‘Taxi Driver’ explained: Was Travis Bickle attracted to Iris?
Travis Bickle may be the hero or the anti-hero of Martin Scorsese’s chilling masterpiece Taxi Driver, depending on your perspective. Either way, the character clearly suffers from some form of psychological disorder.
A discharged Vietnam veteran driving New York cabs at night because he can’t sleep, it’s probable he’s suffering from post-traumatic stress. In addition, psychologists at CBT Psychology suggest he may be affected by Schizotypal Personality Disorder.
That is, he “may have paranoid ideas” and believes he has “some sort of magical or extrasensory power”.
Bickle seems to have paranoid ideas about those frequenting the streets of New York at night, as well as Betsy, the woman he assumes has it in for him after their disastrous date at a porn theatre. He believes it is his destiny to “wash all the scum off the streets”, whether by shooting presidential candidate (and Betsy’s boss) George Palatine or gangs of robbers and pimps.
Schizotypal personality types swing between a complete “lack of emotions” and acting “overly emotional”. They dress and behave in ways that “seem odd” and are uncomfortable in social situations but can still befriend others.
In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle shows absolutely no emotional understanding in taking Betsy to watch a porn movie, a bizarre choice of first date, or in his reaction when she flees the scene. On the other hand, he completely loses control of his emotions when he comes to Betsy’s office, verbally attacks her and has to be physically restrained by her colleague.
He is called out for dressing strangely both by a child prostitute, Iris, and her pimp, Sport. FBI operatives notice his bizarre, mohawked appearance at a George Palatine rally. Meanwhile, one of his fellow taxi drivers tells him not to “worry so much” and to “relax” when he listens to him making odd, disturbing remarks.
How do Travis and Iris meet?
Yet Bickle still manages to befriend Betsy in the first place. And he befriends Iris after she gets into the back of his taxi to escape Sport. He goes to Sport’s brothel to find Iris, who assumes he simply wants to have sex with her despite her being just 12 years old. He continually refuses, referring to her age, and instead takes her for a meal at a diner.
The movie culminates in Bickle apparently saving Iris by killing off her pimps in a graphic shootout scene, for which her parents write him a letter of thanks as he recovers in hospital. Whether or not this pseudo-heroic ending really occurs or is just a figment of Bickle’s warped Schizotypal imagination remains up for debate.
In a sense, then, you could say the movie mimics a classic Hollywood ending. The protagonist, bedecked in cowboy boots, complete with spurs, shoots the bad guys and saves the damsel in distress. Except in this case, the protagonist appears to be a homicidal maniac, and the damsel is a 12-year-old sex slave. As Martin Scorsese commented during the making of the movie, “It is a very strange film”.
Is Travis Bickle a paedophile?
Does Travis Bickle have feelings for Iris which extend beyond moral concern for her welfare? After bidding her farewell in the diner, he tells her, “Sweet Iris,” and brushes her cheek with his hand. Is this simply paternalistic affection or something more sinister with paedophilic undertones?
We know from another sickening scene in the movie that Sport, an irrefutable villain, is a paedophile in some form of sexual relationship with Iris. At no point, however, do we see Travis display any physical attraction to her.
On the other hand, we know from his diary narration that Bickle was, at one point in the film, completely infatuated with Betsy. And he is clearly capable of sexual perversion, as multiple scenes in the porn theatre demonstrate. But he never talks about or acts around Iris in this way.
The final scene of the movie seems to put rest to any ideas that Bickle was ever attracted to Iris. At the end of his redemption arc, whether real or imagined, he meets Betsy by chance and gives her a free ride in his cab. Betsy watches him dreamily via the rearview mirror. Once she reaches her destination, Travis simply resets the meter and drives away.
Surely, then, it is Betsy who remained Bickle’s love interest all along. Iris was merely a means for him to show his human, selfless side, the object of his supposedly heroic deed.
Some doubts about this interpretation remain, though, on the basis that Travis proactively seeks out Iris at her brothel. Quite the effort for a man who can’t stand being around the “scum” of New York, including everyone Iris is surrounded by. Is she really just a child he takes pity on and an excuse for him to dispatch some of the city’s scumbags?
Scorcese and the film’s screenwriter, Paul Schrader, leave the answer to this question up to the audience. But I’m inclined to give Travis Bickle the benefit of the doubt on this one.
