar with.
After 30yrs of abandonment & heartache & disappointment & letdown by most of the people & all the women in my life. Being alone but not lonely is the best thing in my life 😊
Truly I have never found something so fucking relatable. And never could I have thought it would be with one of my all time favorite actors. This life we live in isn’t promised and truly this world is a dark evil place. You can go from having it all to having what seems like pure hell in the palm of your hands. I’m beyond tired in this cold place but I don’t wanna let go just yet. There are people here that need me
5:29 That's actually WW2. it's an Army Airborne Unit. One guy in the Squadron was part Native American ( because of his mother). The other guys in the squadron liked it so they copied him. Also, he rubbed off the hot paint from their plane and rubbed it in his face.
As someone who is Ex Merchant Navy , I can really relate to Travis. In fact its almost text book bar the Vietnam war, just replaced with going to sea. We brave storms, long working hours, stress, insomnia, insane regulation and continuous isolation for months on end. I was at it since I was 18, I am now 26 and had to come ashore due to PTSD caused by various events. No one truly understands nor cares. Its very difficult to get back into society or socialize. A sense of self is sorta eroded due to the loneliness. Emptiness has filled the void. I struggle to relate to those around me. Emotionally I just cant open up. I try and stay hopeful that things will change for the better. Empathy and understanding are in extreme short supply nowadays, greed and want in absolute excess. Your analysis is bang on the money and is superb in relating to real world issues. Hopefully the world will improve! Great video!
Okay. I have a text wall. Please be patient, and I'll word everything very carefully. Since I was 6, I was a victim of SA from my older brother. He lied to me. Manipulated me and convinced me it was normal. Regardless of how empty and wrong it made me feel. Our dad was a recovering heroine addict biker. He wasn't evil in that way. Just not very aware. I couldn't muster the strength or courage to tell anyone. So, after 10 years of abuse and manipulation, our dad dies. We divide, and I get away from my older brother. After 5 years of adjusting to life, I felt stuck in a rut. So, I joined the army. Gave me purpose... at first. I went to Fort Lewis, Washington. Spent a whole year before deploying. Was great for my mental health to be positively surrounded by mostly positive male role models. We go to war, and we see some action, and my friends feel so alone. I felt with trauma before and compartmentalized all of it and went on like it was daily life. It really freaked everyone out, and no one wanted to talk to me. Except the Chaplin. We were both from the same state, and he was highly aware of my condition and told me to be more observant of other people. He said, "to examine their pain to help you process yours." At the time, I didn't know what he meant, but I took it to heart and carried on. After getting dumped, I felt used again. It's only worse this time. I began to transform back into Travis, but with drugs. In total isolation, I would consume acid and sift through my trauma. I had never heard of this stuff before, and I've never heard of it being done in isolation. After about 3 years of doing that and reflecting on my chaplain's words, I met my wife. It was everything that had been rolling around in my head came to a screeching halt, and it all made sense. I saw her pain and felt her trauma. We've been together for 9 years. I'm disabled now and do piece work from home. I keep a set schedule for my daily activities and game time. All of this is done in my head because of my excessive self-awareness. I turn all of the negatives into positives. I use it for motivation for my son, who is just starting kindergarten. I don't know how others navigate trauma in life. I don't even understand how I can process it the way that I do. I was never really given the chance for a normal life, so I can't even comprehend what it must be like for them. Sorry if this was a bit of a ramble. I just thought I would share something positive, and people should really change how they think and approach challenges in life.
I can elaborate on my isolation. I went no contact with my family. I got an apartment in a decent area, and I got a local job I could walk to. I had a PS3 and a Game Cube, a nice stereo for my CDs. On my days off, I would clean my apartment, drop acid, put on all of the Linkin Park albums I had, and played Resident Evil 4 exclusively on both my consoles. It gave me a sense of control going into my trips. Also, if Leon can survive this, I can confront my demons.
I was using a variety of drugs. I quit drinking as it just wasn't what I wanted. My usual cocktail for a trip was a blunt mixture of spice and chronic, a perkaset, and my acid. The blunt would relax me and make me laugh and laugh and laugh. The pill would kick in and have me detach a little bit from myself. To keep myself grounded in reality. It made the acid trips something I felt like I could walk through and make myself numb to all fear. I don't do this anymore. I just smoke dabs now.
The first time i watched taxk driver i was 19. Reading Siddhartha, reading a shitload kf the romantic poets and anything i could find on zen and mushin since i couldnt practice my martial arts. Jobless, my fiancee had just left me for her ex-i found out when she wss on the way there with all her shit. my dad ended up in rehab i was trying to get my aunt into rehab and i was helping raise her two kids. It was chaos. Im glad im out of it and eveyrone is healthy and sober. I have a girl i couldnt even imagine is so good to me. Keep your head down your eyes up and stay strong brothers. The end results will justify all the suffering. I know its hopeless. I know its hard. Dont be so hard on yourself and enjoy the small things. The things i miss the most are the times i spent with my little brother and sister. Cooking cleaning yelling at them to get ready for school. Now that im older i miss it everyday.
I was in a very dark place in my life when I happened to see this movie at the time it was incredible how I actually felt like and related to Travis I was very close to becoming something like that and after watching it I started the slow walk out of that place for some reason.
This is kind of beside the point of this wonderful analysis of Travis Bickle's plight in the film, but at 3:53 there's this wonderful shot of Paul Schrader, Scorcese with DeNiro who has this almost child-like smile on his face, which is utterly antithetical to Travis' common demeanor. It just really struck me. There's Bobby Milk in full view. Made me happy. Sound kinda corny? Yeah, it is.
Thanks for the detailed description about the movie Taxi Driver Especially about the hairstyle reason mentioned is ultimately unexpected finally this video solved the mystery about it. I really loved this detailing about Travis❤ Days go on there is no escape I'm God's lonely man Felt everyone being a Masterpiece🫂 forever
Another way the assassination attempt could be viewed is it was a way he tried to kill his memory of Betsy by taking out something that she supported but since it failed he had one last resort. His archetypal role is most likely an anti-villain at first but due to failure becomes an antihero
he knew palatines secret-he was a scumbag. palatine is the nasty old man at the beginning of the film with the black hooker. he say 'i can't afford to get stopped anywhere around here which travis hears and remembers. he was trying to once again fight for his country and save them from palatine.
Ive watched this movie many times. Im not a vet, but Ive had my own dances with reality. Watching this video hurt. It hurt because I realized I've been letting the recent trauma Ive received start to turn me into Travis. I dont want to be Travis. I wont be Travis. Thank You.
@@MrEtherguy I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say. I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
Too late. I'm already Travis Just wanna work long hours and come home to sleep, I see everyone around me as a degenerate, invisible to women and even if there is one who potentially sees the good in me, I quickly somehow give them a reason why they shouldn't have, my health is shit and of course I wander around aimlessly
So, your video dropped on my youtube feed and I watched few seconds of it in the beginning. The way you have edited and voiced this instantly gave me the idea that this is the video I NEED to watch in its entirety. But, I hadn't watched Taxi Driver. Just completed watching the movie and as a 26 year old, I'm not sure how to feel about relating so hard to all of this. It's been almost 50 years since this movie came out, and feels like nothing has changed. A lot of us are still struggling to find our purpose, falling to mindless pleasures and living day-by-day. I try to fill my life with purpose by doing what I love (writing articles for video games), practicing music, being there for my parents/little sister and getting a Master's Degree. But, what after this? Yikes. Honestly, seeing how Travis connects with his buddies regularly made me a little jealous. My friends are either busy with 'their own stuff', live in different cities/countries or just don't exist at all. Even if I do meet them, it's tough to truly connect. I don't know if life is about getting better about loneliness or just being there for other people. Maybe a bit of both. Thanks for making this video, my guy. And, thanks for reading all of this. Feeling much better.
I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say. I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
i was raised in an abusive violent dysfunctional 'family'. one day one of my mother's jealous suitors came in with a 30-06 and announced he was there to kill me, my sister and my mom. I slung them through the house toward the back door and then turned to fight. i was 15 and took quite a beating but no one died that day but i fought with everything i had. i tried to choke him out with the telephone cord wrapped around his neck and held it with my teeth while i pulled as hard as i could. i meant to kill him but i bit the cord in half. by then it was just me and him in the house, i felt nothing. no fear. nothing. i just looked at him and did not care what came next as my family was safe. i try to avoid trouble whenever i can but when cornered i come out fighting. i cannot see, hear or even think. survival is all that matters. i got no therapy just went back to school the next day. now i see everyone i meet as a potential attacker and am always always on high alert. now i keep back up. I am become Travis Bickle. love to all.@@betterfad3d
'Taxi Driver' is my number one all-time favourite film. I saw it when it was first released in 1976, and although it may sound over-dramatic, it absolutely changed my life. I bought the video [and the 'Special Edition' DVD when it was later issued] as well as the [vinyl] soundtrack LP by Bernard Herrmann. I actually purchased a US Marines military jacket - complete with insignia etc - like the one 'Travis' wears in the film. I even managed to acquire an original official promotional poster showing 'Travis' walking along a deserted New York street and several black and white 'stills' photos of De Niro, Cybil Shepard, Harvey Kietel and Jodie Foster during the making of the film - which are now extremely valuable as collector's items. No other film has had such a profound impact on me and even to this day, I am still totally mesmerised when I watch it. Michael Chapman's stunning cinematography, Paul Schrader's astonishingly grim screenplay combined with Martin Scorsese's expert direction. 'Taxi Driver' is simply a cinematic masterpiece. The only film I know that comes close [in style, pathos and content] is Wim Wender's 1984 tour de force - 'Paris, Texas'. Based on a sublime screenplay by the late Sam Shepard and as with 'Taxi Driver', it centres around a disenfranchised, lonely man [also named 'Travis'] who has turned his back on society and is wandering aimlessly - lost in a desert with just his memories. I wish they still made films like this - instead of the utter garbage they churn out today.
my main takeaway from taxi driver was, loner has no life, no friends, no family, nothing to lose, and kills a pimp and trick just to save a 12 year old girl.
the presidential candidate was in travis' cab twice-once in the beginning with the black hooker acting like a creepy old pervert and again with an advisor acting like the perfect politician. travis saw through this and felt he had to stop it like the end of the dead zone. he was a good sane man who did crazy things for the right reason. we will never know how much misery was prevented by seemingly horrific. we live in the twilight zone.
Travis is lonely because he's the one good person in an awful world. He's surrounded by people, yet utterly alone, and even in his attempts to remedy this, no one is worth his time. I mean, look at his conversation with Wizard.
Uh, no. Travis is a racist, a sexist, addicted to p0rnography, an alcoholic and a potential terrorist, he ain't a good guy. He's the result of a bad society.
If world is so awful there would be at least some things that are good. Some people. He just did not look hard enough and gave up early. If you think the world is that bad then be the change instead of blaming and complaining. That does not solve anything just adds to the the bad.
Taxi Driver, on my list of movies I've seen once, loved watching for what it is, and never want to see again. Also, what struck me when watching it is that in all the scenes in Travis's apartment, you can very clearly hear the outside noise of New York. Almost like it's amplified. Like it's telling us that people like Travis are sitting alone in apartments right now, and we're passing them by every day.
I think something that made me feel a way for this movie was the mirror scene, I thought wtf is he doing and I shortly realised I talk to myself in the mirror too, I think some scenes like that tune the viewer in more
I’m stayed in my house 24hrs/day. Spend about ten minutes outside per day for something to eat. Keep smoking and drinking heavily. Since my wife gone, around the same time my buddy fly to heaven. Lose my job. Didn’t want to find one. Didn’t want to do anything anymore. Out there the world keeps spinning. But in here time has stopped. Anything reminds me of her will stay where they are. Anything that belongs to my friend still stay where it is. Keep thinking and thinking about them. My body starts to feel weird sometimes. Hope it ends soon. By the way I love Taxi Driver, Great movie.
This movie was like a horror film when I was young. I was studying literature and I knew fictional stories, but it still scared me really bad that someone can go crazy with delusions. It was done in a realistic way and that freaked me out. So did the Shark in "Jaws" and the clown from "Poltergeist". "Taxi Driver" was very edgy. Strange vibes in that film. The main character is flip flopping from the dregs pimps, drugs and the Politician's office girl and all the subjects associated with that to an X Rated film for a date. Oh, that gave me chills. Bend my head up and then he starts planning for defense. It's way intense.
Same. To me it's one of the scariest movies I know because it taps into a real deep dark hole that's in all of us. Loneliness. Isolation. A twisted desire to make a mark. This movie shows how destructive those factors can be if they are channeled into the wrong things. There were moments in my teenage years when I could identify too much with Travis for my own comfort. That still scares me.
I interpreted the ending as Travis’ limbo or afterlife; the news clippings, letter and seeing Betsy in his cab just his mind creating an ideal scenario for him to cope with
As an Iraq war veteran, this analysis is spot on. I spent most of two years fighting against some of the worst humanity has to offer. After my second deployment, I separated and was sent home. That's it. No contacts near home, no leads on potential jobs or schools, just a DD214. At 22, I was lost and felt completely disconnected with the world around me. Isolation eats away at you until there is nothing left but a shell of what once was. Thank you for connecting this movie to real world issues. If more people empathized like this to truly understand another's plight, the world would be a better place for us all. #22aday
The US NSA is the one that operates international drug trade, commits genocide and steals American freedom through Censorship and arresting whistleblowers. How did the VA Hospital experience teach you how the State really feels about you? Clearly, the battlelines are at home!
Stay with us. Please. We need to hear you.
i hope you can fully recover from the past, and thank you for your service
thank you brother ❤
Thank you ❤
Paul Schrader, the screenwriter, literally said "If I don't write this character, I'm going to become him."
Damn fr?
"My name is ASAC Schrader!"
he was going thru a divorce when his ex would go to work he would sleep in their apartment and be gone when she came back the rest of the time he spent wandering the streets
@@Fatelvis2 my life
@@josephyoung6749 😥not uncommon
As a Uber driver for 6 years, it is a very lonely job. You really do become a spectator of other people's lives. Sometimes you become jealous and envious of their lives. And I hate it when you meet someone you really connect with through conversations, then you get to your destination and the ride ends. You never see that person again. It takes a mental toll over time.
Go work 4 ups I'm doing it myself and was uber driver u gonna have colleagues and 6 figure income and health care.
Never say Never
Honestly as a passenger if I really bond with a driver, I wouldn’t mind if he ask for my number or my Instagram.
@@Rising3216I quit ups for Uber 😂
Rather have my freedom
@@BramptonHughes first i make 6 figures and I dont have direct boss and also AI not close to take my job.
"After going through a tough war, it can be rough to adjust to regular life"
Not even 10 seconds in and this man already answered why i feel so empty after recovering from depression
I thought the exact same.
45+ years later and the themes of this movie are still as relevant as they were back them. Times might change, but human nature doesn’t.
You could argue there are more important than ever
Probably worse now because of the rise of social media
It's a timeless theme so length of time between then and now is irrelevant, kind of like how ancient Greek philosophy is still relevant.
Modern human situation*
This crippling loneliness and depression isn't a part of our human nature, but an ugly and unpleasing part which is inseperable from our modern post-industrial condition. Everything in life comes with a sacrifice, and the sacrifice for our modern comfort is the mental issues epidemic.
@@jundullah9869Not modern situation, human nature the OP was talking about.
Travis is a good person at heart, but the world he lives and his loneliness has eaten away at his heart
Loneliness is a symptom of deadness of soul, no interior life/ Take good care of your mental, physical and spiritual health/ Life is theological, not ideological/
@@perrytornado rather narrow deduction imo
@@theremnant117 On the contrary, the deduction is infinitely expansive and liberating/ My perception comes from personal experience and self-education/ Ideologies are dogmatically coercive and prohibitively controlling/ You're mistaking theology for religious belief/ I am Christian Anarchist/
@@perrytornado " I am Christian Anarchist" I don't see how the religion offers liberty. It's fall in line or be punished. Badly. A mass control mechanism, almost never meant to help the target audience but rather to empty their pockets and make them fall in line. Especially bad for women, with men hiding behind their god so that they can control them. Suffering is guaranteed.
@@perrytornado I'd say the exact same tho about myself, perception wise I mean. I mean I do understand what you are implying, the soul is certainly under attack for sure but I think what you said in your first reply would be some sort of existential crescendo long after the fact. For the sake of sharing back, I am Agnostic and uh, well, I guess I'd say I think about the world enough as to invent my own ideology that bridges every angle and try to actually figure out the entire economics of it into a tangible thing that can be taken as a stance because I don't believe in the red vs blue, or rather, that it is entirely plastic and not even what "American" is supposed to mean to begin with. I don't think it "green" either, I simply think America needs an entire overhaul of thought that does away with that. We didn't come here to talk about that but hey, I liked your openness.
Deniro's best role I would say. I can relate to Travis's pain. Just wandering around aimlessly. I get it. Living perpetually in the grey area. Nothing really mattering because you're all alone.
And especially how travis saw what was going on in the streets with all the scum in 70s new york.
And nowdays its the antifa and blm rioters trying to burn down the country..
Get a dog and a good therapist that can help u build better relationships, good luck
Book a trip to colombia
If you're lonely, you're in bad company. Take the opportunity to know thyself, and you'll never feel alone again. Many people never get the opportunity to sit down and stop looking outside of themselves for answers, rather look within instead.
@@ryucartel351 , you'd be surprised how many times that ive told some people the same thing
“someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets” still goes so hard
Sounds like something Rorschach would say
Let the Lord bring the rain in.
Yes
@@daustin8888Its almost literaly one of his opening lines in Watchmen.
I’m your comment’s 200th like 👍
I worked as a taxi driver after working abroad for many years. Taxi driving feels like the worst place to be. Outside of the world of people with places to go and see. You are literally a ghost driving a machine. No one will recognise you a second time your just the driver.
Reminds me of a quote from Sherlok "noone thinks about the cabby"
The man was a serial killer, and managed to get away with it because everyone including Sherlok were fixating on his passangers, completly ignoring the fact someo e had to drive the car
@@brokenhanz-o4m I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say.
I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
@@brokenhanz-o4m First of all thank you man, I feel like i was saved by your comment. I can relate to almost everything you wrote and I think that maybe we are a little hard on ourselves sometimes.
You must be getting some sickly self pity enjoyment out of it otherwise you would have stopped feeling that way.
He would be in the death camp system and stopped from completing his plan.
"Someday a real rain will come and wash away all the scum off the streets..."
Couldn't come soon enough
I thiught of that line when it was raining the other day and people were running to get away
This is where Tool took the idea for the song Aenima 😮. I guess
A real rain `24
🔪
In my opinion Taxi Driver is more relevant today then ever before. With 63% of young men being single, the loneliness topic can be relative to much more people nowadays. I was surprised to see that Travis survived his shootout at the end. Instead of dying, he kept on living and kind of get over Betsy. Truly an inspiring movie.
The only issue with that last part is that Travis is still a time bomb who hasn’t come to terms with the fact he is the biggest source of his misery.
Travis pickle did nothing wrong
@@PersonaroseSociety is, not him
Many young men today choose Isolation as a means of survival. Ever hear of Divorce Court and how the male is being made fun of in a progressive society. If men who choose to be single feel loneliness from time to time it is now being easily forgotton.
Well, I believe he died in the end, all those positive things Travis described were just a trick of his mind before the last breath.
I identify so much with Travis, always alone with my thoughts and wandering around the city watching other people live their normal little lives while i remain eternally alone and an outcast who never fitted in anywhere. A man born in the wrong place and time i feel like many times and my resentment for mankind and the culture we live in grows by the day, yet i manage to remain an optimist deep inside but a drastic change is needed to break this vicious cycle.
I feel the same bro, don't give up
@@Felipe-u8p Likewise bro, i appreciate that.
I think I understand Travis more than I wanted to
Same brother I don’t get it
There is no normal
10/10 when Travis says "It's a taxi drivin time" and then drove all over the place. One of the moments in cinema history
I can really empathize with Travis, even though unlike him, most of my hate is not directed towards others but myself as I fail to leave the cycle of loneliness I have been in for years. Complete isolation and social ineptitude. I am able to see that my own choices have led me to this place as I refuse to change who I am for the sake of fitting in as I see that completely unauthentic and weak. I am a loner, I enjoy being alone and spending time on my own, I hate being lonely and having no one to create a meaningful relationship with. Being alone and lonely are two different things.
Great video man, keep it up, cheers.
"He who walks alone, always walks uphill, but beneath his feet are the broken bones of flawed men"
I’ve learned that you have to start think in other ways and also let some thoughts continue to an eventual positive logical conclusion. Even little lies to yourself can delude and eat and you. I’m projecting but really we’re all good as we are and don’t take every conversation seriously and don’t live in the future or the past because if you can’t see what is front of you in the present, what really can you do to either gain purpose or happiness or fulfillment, if none of those things exist then follow a direction that gives you the highest chance to be content which my opinion is if all else fails money probably can wipe the tears for awhile.
Humans are supposed to have connections to others, it's what keeps us compassionate, the ability to empathize with the suffering of others is crucial. I'm something of a loner myself but recognise the importance of staying connected and compassionate
Bro think he is him
Sometimes you got to fake it there’s people out there that I’m sure would appreciate your off beatness probably I’m sure
As much of a mockery it sounds to do, crying about it has helped a lot. With my own self hatred being so deeply embedded into me, my knowing what got me here… the things that make me feel like I’m alone….
To cry for me, is to be able to look into myself. Not just to see my own humanity and that I’m not a complete monster, but also that somewhere inside… there’s a small sliver of me that still cares about my existence after all.
Its very difficult to NOT end up being like travis bickle nowadays
alright bro you're just over exaggerating lol.
I think that many people underestimate the powerful trauma of Travis being a Vietnam vet. He came of age in that war and it distorts him, makes him unable to see humanity and instead fixates on his delusions of honor and grandeur. He becomes seduced by the idea of being the violent hero. And society rewards him, without realizing how they are turning him into a monster.
Yes well he's trained to fight for his country I think that's why he likes Betsy too because politics is like a battlefield too but he's more of a in the trenches gutter type soldier. The incident when he shoots the robber in the convince store too is that heroic he's worried about being busted by the cops himself for that though is it really him in the wrong helping the shopkeeper?
His service in the marines was intentionally vague. Actually he only mentions he was in the marines and discharged in May 73. Whilst he almost certainly was in vietnam its nva actually stated specifically. The only real evidence was the Vietnamese flag in his apartment.
In my opinion that aspect is overestimated in currect reviews. Travis states in the movie that he's been a loner his whole life and this is backed by the fact that he doesn't seem to have even a single friend from his service days. He clearly has a lot of odd personality traits and trouble relating to people around him which I think is the main driving force behind him in the movie.
Can anyone n ame a single benefit to the human condition tnat the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have created amongst those sent there? There really aren't any, whatever benefits one gains from serving for your brothers and sisters in arms is largely negated by the occupation of either country. And then these vets are given a check by the VA every month and told 'Good luck'.
@@Deadfoot-Dan Oil.
the more i grow older the more i resonate with this movie .
Likewise.
I went from being a very social person before marriage to becoming very isolated the longer I was married. The separation and divorce reveals some ugly truths...like who you can trust. I didn't know who to trust and felt like a forgotten man. I tucked into weed, cigarettes, booze, movies all night... anything that I could do to stay awake because I kept having the same nightmares when I did sleep. Insomnia was at a all time high, eating a lot and being hungry again to food quickly losing its taste to eating nothing unless absolutely necessary. I agree with Jung... everyone wants to be a hero, the question is how.
Fucking amen, brother.
There are a lot of lost souls wandering through this world. We're like society's "shadow".
I think good woman could fix a lot of that also you got over 100 likes from people mostly likely relating to what you said group meeting would be crazy and someone should start organise it.
You should have ADOPTED MIGTOW before marriage.
Modern society has created millions of incels and it is nothing new. The exclusion from prosperity and opression and poverty, Adolf Hitler has to be the most infamous being rejected from the art's and deciding to infultrate the national socialists.
Same here. Marriage didn’t make me less lonely. On the contrary, I realised that even my wife doesn’t understand me, and I don’t understand her. We are just two lonely persons living together.
What he just needed was just love. He tried his best but everyone misjudged him.
too late. he's Literally Me.
me.
@djolo5140 npc.
I find myself in the same exact situation and often times I deeply contemplate ending it. Then I realize one thing, what's the difference between killing myself and completely changing my character? On both ends of the scale you "die" except one is permanent and the other is a rebirth.
@djolo5140In my case I am trying but it seems to be almost impossible
@@TheGhjgjgjgjgjg well life in general is really good at foiling anyones plans, so there's that
06:32 "...and for him this ends up with two choices it's either his problem or the world's and as so very many do especially at that time he chooses the latter." What a great analysis, one of the best I have ever seen on Travis.
Yes people should really realize that the author of his character was not trying to glorify his behaviour and believed Travis was self destructive and would likely be dead soon after we last see him that's why he refused to write a sequel. It should be also be emphasized that the character is a war veteran with PTSD so mentally ill and trained for violence we don't know what he was like in Vietnam either if you watch Platoon you would realize war changes people and some can't reintegrate into regular society after. We don't know what happens to Jodi Fosters character either she might just run away from home and go out working the streets again there is always more drugs and pimps and crime and cops that don't do enough.
I have seen the movie several times and understand that that was the purpose, but I can't help feeling an evil satisfaction when he in principle executes the pimps. A bit sad that he doesn't kill any politicians, though, since those are the ones that sent him out in the war. These bastards are playing God with other people's lives, just like the bastard in Russia right now, though "our" western leaders aren't that much better.
"everyone is travis now"- Martin Scorsese 2023
Better than relating to Alex Delarge, not saying you are.
Obviously society created a generation of new Travis nowadays and social media too
False quotation, he said "Every other person"
I was afraid of becoming Travis Bickle so I became Patrick Bateman.
What about a Patrick Bateman video??? Edit: It's here! th-cam.com/video/Q68trm3iFEQ/w-d-xo.html
What about the Joker? Because that's the 'literally me' character I think about during my most disconsolate and isolated hours nowadays...
@@ValaritasYTwhat about a carlito's way video? (The total opposite of Travis)
I cant decide to be good or evil in life
@@CyganskiHaker Why be evil lol
Travis is such a complex characther that it's impossible not to see yourself reflected in him at some point
BROTHER YOU SPIT FACTS FOR NONSTOP 8 MINUTES REALLY RESPECT YOU
I'm not a veteran but I do have many things in common with this character. I feel awkward and lonely most of the time.. I am depressed and seriously contemplated suicide multiple times and once I got very close to it. It's just sad that mental health issues are something to be ashamed of, still these days.. I never talk to anyone about it.
Maybe you could try a suicide prevention line or a counselling service first? I don't know what your countries programmes are like or whether they have free services. Try not to guilt yourself if you let your life fall into ruin and have stopped taking care of yourself. When you do have a little motivation to shower, make that meal, go outside or do other chores, take the opportunity to relieve yourself of that little burden. I've found over time I will always have my depressive states but they may only last around 2-4 days. If you can build on your self worth then you may find yourself more comfortable to make relationships. In that case try looking in your area for groups of mutual interest and meet ups. Social skills are a muscle that require practice, everyone can improve or let slip. Learn from your mistakes and try not to beat yourself up about them too long. I've done some of the cringiest stuff the world can imagine but after a day or two of feeling embaressed I try to laugh at myself and say I'm no longer that person because I have learned from it.
I hope I haven't come across as preachy. My 20s were a miserable time but in my 30s I have a good group of friends and a kind, understanding partner.
You are capable.
Why didnt you try to talk with tour parents about such thing?
@@naolidecomisso4108In alot of cases such as my own, the parents/family serve as a substantial origin of the problem, which furthers the isolation.
@@sanderzphillips i am susspecting op could be referencing that, but you never know if this is the case. It might be the feeling of shame or burden or some other x factor. So thats why i asked him that. I mean i dont think asking "have you tried to ask your parents" would really work".
Look dude i hope you can find someone you fell safe to open up to in real life, but i Just wanna say, If you ever felt the need to do such thing
Watch out for some bad things if you visit some depresion assitance forus like one of those subreddits. Please utilize such thing with extreme care, from the things i heard a some places(not all, and such info might be overblown) seem it make someone worse then really help them. Its something to do with having só many deppresed people in one place makes all that site so much heavy and dark too be in there, and there was a case of a forum out there with mfs insentivaiting suicide in those foruns, pretty psycho stuff from such people, Theres a vídeo on It but its really deppresing and i think you will be more happy If you dont watch It.
Travis is so relatable yet so complex.
I find it quite pleasant to be alone. I can focus on my work, without people bothering me.
Its good and bad.
Ditto! It invigorates me. I've always rationed quality time with close people, never pathetically smothered them or obsessed over them for the sake of preserving my quality of life. Frankly, turning socializing/entertaining into a deliberate addiction is tedious. I, comfortably, can do without such dependencies. It's liberating.
@@manher4335 Exactly
Absolutely! Too many narcissists, predators, psychopaths, bullies, people trying to enforce status based hierarchies in attempts to deny people their equal rights, envy, resentment..the world sure done gone crazy!!
What you fail to undeestand is that everyone is born with a different kind and backgrounds. For some people being alone just isn’t possible
Learning guitar kept me from becoming Travis. It gave me a goal and opened the world up. You also always have a friend. All the love!
Im no war veteran,but i can tell you that complete isolation brings nothing good,just suffering.Im only 20,but have been suffering with anorexia,severe anxiety,depression and drug and alcohol abuse for 4 years now.Recently ive isolated myself from basically everyone for almost 3 months.I didnt smile once,i didnt cry,i just felt completely empty.My innability to talk to people without a drink,or something else tore me apart,and when i realised that i just fell into a hole of nothing and abused benzos and alcohol frequently.Finally i got prescribed an snri that works well,am clean from alcohol for over 2 months and slowly started socializing again,but im more awkward then ever cause of all the isolation.Dont let yourself fall in this rabbit hole of shit please!
I feel quite like you. I've had anxiety for a vast amount of time now and been struggling with drugs and alcohol for around 6 years. I'm 24. A few days ago I've had a bad breakdown and drunk my counciousness away, wasted lots of money and all for nothing. I also relate with the inability to talk with people without alcohol. I feel the need to distance myself, too. Maybe that would be for the better to regain my composure as a person of this world.
Tardive dyskinesia incoming for u
Taxi Driver, this is a movie that was ahead of its time. Now, in the modern world, men like Travis Bickle are becoming more and more
One of the best Taxi Driver analysis videos on TH-cam. Taxi Driver is my all-time favorite film, and even though it has become a joke now, Travis is one of the characters who struggles I've related to the most. When I first watched it, I searched up what condition he suffered from, other than PTSD of course, and one article said that Travis Bickle was a clear example of Schizotypal Personality Disorder, which is the first time I ever heard of a schizo disorder other than schizophrenia. A few years later and it turns out I've got it too. It's similar to autism, which many people assume I have to some degree, and I certainly did too. I had an autism evaluation and they said that I have some traits but am more or less not significantly on the spectrum. I'm glad that autism and ADHD are getting their spotlight right now, after depression and anxiety, but I hope soon people will start to destigmatize schizo disorders, as they are much more common than you'd think. I hope people will watch Taxi Driver and understand what it's like to be like this. Much love.
PS: Your voice is kind of monotone, I really thought that you were just a good text to speech. Love the video and will watch more in the future, continue practicing your narration skills!
Travis Bickle is one of the best characters in film history.
"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villian"
This video really speaks to me. Years ago when I first saw this film, I loved Travis for the anti-hero aspect, but now I find myself relating to him not for the sigma male meme, but as I have bouts of loneliness and no direction. I’ve been at my lowest months ago and it still comes back occasionally even though I’m better now. Depression ain’t a joke, especially if you have trauma or autism. There’s a lot of Travis Bickles in this world
Thankfully I can find little things in life and my love for God above to make life worth living. Been with a therapist, too
Good video, worth every minute
When I get a random recommendation like this from the algorithm, I know it's time to clean my watch history in TH-cam...
My all-time favourite movie, I know that doesn't sound groundbreaking as Im sure most others would say the same thing. However, there is truth as to why not only Taxi Driver is one if not THE greatest movie of all time but others put it as their top favorite. This was Robert's best role, the story was perfect, and the character of Travis Bickle is so relatable but can be a cautionary tale. It shows how the Military and Governments disregard the veterans returning home and left more messed up when they went in. The aesthetic of 1970s New York, the music and of course Jodie Foster's Iris, exceptional
Gawd bless Murica 🤓 🖕
Great video man. This is probably one of the more accurate breakdowns I have seen on TH-cam of this film, you covered the very important things about the message of this film and you didn't try to push an agenda one way or the other while you did it. Even with all that, you managed to make this video shorter than those others with the issues I already mentioned. I appreciate it
I've watched a lot of reviews of this movie and you're the only one who mentioned the true context of the mohawk. Great review.
“He tries to get close to women but his behaviors come off strange and erratic.” He took a woman to watch porn on a first date and like a child tried to detain her when she wanted to leave. Travis tried to become close to her the way men are taught: physically first. To really be close, you have to let yourself be seen and try to see the person in front of you.
Worth noting that he was also potentially sabotaging the relationship since it was going pretty well before the porno theatre. He deliberately keeps himself in a cycle of loneliness and self-hatred throughout the movie, and he’s inspired by Arthur Bremer who was known to do the porno thing.
I guess women don't really deserve to be earned as a trophy. Men shall miss out women to get themselves out of any social trouble.
Dude managed to convince a beautiful woman(Cybill Shepard was a knockout) to go on a date and he takes her to a porno theater? You would have to be borderline retarded to do something like that. No wonder he’s lonely. He’s an idiot.
Loneliness is one thing but this guy needed serious psychiatric help.
@@zeltzamer4010 I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say.
I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
"the way men are taught: physically first" - what do you even mean? That women alone do things "right" in relationships? Women need to learn to speak their actual mind and not manipulate men to get their way. Get over yourself.
Watched the movie last night, Shows an element of PTSD. In war, changes happen fast. He comes home to a never changing shit hole... He feels a strong need to do some small change.
He does this by blowing away all those who have imprisoned a young girl into prostitution. The ending with the letter from her parents reinforces the fact that he did something right.
The final cab scene with Betsy shows that he has come to terms with his role in life and he snubs her by not accepting the cab payment and driving away. He realizes she is a woman of
frivolity vs the young prostitute who is in the depths of the gutter. Like he said " This fuking place needs cleaning up!"...
taxi driver still resonates because it embodies the fear of being alone and how hard is to overcome that. when you grow older is not picnic to make new friends, even if the friends are male or female. if you add that you are socially akward because the war messed your head up it's a complete nightmare
They were showing taxi driver in my local cinema just yesterday. Thanks for the video!
There is a lot of Travis’s out there..
And that number will keep growing..ALWAYS GROWING..
Great video! I can emphasize Travis so greatly that it scares me sometimes. I feel like my soul was depicted by a movie. Same problembs but different conditions. Your work helped me to understand deeper why I like the movie so much. Thank you.
I related to Travis ever since I first watched this movie as a teenager... and, I suppose, part of me still does. I've always had a hard time interacting with people, particularly my peers. I remember the first day of 4th grade; I came to school and ALL my friends literally turned their backs on me and pretended I didn't exist. I tried to get in contact with them all day, at least to get an explanation as to what I'd done to deserve this, but no, they just straight up didn't say a word to me, nor did they look at me, or anything. I guess that situation ultimately traumatized me; I still deal with my negative and cynical perception of other people, in particular my peers. (Most of my friends are older than me, and I find those easier to interact with.) Sometimes, it unfortunately isn't as easy as "just going out to socialize". If one faces rejection time and time again, it starts to impact one. I've been lucky enough to meet, and connect with, great people who've been my friends for the past decade. I also realized I'm autistic a few years ago, so I guess that explains a lot...
Depressing but true. Travis Bickle is my dark side
I really loved your points. You always offer different perspectives that I actually never thought before, keep up with your good work!
My favorite movie from the 70s crazy how it has made an impact. Over the years
Greatest interpretation of Taxi Driver that I've ever come across, bravo!
Great video with philosophical quotes and history interweaved throughout.
Rambo only exists in movies, but Travis Bickle is most people in reality😢
I saw this movie this year on tv many times and I want to say that I relate myself to Travis Bickle.
I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say.
I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
Holy shit! I was pretty like this guy. Afghan(11b), divorce, and a general hate for everything outside the military. When I was in basic, I remember my senior drill sergeant say “when you get out of the military you’re going to hate civilians. They’re slow, lazy, and they stink.” He also said “You are a dog that keeps the wolf at bay, and because you are a dog they(civilians) will hate you.” I remember wanting to join the Legion after Afghanistan and years later Ukraine, but if I’m gonna be honest with my self I was too depressed and lazy. I got wrapped up in my own head I basically watched years go by. I’m in a way better place now…we’ll at least for now.
Thank you for making this video.
There is another certain video on TH-cam about Travis currently sitting in at a million views that seems to unhealthily take the opposing view that Travis Bickle is a character you should aspire to be, all because he finds a purpose and starts exercising towards the end.
A million people are so deaf and dumb to Taxi Driver’s horrifying illumination on male loneliness. Isolation does not make you stronger, it will not give you a greater purpose. It will fester and corrode your core, only to breed plaque and rot. Travis Bickle is the outcome of the decay and rot spreading without intervention.
Even Scorsese himself recently stated how much it scares him that so many Travis Bickle’s walk among us now and how prophetic the film was.
Hope this video overtakes that other cesspit of an essay.
you can be with many people around you, and still feel lonely, like you are just a spectator of a show thats going on around you.. everything seems fake. thats how i feel from day to day.. i cant escape. when i walk around in the city, i feel like im invisible.
"A million people are so deaf and dumb to Taxi Driver’s horrifying illumination on male loneliness. Isolation does not make you stronger, it will not give you a greater purpose. It will fester and corrode your core, only to breed plaque and rot." 100%. I think a lot of those morons that say stuff like that have never actually had to deal with true loneliness. There seems to be a large conflation with being an independent person who can do stuff on their own and people who are genuinely lonely. While the former is a positive, the latter is about as destructive as it gets.
“Isolation does not make you stronger”
It can though if you have the right mindset and don’t sink into alcohol or porn or self pity.
I think so many people identifying and almost promoting Bickles mindset is disturbing but not surprising. Plus we need to realize a good % of those are very young edgelord types
Scorsese shouldn’t be surprised that there are more Bickles now when there is no corrective measure within our society to fix the Bickles. Society is getting even more lopsided in terms of “haves and have nots” and that type of system will breed millions of very lonely troubled, purposeless people most of whom will be men. I have no idea how to fix or even begin to turn that around
I'm like Travis: cope by drinking, am simply unable to socialise normally (autistic traits), and work a socially isolating job (in a warehouse). I'm 41 but I died years ago. Life is just an empty, pointless waste of time. Once my parents are dead, I'll probably end up killing myself. What a life.
That’s what they want you to do. Stay alive to spite the Man
What will it be? Blaze of glory or silent cooperation?
Man i hope you get better. i was there once
It's never over my friend, have you considered finding a new more social job? Or joining a church (if you're religious) or some sort of social club
You've still got time even at 41 dude, don't give up, find any method you can to make any aspect of your life better, you got this.
you explained it in a simple way , but the things you said were deep . really good video , keep it up . subscribed
The opening line "After going through a tough war, it can be really hard to adjust to regular life" made me realize why literally anyone can fall victim to Travis' fate, as we all have our own personal "wars" or "battles" that we go through which leave us feeling uncertain & anxious at best and disassociated & manic at worst.
Our fate in the aftermath of our experiences, however; It's all about the choices we make. Everyone ends up where they deserve to be in life based on those choices, for better or for worse. I think THAT'S the message of this movie. Batman and Joker had the same backstory. Batman decided he didn't want anyone to be hurt the way he had been, whereas Joker decided he wanted others to know the same pain he felt. Choices, fellas 💪
There are multiple themes revolving around this movie and one can't possible get to explain it all with a mere sentence. However, I've always seen this movie as the story of a man unable to connect with society and, after finding something to fight against, -trying then to commit murder,- he actually gets turned into a hero and praised for his bravery. It's like, after trying to find a way out, he's ironically end up being praised by everyone.
He literally got into the system by trying to get out, and that was only possible because of everybody's ignorance about his previous attempt of murder. What if he had actually committed murder? Even if he ended up as a hero, if society had knowledge of his attempted crime its vision would be the exact opposite. He's only regarded as a hero because they don't know who he is, that's the brilliance of it all.
Not necessary to clarify that he's neither a hero nor a villain, but a lost man with war trauma and a huge inability to connect with the world around him. That's where this video is completely spot on.
The only good message I got from the movie is that We need more men like him willing to fight crime where the corrupt system won't act!
he couldn t fight him self
I really enjoyed your video. I saw this on the big screen as a student around 1990 and it has stayed with me ever since, even though I havent watched it for decades. Martin Scorsese shows us something universal and human, and the performances, the music, the lighting, editing, everything about the movie is just poetry. I really enjoyed seeing some of that again in your video. I remember being so surprised towards the end when he is suddenly a hero in the papers, because the journey towards that horribly violent event was so terrible to watch. And I remember thinking yeah, that's mad but somehow believable, that he would become a 'hero' in the media. And the final shot in the rearview mirror, where we see Travis Bickle is still totally unpredictable...
I woke up today with unfiltered thoughta about all sorts of issues pertaining to me. Then a bit later while on my way to work, I find the video. I speaks almost perfectly of my issues. Minus the war trauma and heavy-handed actions. I feel i can get some respite from this, i dont feel so alone today now. I'll continue to work hard fixing this
The "airborne mohawk" isn't any kind of ritual behavior for suicide missions. It was just common in some airborne units in times of war when standards usually relax. It was kind of a morale booster depending on your unit. But the tradition you speak of may have come from units I'm not familiar with.
Also it was done during ww2, not Vietnam.
It is an native american warrior haircut, and the US military uses a lot of native terms, like Tomahawk missile
After 30yrs of abandonment & heartache & disappointment & letdown by most of the people & all the women in my life. Being alone but not lonely is the best thing in my life 😊
The strong man is mightiest alone.
Toxic myth of "masculinity".
Truly I have never found something so fucking relatable. And never could I have thought it would be with one of my all time favorite actors.
This life we live in isn’t promised and truly this world is a dark evil place. You can go from having it all to having what seems like pure hell in the palm of your hands. I’m beyond tired in this cold place but I don’t wanna let go just yet. There are people here that need me
5:29 That's actually WW2. it's an Army Airborne Unit. One guy in the Squadron was part Native American ( because of his mother). The other guys in the squadron liked it so they copied him. Also, he rubbed off the hot paint from their plane and rubbed it in his face.
As someone who is Ex Merchant Navy , I can really relate to Travis. In fact its almost text book bar the Vietnam war, just replaced with going to sea.
We brave storms, long working hours, stress, insomnia, insane regulation and continuous isolation for months on end. I was at it since I was 18, I am now 26 and had to come ashore due to PTSD caused by various events. No one truly understands nor cares. Its very difficult to get back into society or socialize. A sense of self is sorta eroded due to the loneliness. Emptiness has filled the void. I struggle to relate to those around me. Emotionally I just cant open up. I try and stay hopeful that things will change for the better.
Empathy and understanding are in extreme short supply nowadays, greed and want in absolute excess. Your analysis is bang on the money and is superb in relating to real world issues. Hopefully the world will improve! Great video!
Okay. I have a text wall. Please be patient, and I'll word everything very carefully. Since I was 6, I was a victim of SA from my older brother. He lied to me. Manipulated me and convinced me it was normal. Regardless of how empty and wrong it made me feel. Our dad was a recovering heroine addict biker. He wasn't evil in that way. Just not very aware. I couldn't muster the strength or courage to tell anyone. So, after 10 years of abuse and manipulation, our dad dies. We divide, and I get away from my older brother. After 5 years of adjusting to life, I felt stuck in a rut. So, I joined the army. Gave me purpose... at first. I went to Fort Lewis, Washington. Spent a whole year before deploying. Was great for my mental health to be positively surrounded by mostly positive male role models. We go to war, and we see some action, and my friends feel so alone. I felt with trauma before and compartmentalized all of it and went on like it was daily life. It really freaked everyone out, and no one wanted to talk to me. Except the Chaplin. We were both from the same state, and he was highly aware of my condition and told me to be more observant of other people. He said, "to examine their pain to help you process yours." At the time, I didn't know what he meant, but I took it to heart and carried on. After getting dumped, I felt used again. It's only worse this time. I began to transform back into Travis, but with drugs. In total isolation, I would consume acid and sift through my trauma. I had never heard of this stuff before, and I've never heard of it being done in isolation. After about 3 years of doing that and reflecting on my chaplain's words, I met my wife. It was everything that had been rolling around in my head came to a screeching halt, and it all made sense. I saw her pain and felt her trauma. We've been together for 9 years. I'm disabled now and do piece work from home. I keep a set schedule for my daily activities and game time. All of this is done in my head because of my excessive self-awareness. I turn all of the negatives into positives. I use it for motivation for my son, who is just starting kindergarten. I don't know how others navigate trauma in life. I don't even understand how I can process it the way that I do. I was never really given the chance for a normal life, so I can't even comprehend what it must be like for them. Sorry if this was a bit of a ramble. I just thought I would share something positive, and people should really change how they think and approach challenges in life.
I can elaborate on my isolation. I went no contact with my family. I got an apartment in a decent area, and I got a local job I could walk to. I had a PS3 and a Game Cube, a nice stereo for my CDs. On my days off, I would clean my apartment, drop acid, put on all of the Linkin Park albums I had, and played Resident Evil 4 exclusively on both my consoles. It gave me a sense of control going into my trips. Also, if Leon can survive this, I can confront my demons.
I was using a variety of drugs. I quit drinking as it just wasn't what I wanted. My usual cocktail for a trip was a blunt mixture of spice and chronic, a perkaset, and my acid. The blunt would relax me and make me laugh and laugh and laugh. The pill would kick in and have me detach a little bit from myself. To keep myself grounded in reality. It made the acid trips something I felt like I could walk through and make myself numb to all fear. I don't do this anymore. I just smoke dabs now.
The first time i watched taxk driver i was 19. Reading Siddhartha, reading a shitload kf the romantic poets and anything i could find on zen and mushin since i couldnt practice my martial arts. Jobless, my fiancee had just left me for her ex-i found out when she wss on the way there with all her shit. my dad ended up in rehab i was trying to get my aunt into rehab and i was helping raise her two kids. It was chaos. Im glad im out of it and eveyrone is healthy and sober. I have a girl i couldnt even imagine is so good to me. Keep your head down your eyes up and stay strong brothers. The end results will justify all the suffering. I know its hopeless. I know its hard. Dont be so hard on yourself and enjoy the small things. The things i miss the most are the times i spent with my little brother and sister. Cooking cleaning yelling at them to get ready for school. Now that im older i miss it everyday.
I was in a very dark place in my life when I happened to see this movie at the time it was incredible how I actually felt like and related to Travis I was very close to becoming something like that and after watching it I started the slow walk out of that place for some reason.
This is kind of beside the point of this wonderful analysis of Travis Bickle's plight in the film, but at 3:53 there's this wonderful shot of Paul Schrader, Scorcese with DeNiro who has this almost child-like smile on his face, which is utterly antithetical to Travis' common demeanor. It just really struck me. There's Bobby Milk in full view. Made me happy. Sound kinda corny? Yeah, it is.
I can really relate to this character.
Thanks for the detailed description about the movie Taxi Driver
Especially about the hairstyle reason mentioned is ultimately unexpected finally this video solved the mystery about it.
I really loved this detailing about Travis❤
Days go on there is no escape I'm God's lonely man
Felt everyone being a Masterpiece🫂 forever
Another way the assassination attempt could be viewed is it was a way he tried to kill his memory of Betsy by taking out something that she supported but since it failed he had one last resort. His archetypal role is most likely an anti-villain at first but due to failure becomes an antihero
he knew palatines secret-he was a scumbag. palatine is the nasty old man at the beginning of the film with the black hooker. he say 'i can't afford to get stopped anywhere around here which travis hears and remembers. he was trying to once again fight for his country and save them from palatine.
Ive watched this movie many times. Im not a vet, but Ive had my own dances with reality. Watching this video hurt. It hurt because I realized I've been letting the recent trauma Ive received start to turn me into Travis. I dont want to be Travis. I wont be Travis. Thank You.
If you ever want to talk, let me know. It's better than turning to alcohol like I did for 20 years.
@@MrEtherguy I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say.
I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
Grow up
Too late. I'm already Travis
Just wanna work long hours and come home to sleep, I see everyone around me as a degenerate, invisible to women and even if there is one who potentially sees the good in me, I quickly somehow give them a reason why they shouldn't have, my health is shit and of course I wander around aimlessly
Well atleast your not the only one feeling that way.
So, your video dropped on my youtube feed and I watched few seconds of it in the beginning. The way you have edited and voiced this instantly gave me the idea that this is the video I NEED to watch in its entirety. But, I hadn't watched Taxi Driver.
Just completed watching the movie and as a 26 year old, I'm not sure how to feel about relating so hard to all of this.
It's been almost 50 years since this movie came out, and feels like nothing has changed.
A lot of us are still struggling to find our purpose, falling to mindless pleasures and living day-by-day. I try to fill my life with purpose by doing what I love (writing articles for video games), practicing music, being there for my parents/little sister and getting a Master's Degree. But, what after this? Yikes.
Honestly, seeing how Travis connects with his buddies regularly made me a little jealous. My friends are either busy with 'their own stuff', live in different cities/countries or just don't exist at all. Even if I do meet them, it's tough to truly connect. I don't know if life is about getting better about loneliness or just being there for other people. Maybe a bit of both.
Thanks for making this video, my guy. And, thanks for reading all of this. Feeling much better.
I already am Travis Bickle. When I first saw the movie I was legit spooked by how much Travis resembles me.
im a woman, and felt some type of relation. It sucks.
I can relate a lot to very specific things in this film. I look quite like Travis and dress pretty similar for starters. I messed up my chances with two attractive blonde girls as well. Ill tell the story of the second. Don't care who reads this or who is interested, I feel the need to write it out. I was at a flat party. I it was great fun but I drank too much. I left the party to meet a girl I met at a club a few nights previous. I go to meet her and arrive in town but realise I'm too sick to stay so I call a Taxi. I arrive back at my flat and am sick in the Taxi and have to pay a $80 cleaning fee. Worst part is Id literally arrived. I tell her I'm too f****d and cant come. I end up getting sick all over my bed. I felt pretty suicidal and hungover the next couple days. I barely ate anything too which made it longer. I was going to meet this girl again but I went out with a group of girls from another flat and I saw her out of the corner of my eye and she must have seen me with them. They were just nice people Id met. Anyway that was only like a month ago and I still have her contact. She messaged me at 3am one morning but deleted it. Funny thing is tomorrow I might see another again small blonde girl I was chatting with at a work social night. The thing is these things are kind of a part of life but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a toll on you especially when you have it then suddenly its gone. Worse than never having it to begin with you could say.
I also often walk around my city alone and travel on buses like Travis. I got on a bus went somewhere random, then got back on again and went back. I walked around my city and sat down in different places just thinking about life. I was laughing to myself for some reason just at the strangeness of my life. I think also its the fitting in but also not fitting in which is consistent with Travis. I had lots of friends in school from some POV but none to others and barely any to myself. I have very violent thoughts also. Bad, bad ideas that just build up in my head. But I've also met many great people and have a lot of people who really love me and who I really love. And that's a privilege that not everyone has.
@@jr5993Our society is a boring dystopia, isn't it?
@@FC12. kinda yeah
i was raised in an abusive violent dysfunctional 'family'. one day one of my mother's jealous suitors came in with a 30-06 and announced he was there to kill me, my sister and my mom. I slung them through the house toward the back door and then turned to fight. i was 15 and took quite a beating but no one died that day but i fought with everything i had. i tried to choke him out with the telephone cord wrapped around his neck and held it with my teeth while i pulled as hard as i could. i meant to kill him but i bit the cord in half. by then it was just me and him in the house, i felt nothing. no fear. nothing. i just looked at him and did not care what came next as my family was safe. i try to avoid trouble whenever i can but when cornered i come out fighting. i cannot see, hear or even think. survival is all that matters. i got no therapy just went back to school the next day. now i see everyone i meet as a potential attacker and am always always on high alert. now i keep back up. I am become Travis Bickle. love to all.@@betterfad3d
*This video is like a masterpiece Essay. And I understand this video so much and I relate to Travis significantly, except for the war bit*
'Taxi Driver' is my number one all-time favourite film. I saw it when it was first released in 1976, and although it may sound over-dramatic, it absolutely changed my life. I bought the video [and the 'Special Edition' DVD when it was later issued] as well as the [vinyl] soundtrack LP by Bernard Herrmann. I actually purchased a US Marines military jacket - complete with insignia etc - like the one 'Travis' wears in the film.
I even managed to acquire an original official promotional poster showing 'Travis' walking along a deserted New York street and several black and white 'stills' photos of De Niro, Cybil Shepard, Harvey Kietel and Jodie Foster during the making of the film - which are now extremely valuable as collector's items.
No other film has had such a profound impact on me and even to this day, I am still totally mesmerised when I watch it. Michael Chapman's stunning cinematography, Paul Schrader's astonishingly grim screenplay combined with Martin Scorsese's expert direction. 'Taxi Driver' is simply a cinematic masterpiece.
The only film I know that comes close [in style, pathos and content] is Wim Wender's 1984 tour de force - 'Paris, Texas'. Based on a sublime screenplay by the late Sam Shepard and as with 'Taxi Driver', it centres around a disenfranchised, lonely man [also named 'Travis'] who has turned his back on society and is wandering aimlessly - lost in a desert with just his memories.
I wish they still made films like this - instead of the utter garbage they churn out today.
Did u ever get a mohawk, like travis did, ? 😆,
my main takeaway from taxi driver was, loner has no life, no friends, no family, nothing to lose, and kills a pimp and trick just to save a 12 year old girl.
my takeaway is God works through the most unlikely people.
No.i think the line between good guy and villain is very thin * he was ready to kill the presidential candidate then changes to save young Iris
the presidential candidate was in travis' cab twice-once in the beginning with the black hooker acting like a creepy old pervert and again with an advisor acting like the perfect politician. travis saw through this and felt he had to stop it like the end of the dead zone. he was a good sane man who did crazy things for the right reason. we will never know how much misery was prevented by seemingly horrific. we live in the twilight zone.
I've been watching this film for years; but there are some things I never thought about in this clip.
Travis is lonely because he's the one good person in an awful world. He's surrounded by people, yet utterly alone, and even in his attempts to remedy this, no one is worth his time. I mean, look at his conversation with Wizard.
Uh, no. Travis is a racist, a sexist, addicted to p0rnography, an alcoholic and a potential terrorist, he ain't a good guy. He's the result of a bad society.
Travis isn't that good, he just thinks he is
If world is so awful there would be at least some things that are good. Some people. He just did not look hard enough and gave up early. If you think the world is that bad then be the change instead of blaming and complaining. That does not solve anything just adds to the the bad.
Same with me
@@ncapone87he technically is. If you think he isn’t then you’re a liberal snowflake ❄️ who see’s the world black and white.
Taxi Driver, on my list of movies I've seen once, loved watching for what it is, and never want to see again. Also, what struck me when watching it is that in all the scenes in Travis's apartment, you can very clearly hear the outside noise of New York. Almost like it's amplified. Like it's telling us that people like Travis are sitting alone in apartments right now, and we're passing them by every day.
Great video, thank you! And the soundtrack is awesome too, actually. Very inspirational ideas, I want to re-watch this movie again.
I think something that made me feel a way for this movie was the mirror scene, I thought wtf is he doing and I shortly realised I talk to myself in the mirror too, I think some scenes like that tune the viewer in more
Great video with detailed and crystal clear explanation. You got a subscriber!!
Welcome aboard!
I’m stayed in my house 24hrs/day.
Spend about ten minutes outside per day for something to eat.
Keep smoking and drinking heavily.
Since my wife gone, around the same time my buddy fly to heaven.
Lose my job. Didn’t want to find one.
Didn’t want to do anything anymore.
Out there the world keeps spinning.
But in here time has stopped.
Anything reminds me of her will stay where they are.
Anything that belongs to my friend still stay where it is.
Keep thinking and thinking about them.
My body starts to feel weird sometimes.
Hope it ends soon.
By the way I love Taxi Driver, Great movie.
Sorry to hear I hope you get well soon brotha
the problem is when u get so lonely u literally just start doing too much for people u just met
This movie was like a horror film when I was young. I was studying literature and I knew fictional stories, but it still scared me really bad that someone can go crazy with delusions. It was done in a realistic way and that freaked me out. So did the Shark in "Jaws" and the clown from "Poltergeist". "Taxi Driver" was very edgy. Strange vibes in that film. The main character is flip flopping from the dregs pimps, drugs and the Politician's office girl and all the subjects associated with that to an X Rated film for a date. Oh, that gave me chills. Bend my head up and then he starts planning for defense. It's way intense.
Same. To me it's one of the scariest movies I know because it taps into a real deep dark hole that's in all of us. Loneliness. Isolation. A twisted desire to make a mark. This movie shows how destructive those factors can be if they are channeled into the wrong things.
There were moments in my teenage years when I could identify too much with Travis for my own comfort. That still scares me.
you, actually quoting Pascal earned my sub.
Wow. Very insightful analysis,man. Thank you, truly.
I cried durning all this thank you for this video
loved the analysis mate
This made me cry, bravo!!
I interpreted the ending as Travis’ limbo or afterlife; the news clippings, letter and seeing Betsy in his cab just his mind creating an ideal scenario for him to cope with
I interpreted it as being his believed results from his assassination and murder and that he died in that apartment shootout
We are all Travis Bickle.
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