Taxi Driver: The epitome of character development?
Anyone who has watched Taxi Driver will tell you that Robert De Niro's journey and development as a character in this film stands out as one of the most intense and violent. While the movie starts with Travis as a moderately stable and content taxi driver. Then after meeting and losing the girl he's been infatuated with for the entirety of the film his urge for violent actions grows and becomes unstable. After watching this progression for myself I believe I understand why this one bump in his life could cause him to go through such a change of personality. This is because throughout the film Travis continues a monologue and narration in his head that mainly revolves around the filth and scum that surrounds him. Then this girl that seems so beautiful that it distracts him from the ugliness he see's everywhere enters and rips herself from his life in a matter of days. And once again he's left alone in the dark world he perceives around him, however, this time he has an idea of what he's missing unlike when he just watched and admired this girl from afar. I believe this, combined with the violent and dark memories of his time in Vietnam was enough for him to take action. While he "saved" a predolescent prostitute in the process I still believe that the violent actions he took were more revolved around cleaning up the world around him so that he could live happily in it. This also seems like a tie in with his past as a soldier, someone who goes to war so others can live happily, hidden away from the violence and ugliness of the world.
I like your analysis of Travis' character change. The ugliness he has witnessed combined with losing the girl that he wants to be with put him over the edge. I agree with the idea that he wants to be a hero not only other people, but also himself. In a lot of ways, Travis acts like a child - one of the ways he does this is by wanting to be a superhero of sorts, as we see when he gears up with his pistols and rehearses what he would say. And in the end it has made him extremely content to have "saved" Iris, regardless of whether we interpret him to have died on that couch or not.
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