You wanna know how I got these scars? (Taxi Driver)

For an awfully long time, I found myself asking a question I don't normally ask myself when watching a movie. Why this guy? Why are we being taken through this guy's life? What's so special about him? He seems normal enough, aside from the insomnia. Just another guy who's job is to drive people around at night. At first, his voice and behavior aren't too interesting in particular. He doesn't seem like he would be a main character.

Then along comes a certain scene. This dude walks in with a couple brief cases, lays them on Travis's bed, and opens them up to reveal handguns. Travis is buying a gun. No, not a gun. Several guns. And then it dawned on me. We haven't seen anything yet. Here's where Travis starts to get interesting. He's weird. He's unsettling. He doesn't show it, but his insides are churning with disgust for the city, the desire to make a change. It's building up, and he can't take it anymore. He may want to do good, but his fascination with his handguns and the arm mechanism he built displays him as a psychopath. As he narrates the scene in which he's practicing the motion of the mechanism ("Here is a man who will not take it any more"), his voice is plain. It's dull and boring. Except it's not. That's what makes it interesting. It's unsettling and disturbingly calm. It's internal. Then there's his smile. Oh man, that smile. I don't know if I didn't notice it before or if he just hasn't done it up until now, but wow. That weird, creepy grin he gives to the secret service guy. He's hiding something, and he's reveling in the fact that he's talking to a secret service agent while wearing concealed firearms. It's fantastic.