The ending of ‘Taxi Driver’ explained
Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader and starring Robert De Niro, is an exploration of exterior decay and interior morality. It proceeds the Vietnam War, introducing the audience to Travis Bickle (De Niro), a veteran working as a taxi driver. We observe Bickle’s psyche break down, causing his actions and outlook to become questionable.
As a gritty and hard-hitting piece of visual storytelling, Taxi Driver has generated significant controversy following its release, mostly John Hinckley Jr. citing the movie as his overall motive to attempt to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan. Despite this, the film has remained popular, so much so that it is recognised as one of Hollywood’s most culturally significant and inspirational.
De Niro’s performance as Bickle is cited as an example of exceptional acting, as De Niro encapsulates and embodies the deteriorating state of the character effortlessly. The character and overall themes of the film, such as mental health, the social-economic climate and graphic violence, have been studied and interpreted countless times by scholars and critics. One aspect of the film that causes debate is the ending, a climax of graphic violence and characterisation.
In the end, Bickle kills a pimp, engages in a shootout, and then attempts suicide before going into a coma. When he awakes, he finds he has been cited by the local press as some sort of heroic vigilante and is not prosecuted for the murders. Bickle soon returns to work and finally seems genuinely happy with his circumstances. That is until something unseen captures his attention in the mirror before the screen cuts to black.
Television edits of the film featured a black screen with a disclaimer during the ending credits, mentioning that “the distinction between hero and villain is sometimes a matter of interpretation or misinterpretation of facts”. This leads to some philosophical bait for audiences to reflect on using the overall film they have just seen as a case study.
What does the ending of Taxi Driver mean?
One theory argues that the ending reflects Bickle’s subjective fantasies rather than objective fact, and even claims he is slowly dying. However, this has been counteracted several times by none other than Shader, De Niro, and even Scorsese himself.
Scorsese attempts to bring understanding by emphasising that the ending isn’t actually discussing a disturbed mind but rather a disturbed society. Essentially, the director is arguing that the ending demonstrates it wasn’t Bickle that needed fixing but the environment he resided in.
This is conjoined with claims that America and other countries celebrate and glorify violence and reward it. This is the reaction when that violence is directed at those society deems dangerous or outside the norm, such as pimps and mobsters.
One detail to take note of is Bickle receiving a letter from the father of an exploited child Bickle feels he saved. In this letter, he thanks Travis for saving his daughter from a life of prostitution and informs him that she’s doing well in school, which reads as celebrating Bickle as a character and leaving the conclusion that he does qualify as a hero.
Essentially, Bickle becomes the hero he always imagined himself to be, thus showing one can trump a destructive and toxic society to maintain morals and principles. That is, of course, if this letter was real and not an illusion created by Bickle. It’s up in the air based on whether audiences decide he can be trusted as a narrator, despite his clearly compromised psychological state.
However, Scorsese employs film techniques and story to negotiate this as the conclusive outlook. The last shot of Bickle looking at his car mirror is a direct mirror of the film’s opening. Thus, the film eventually becomes one whole loop that never truly ends. This can be interpreted as Bickle eventually returning to the paranoia and restlessness we have watched him experience throughout the first viewing.
It doesn’t matter that Bickle may be a hero because he will end up returning to the low state he was in. This bridges Taxi Driver with a hopeless and fatalistic ending, one that leaves a sour taste in the audience’s mouths.
