Travis Bickle
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Travis Bickle is the narrator and protagonist of Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver, in which he is played by Robert De Niro.
Travis was named the 30th greatest film villain in AFI's top 50 movie villains of all time. There is debate as to whether Travis was a villain or anti-hero.
Bickle is a former Marine who served in Vietnam. He is socially inept, has no apparent friends, and is suffering from insomnia, so he takes a job as a graveyard shift taxi driver to occupy his time. As he works late at night in dangerous neighborhoods, his customers tend to include pimps, drug addicts, and thieves. He is visibly disgusted by them, and begins fantasizing about "cleansing" such "filth" from the streets.
Bickle becomes smitten with a woman, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who works in the local campaign office of a presidential candidate, a Senator Palantine. He often watches Betsy from his cab, and finally enters the office with the pretense of wanting to support the would-be candidate, and asks her out. They meet for coffee, and Betsy finds him odd but intriguing, and agrees to see him again. This time he takes her to the porno movie theater he frequents, apparently seeing nothing unusual in the choice. She is appalled and refuses to see him again.
After this, Bickle becomes increasingly paranoid and starts acting out his vigilante fantasies. He buys several guns and takes to carrying them, and knives secreted about his person — taped to his limbs, for example or in hidden spring-loaded holsters. He famously practices a menacing, tough guy swagger in the mirror — You talkin' to me? — to use on whoever angers him. Eventually he shaves his head into a mohawk, and in dark glasses and a baggy military coat, attends one of Palantine's speeches, apparently intent on shooting him. He draws the attention of Secret Service agents and flees, so it is never clear whether he would have done so.
He also becomes obsessed with "saving" Iris (Jodie Foster), a 12-year-old prostitute he has seen on his route. He pays her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel), for her time, but refuses to have sex with her, trying instead to persuade her to leave prostitution and return home to her parents. Iris rebuffs him, only increasing his anger and resolve to take her away from a dangerous life. Although he is wounded, he shoots and kills Sport, and continues through a hotel in which Iris is servicing a client, killing the client and a bouncer with a wounded arm.
The newspapers hail Bickle as a hero for rescuing Iris. While in the hospital, he receives a letter from her parents, thanking him profusely for returning their daughter to them (she had been sent home after the police arrived and found out she was a runaway.) After recovering, he sees Betsy, who grants him an admiring, seductive smile. This final scene has been interpreted by many as Bickle's fantasy as he lays dying of his wounds, but the viewer is ultimately left to decide, in a similar question about Citizen Kane. Is this really his dying dream? Does he really become famous and get his life back on track? It should be noted that the murders he committed were all premeditated murder, and despite the fact he was saving a little girl and whether or not those men 'deserved' it, he could still be liable for prosecution charges.
Trivia & pop culture impact
- Travis Bickle's appearance, character background, and certain mannerisms, bear an uncanny resemblance to the character Jon Rubin (also played by Robert De Niro) in two earlier movies, Greetings (1969) and Hi, Mom! (1970), both directed by Brian De Palma. There is also some thematic similarity between Taxi Driver and Hi, Mom! as a whole, although the latter is ostensibly a comedy.
- An episode of Seinfeld titled [The Soup Nazi] featured two lisping, effeminate characters stealing an antique armoire. When confronted, they parrot Bickle's "You talkin' to me?" line.
- Bickle's first name was an homage to the Mick Travis character (played by Malcolm McDowell) in If... (1968) and O Lucky Man! (1973), the latter of which was one of Scorsese's favorite films at the time.
- The Clash song "Red Angel Dragnet" from their album, Combat Rock, refers to Bickle, and quotes dialogue from the film.
- Rancid's 2003 album Indestructible includes the song "Travis Bickle."
- Blood for Blood repeatedly sample the musical score from the film, along with voice clips.
- The Scientists' song "If It's The Last Thing I Do" (a.k.a. "Travis") starts "Sometimes I feel like Travis Bickle/ Just wanna shoot up all the bad lurking in this town".
- The Narrator from the 1999 film Fight Club names himself "Travis" at one of his group meetings. Edward Norton decided to name himself in all the scenes after the character, but ended up adding other names as to make it less obvious.
- Australian hip hop band Valentia have a song called "Travis", in reference to Travis Bickle, from their 2005 release Trapped in a Metaphor.
- Millencolin's song "Botanic Mistress", from their album Home from Home, begins with the line "I felt like Travis Bickle, tyrannical, lonely and blue", and later in the song has "And I'll feel like Bickle once more, And maybe I will lose it, Go insane and start a gun war?!".
- The Beastie Boys reference Travis Bickle in the song "High Plains Drifter", from their 1989 album Paul's Boutique, with the line "Bust a Travis Bickle when I feel that I'm getting pushed".
- Pantera samples sounds and dialogue from movie in their cover of Poison Idea's song "The Badge", which appears on The Crow soundtrack.
- Henry Rollins video for the single "Disconnect" features him as the Travis Bickle character.
- The Simpsons's bartender, Moe Szyslak, practices his De Niro impressions at night and consequently breaks his mirror as his gun slips from his sleeve. He exclaims, "That was an antique. Crap!"
- In 2005, World Wrestling Entertainment parodied De Niro's "You talkin' to me?" scene in a advertisement for their event WrestleMania 21.
- Xzibit's album At The Speed Of Life includes sounds and dialogue from the movie in his song "At the Speed of Life".
- Lou Reed's song "Doin' the things that we want to" off his New Sensations album includes the line, "Here's to Travis Bickle and here's to Johnny Boy growin' up on the mean streets of New York." This is a reference to DeNiro's earlier performance in Scorsese's film Mean Streets.
- The introduction to NON's July 3, 1989 concert in Osaka, Japan (released on the In the Shadow of the Sword album and the Total War video), samples the "Listen, you fuckers..." monologue.
- Chris Farley's hotel scene in Beverly Hills Ninja portrays him practicing his De Niro impression on a mirror, with some improvisation.
- In the British comedy That Peter Kay Thing, an episode featuring embittered ice cream salesman Mr Softy features a scene where Softy (played by Peter Kay) laments the deterioration of ice-cream salesmanship in Bolton, in terms similar, though more subdued, to Bickle's laments about New York. Throughout his speech, the actual incidental music from Taxi Driver plays in the background.
- Apollo 440's song "Krupa" samples the street drummer's patter as he plays - "Now back to Gene Krupa's syncopated style" - the reference is to jazz drummer Gene Krupa.
- In Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film La Haine, one of the chief protagonists, Vinz, re-enacts Bickle's monologue in front of his mirror with a policeman's gun.
- A music video of David Bowie's song I'm Afraid of Americans is obviously influenced by Taxi Driver; Trent Reznor stalks Bowie, and he is also seen as a taxi driver. He even wears M-65 field coat virtually identical to Bickle's.
- The Powerman 5000 song "Even Superman Shot Himself" off of the album Mega!! Kung Fu Radio uses the lyric "Like Travis Bickle said, 'Suck on this'." The song "Organizized" came from a line of dialogue from the movie: "one of these days I gotta get myself organizized."
- The Episode "Night Pilot" is a homage to Taxi Driver.
- In the film Trainspotting, murals depicting characters from Taxi Driver are visible in the bar scene, including one of Bickle as Mark Renton leans against the wall.
- The 9th episode of Pure Pwnage featured references to scenes from Taxi Driver.
- Mr. Plow did a song called "Travis Bickle." Lyrics include "Travis Bickle cares, kickin' ass and takin' fares."
- In the song "Just Another Victim," by Helmet & House Of Pain (Featured on the OST For the film Judgment Night) the lyrics include: "Holy diver I'm a surviver/Feeling like DeNiro In Taxi Driver/With Jodie Foster And Harvey Keitel..."
- The character of Bobby, a pigeon in the Warner Bros. cartoon Goodfeathers, is a pastiche of various DeNiro roles. His catchphrase "You squawkin' to me?" is an obvious reference to Bickle.
- In an episode of Jonathan Creek, the title character describes his obsessive fans as "one step away from Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver".
- The 2005 video game ' features a bonus taxicab dubbed "Bickle '76", a reference to both Travis Bickle and the year of ''Taxi Drivers theatrical release.
- In the South Park episode Weight Gain 4000, while deciding which gun to purchase to assassinate Kathie Lee Gifford, Mr. Garrison practices Bickle's famous "You Talkin' To Me?" line in the mirror.
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