A Crazy Movie Consumer

Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver.

(source: oddfilms.com)

John Hinckley Jr. in police custody a few months after he attempted to assassinate then U.S. President Ronald Reagan.  Hinckley watched Taxi Driver repeatedly.  His motive to shoot Reagan was to impress actress Jodie Foster, who appeared in the film as Iris, a teenage prostitute.

(source: lubbockcentennial.com)

We infatuate with movies because the characters can be believable.  We can relate to their thoughts, feelings, and emotions.  This blog post will be rather confessional because of the point I am trying to raise: that movies are the armchair therapists who sometimes give us the wrong advice.

Of all the movie characters out there, Travis Bickle is the one I can relate to the most.  In Taxi Driver, Bickle was disgusted with the crime and filth of near-bankrupt New York City.  Like Bickle, I have seen my share of filth and petulance around Winnipeg.  I, too, look in disgust at the crime, peddling, and freeloading I see from time to time on the streets of this city.  One Travis quote I can relate to really well is the following:

"Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets." (source: imdb.com)

Having sat alone in food courts, buses, parks, and even the library, I also wish for some kind of divinity, a natural force flooding what I despise into the acid of the sewer for dissolution.  This environment is especially intoxicating in extreme heat and extreme cold.  It suffocates the psyche.

In Taxi Driver, Travis has vigilante fantasies after he comes across a teenage prostitute named Iris (played by Jodie Foster).  He then purchases some guns in hopes of freeing her from her pimps.  Though I have no intention to purchase a firearm, I admit to having vigilante fantasies.  Time after time, I imagine myself behind the wheel of a 1962 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with my firearm in the glove compartment.  It's the middle of summer, and the temperature is muggy.  I've got my hit-list of released sex offenders taped tightly to the dashboard.

I track the first guy down.  I roll down the window to point my .357 Magnum, and the rest is history.  The assaulted woman who walks the streets in fear now feels a bit safer thanks to my actions.  It's a beautiful fantasy where good prevails over evil, morality becoming infinite and psychopathy perishing in the powder blast.  But this is reality, not fantasy, and I am hopefully still in control.

I always relate well to the movie vigilante.  I see characters like Dirty Harry Callaghan, Paul Kersey, or Travis Bickle as outlets to vent my frustration.  There is, however, a bigger reason as to why I relate to Travis: he is awkward and socially uncomfortable, and so am I.  Below is a clip of Travis I find especially powerful.  He's trying to get in touch with Betsy (played by Cybil Shepherd).  Travis took her on a disastrous first date; he took her to a pornographic movie theatre.  When she stormed away, he told her, "I don't know much about movies":

In this scene, director Martin Scorsese treats the viewer to an incredibly awkward phone call.  Travis's attempts to reconcile are so pathetic, it can be painful to watch.   There are many moments in my life where I have been just as pathetic as Travis making that phone call.  Or so I often say.

I am fortunate that my mental standing is strong enough to bring me to restraint.  I act without restraint only within my fantasies.  These fantasies, too, are not prevalent.  They are something I merely retreat to from time to time in moments of frustration.  But some go to the movies for different reasons.  They go to get ideas.  John Hinckley Jr. was one of those people.  He watched Taxi Driver over and over again to the point of shooting U.S. President Ronald Reagan in March 1981.  In the same film, Travis attempts to assassinate a presidential candidate.

I came to an interesting and somewhat frightening conclusion while writing this: we are all on the same spectrum of Hinckley.  Like him, we demand attention for our actions and deeds.  Like him, we have fantasies of what is just for ourselves.  That's why a movie like Taxi Driver is all too real.  The "good guys" aren't supposed to be burned out or mentally frustrated, but many of them are.  We are more like Travis Bickle than Harry Callaghan or Winston Churchill -- aggression minus the virtue.

We rely on movies for narrative sources we can understand: love conquers all, friends in high places, good over evil.  If one of those narratives fails for us personally, we cling to the others more closely.  Because we want it all to be true.  The master narrative is humankind's gratification.