History Film / TaxiDriver

* AssholeVictim: We're not supposed to cheer the carnage, but Travis' victims (pimps and gangsters) do fall under this category.
** The film's creators have stressed repeatedly over the years that it was purely dumb luck that Travis' victims wound up fitting this trope and that he didn't end up killing someone innocent like Tom or Betsy or Senator Palantine.

* CombatPragmatist: Travis. For all the guns he buys, he runs out of ammo while his most indefatigable opponent, the Old Man, is wrestling with him. [[spoiler:He grabs the Mafioso's gun and uses that.]]

** Of the {{Vigilante Man}}. Technically, on his first [[spoiler:and only]] outing as a vigilante, he [[spoiler:may or may not have died (though Word Of God says no)]]. This is what happens when an ordinary man takes up arms and goes against (multiple) common thugs. And a physically fit ordinary man who supposedly had military training at that.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Travis looks pretty weirded out by the rantings of the sadist-husband client (Scorsese).

* FingerGun: Done a few times by Travis in the seedy porn theatres. Also, [[spoiler:after his rampage, Travis tries to shoot himself, but he's out of ammunition. When the police arrives, he places his index finger against his temple like a gun and pretends to shoot himself in the head several times.]]

* IdiotBall: The bouncer (unarmed and with most of his right hand missing) ineffectually trying to tackle and smack Travis, who just shot him in the hand and is armed to the teeth. Travis even gives him a chance to live by pointing a gun at him as a warning on the steps as though to say "leave me alone and you'll live", but he clearly doesn't get the message.

** Implied, according to screenwriter Paul Schrader and director Scorsese's interpretation of Travis, Travis is attracted to Iris but is too self-righteous and self-loathing to act on it.

* PragmaticVillainy: Sport tells Travis all the degrading things he can do to Iris, but tells him not to do "the rough stuff" so he won't degrade her value.
** Alternatively, the "no rough stuff" could be a case of EvenEvilHasStandards.

** While it would be dumb to suggest that the .44 Magnum's inclusion is in itself a reference to ''Film/DirtyHarry'', the reason the gun is so popular and thus is included in the film is [[TheRedStapler due to that movie]].[[note]]** Easy Andy (the gun salesman) mentions that someone would have to be a jackass to carry a Model 29 with an 8 3/4 inch barrel in the street, making it something of a TakeThat since Harry's Model 29 has an 8 3/4 inch barrel (though it changes to a 6 1/2 inch barrel in some scenes). The sequels have him carry a 6 1/2 inch version, however.[[/note]]

* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:Travis seemingly attempts this at the film's climax. When the cops burst in, he puts his hands in his pocket and appears to be about to withdraw a gun. The cops aren't trigger happy enough for this to work however, and Travis instead pulls out an imaginary gun and pretends to shoot himself in the head]].

* UnbuiltTrope: The final shootout looks like a deconstruction of every action film shootout ever made: There are no flashy edits or jump cuts, no musical cues, no improbably cool weapons or marksmanship and it barely lasts two minutes. There is nothing, but raw violence and yet, it was made long before many films that used all those techniques.
** Travis is a major one for later anti-heroes from similar films. In sharp contrast to the reserved but effortlessly cool characters that would follow, Travis is an off-putting loner lacking in any real charm or social skills and with poor education. Even his attempted friendship and efforts to save Iris, which would normally serve to make his character sympathetic, are compounded by his issues with women, insistence on ignoring that Iris doesn't want his help and the implication that he may be attracted to her [[YouAreWhatYouHate despite his disgust at what she does for a living.]] And unlike later characters like Joe in Film/YouWereNeverReallyHere or The Driver in Film/Drive2011, Travis is neither a Main/OneManArmy nor incredibly skilled at anything, with his sole outing as a vigilante nearly ending with him dead and the ending makes clear he's just as unstable as ever and will snap again.
* UnreliableNarrator: The way Travis describes his life is, let's say, somewhat at odds to what we see of his life, especially how he describes it to other people; his diary, on the other hand, is pretty accurate.
** Practically everything Travis says or narrates cannot be taken at face value. For example, midway through the film Travis says that 'There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body', and yet later in the film we see him eating mayonnaise out of the jar, we see him take pills and then we see him not only drink, but gargle beer.

** Confirmed InUniverse. One of the news articles at the ending of the movie states that Travis was a part of a Special forces unit while in service.
* VigilanteMan: Travis.

* CoolGuns: Travis Bickle uses a .44 Magnum, with 8-3/8 inch barrel (compared to Film/DirtyHarry's six-incher). Easy Andy notes that it's too big to be practical, which plays out in how Travis only shoots half of a guy's hand off with it in the finale, while actually killing people with the three smaller automatics and revolver he buys along with it.

* AloneInACrowd: The page quote says it best.

See also ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'', another Scorsese-directed film about a mentally ill loner, now in BlackComedy flavor.

** Similarly his "You talkin' to me?" line is closely paraphrased from ''Film/{{Shane}}''.

* AccidentalHero: Travis was originally planning to assassinate Palantine, but his plot was foiled by the secret service. With his primary target unavailable, he goes off to kill Sport (a pimp) and his gangster associates, rescuing Iris in the process. Had his original plan worked, Travis would be seen as a deranged murderer, instead, he became a local hero.

%%* NeverMyFault: He blames society for the constant headaches from opening his window but he never addresses the possibility that his bad diet is what's causing his headaches. %%Who blames?

* CrazyPrepared: Travis spends much of the movie becoming this -- a big part of the film's dramatic interest has to do with what he's actually doing it for. He works out intensively, and buys four guns: a .38 revolver, a .44 Magnum, a .22 automatic and a .380 Astra Constable, more than he can possibly carry in his hands. He then builds an arm-mounted slide to conceal the .22 up his sleeve so it can be delivered right into his hand, and also tapes a knife to his boot. [[spoiler:It all pays off in the final shootout; he shoots Sport with the .38, blows half the Old Man's hand off with the .44 Magnum but is then shot in the neck by Sport. Travis takes Sport down with the .38 in his other hand, dropping the Magnum. Holding his left hand over his neck wound, he finishes Sport off with the .38 and also wounds the Old Man with it, and goes upstairs, the Old Man pursuing him. The Detective, who's been in the room with Iris the whole time, comes out and shoots Travis in the arm, making him drop the .38. Travis sinks to the floor, slides the .22 into his hand and shoots the Mafioso with it, several times. He then goes into the room and the Old Man jumps on him, but Travis uses his boot-mounted knife to skewer the Old Man's other hand, and then borrows the Detective's gun to blow the Old Man's brains out.]]

** The psychopathic passenger played by Creator/MartinScorsese. He even claims to be one. "You must think I'm pretty sick, right?" (and laughs).

* CringeComedy: Travis taking Betsy to a porno theater on their date, and being genuinely unable to understand why doing so is an incredibly ill-adviced idea, can be classified as this.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Using a [[HandCannon .44 Magnum]] for self-defense, [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded by Easy Andy]], who recommends a [[BoringButPractical snubnose .38]] instead. [[spoiler:True to Andy's warnings, it proves to be pretty useless in the climax. Travis only gets off one shot, and a non-fatal one at that. His other, smaller guns prove to be much more practical.]]

--->'''Travis''': "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."

-->"All the animals come out at night — whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."

* CringeComedy: Travis taking Betsy to a porno theater on their date can be classified as this.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: With shades of DisproportionateRetribution. A {{Jerkass}} store clerk fed up of being robbed viciously beats a thief with a crowbar after Travis has killed him.

* LoonyFan:
** Travis claims to be a fan of Senator Palantine. [[spoiler:The very same Senator Palantine he attempted to kill]].
** In RealLife, the ''very'' loony John Hinckley Jr. was inspired by this film to [[AssassinationAttempt attempt to assassinate]] UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, as detailed above.

* AmbiguousDisorder: There's something really off about Travis. He has immense difficulty speaking to others and socializing, tends to see people in black and white terms, suffers from insomnia and mentions taking pills in addition to drinking a lot, has a strange, stilted manner of speaking both in real life and in his voiceover, tries to be charming but often comes across as vaguely creepy instead, has a frightening capacity for violence simmering just below the surface and he is heavily implied to be suicidal. It's been stated by psychologists that Travis likely suffers from [[http://www.disorders.org/personality-disorders/paranoid-schizoid-schizotypal/ Schizotypal personality disorder]]. That's in addition to the fact that he likely has some level of PTSD from his military service. The fact that he lies to his parents about his life and addresses them in a bizarrely formal manner, calling them "mother and father" rather than the traditional "mom and dad", also opens up the possibility of some issues there.

* AmbiguousDisorder: There's something really off about Travis. He has immense difficulty speaking to others and socializing, tends to see people in black and white terms, suffers from insomnia and mentions taking pills in addition to drinking a lot, tries to be charming but often comes across as vaguely creepy instead, has a frightening capacity for violence simmering just below the surface and he is heavily implied to be suicidal. It's been stated by psychologists that Travis likely suffers from [[http://www.disorders.org/personality-disorders/paranoid-schizoid-schizotypal/ Schizotypal personality disorder]]. That's in addition to the fact that he likely has some level of PTSD from his military service. The fact that he lies to his parents about his life also opens up the possibility of some issues there.

Made on a low budget but with heart and passion, ''Taxi Driver'' was shot extensively on location in New York City in the 1970s and remains the defining portrait of TheBigRottenApple through capturing the pre-Dinkins era of the city. Its shots of Times Square's seedy porn district, the Alphabet City area where the movie ends and the fairly accurate chart of geography (rare for its time) made it a defining portrait of an American city. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for several Oscars, and was a box office success, making roughly 15 times its budget back in revenue.

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Travis does try to do the right thing but it never sticks; he tries to get help but the only person he talks to is Wizard and he doesn't get the answer he needs to hear, he quits some bad habits (i.e. drinking drugs, and trying exercise) but he does this so he is better prepared for his violent responses to what he sees as injustice, and [[spoiler: while he did save Iris (and the other children) from child prostitution by killing the pimp and anyone who tries to stop him, his methods deeply traumatized her and there was nothing stopping Travis from simply going to the police to report them instead of using vigilante justice.]]

* FilmNoir: Down to Travis narrating as if he pictures himself as a "hardboiled" noir hero.