Taxi Driver

A detailed Summary of Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver explores the psychological madness within an obsessed, twisted, lonely individual, who misdirectedly lashes out with frustrated anger and power like an exploding time bomb at the world which has alienated him. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), an enigmatic, loner enters into the personnel office of a cab company. He applies as a driver in the taxi company to drive the taxi night shift, because he is an insomniac: "I can't sleep nights" and he finds nothing meaningful to do during the days. As a therapeutic solution to his life, Bickle even offers to work Jewish holidays and ride into the city's sleaziest areas - he explains that he might as well get paid for wandering around the city.

Through the conversations between the employer and Bickle it is revealed that Bickle is a licensed chauffeur, healthy 26-year-old ex-marine who got an honorable discharge. He ends up getting the job and the movie jumps to his an apartment. The apartment looked trashed and dirty. Once in the apartment De Niro narrates about how filthy and dirty the streets are and that he's making pretty good money but more importantly staying busy. He is disgusted by the world and it's sleaziness and states that " One day a real rain will come and wa

That night on his next shift a fare tells him to pull over to the curb and points to a window in the building across the street with the silhouette of a woman in it. He tells Bickle that the woman is his wife, she is having an affair and describes in detail that he is going to kill her with a forty-forty magnum, which arouses Bickle's interest in guns. The next day one of Bickle's co-workers introduces him to an illegal gun salesman. Bickle ends up buying 4 guns and then begins showing signs of obsession. He constantly holds them and looks in the mirror while practicing his draw and even builds a mechanical holster that projects the gun to his fingertips, from his sleeve at the flick of a wrist. A couple of days later during his shift he almost hits the prostitute named Iris, played by Jodie Foster, that was plucked from his cab followed by the $20 tip to forget about it.

Bickle works long hours sometimes from 6pm to 8am and while working is very disgusted by the city. In his free time though he represents everything that he hates about the city. He goes to the triple x theatre and even tries to pick up the concession stand worker. As he narrates he tells of how he is trying to find his own identity in the crowded city.

In an attempt to find his identity and clean up the world Travis Bickle makes an assassination attempt on Palantine which fails when the secret service sees him reach into his coat for a gun. So instead, on his shift that might he shoots Iris's pimp, the hotel manager that Iris works at and Iris's current client and in the process gets shot twice. He then put the gun to his own head but there were no bullets left.

If I had to diagnose the character played by Robert De Niro, I would definitely say that he has borderline personality disorder

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1205
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English