Aside of the crime and drama, I thought of Taxi Driver as a psychological thriller. I like to think this because it gets into the head of Travis Bickel, and his thoughts alone are scary. I think Travis Bickel just wanted some more action in his life because he came home from war and was just expected to live a normal life, but since he had psychological problems, maybe PTSD, he went about taking action in the wrong way. These actions ranged from situations like dating, to killing people.
While driving his taxi, Travis drives by a place where they do campaigning for a presidential candidate. He sees a beautiful woman in there, and proceeds to watch her for a few hours. Luckily, this woman, Betsy, notices, her coworker confronts him, and he drives away. The next day comes and he does the same thing, but this time, he actually walks in and asks her out. While on their date, they are talking and he is saying some really strange things like “when he walked in he instantly felt a connection between them”. This may be true, but he just keeps rambling on about it. They go on more dates, and he takes her to a porno. Betsy is not comfortable with this, and she leaves. This part just shows how socially inept he is.
After he attempts to shoot Palantine, the presidential candidate, I think he comes to the realization that he doesn’t want to be infamous. Instead, he goes to a pimp, and asks for the girl that he has also been stalking. He doesn’t want sex with this girl, he wants to help her. By helping her, Travis sought the thrill that he needed by killing her pimp, while also becoming regarded as a hero. Throughout the movie, which I had a hard time following, I thought he was going to do something bad. I was very happy with the ending, and I am interpreting it as Travis still being alive.
