When I first watched “Taxi Driver”, I found the movie to be so incredibly boring that I was surprised it got nominated for four Oscars. “Did people watch this movie blindfolded?” I thought. After years of hearing about the great Martin Scorsese, it seemed that I had been let down. All was not lost, however, and I discovered a greater respect for the movie after Monday’s discussion. I discovered more about the themes of the movie and the characters that can also be related to “The Metal Children”.
One theme that is dealt with in both “Taxi Driver” and “The Metal Children” is the theme of loneliness and isolation. In “Taxi Driver”, for example, Travis is a lonely taxi driver who has no one to share his life with. He has fellow taxi drivers who he talks to occasionally, but he never truly befriends them and becomes close with them. Travis has parents who he communicates with through letters, but he hides his address from them so that they cannot communicate with him. He tells his parents that this is because he is a successful government worker who must keep his address a secret. Travis also does not have a partner in his life. He does not have a wife or a girlfriend he goes home to at night. Instead, Travis goes to the porno theaters at night.
Travis’ isolation is something that carries over into “The Metal Children”. In “The Metal Children”, after Tobin’s wife leaves him, he is alone. Tobin secludes himself to his apartment for over a month and spends much of his time pining for his wife, pondering why she left him. Travis seeks comfort in the “hoobily-doobily” (drugs) but that is not enough to cure his loneliness.
What Tobin and Travis both want is to be loved. In “The Metal Children”, Tobin momentarily appeases his loneliness by having sex with one of his neighbors. Later in the play, however, Tobin cannot hold out any longer and he calls his ex-wife to talk to her. “Miranda, hey, it’s me… I just wanted to let you know that I miss you (he starts to cry, makes himself stop)…” This excerpt from “The Metal Children” shows how much Tobin misses his wife and wants to be with her again. Tobin misses his wife so much, that when he is stabbed and falls into a coma, he cannot stop thinking about her. He even acts out a conversation between him and his wife and why she left him. This just goes to show how much Tobin’s wife leaving truly affected him.
Likewise, in “Taxi Driver” Travis also wants someone to love. For Travis, that someone is Betsy. Unfortunately for Travis, Betsy is a classy, upper -class working woman who enjoys Kris Kristofferson. In other words, Travis’ world is different from Betsy’s world. Travis makes an attempt to enter Betsy’s world by upgrading his wardrobe. The result is disastrous for Travis, however, when he tries to bring Betsy into his world by taking her to a porno. Travis ends up losing Betsy.
I think that it is at this point that Travis’ rebellion against the established authority begins. He starts by rebelling against the way that Betsy is treating him. He storms into her office and confronts her about all the calls and flowers that she rejects from him. Travis then tries to rebel by attempting an assassination against Senator Palantine. When this fails, however, Travis confronts and kills Sport, the pimp who Iris works for. I think that this is just what Travis needed to do since the beginning of the movie. He was always talking so much about cleaning the trash off the streets that I think he needed to stop waiting for other people to come around and just take action himself.
In “The Metal Children”, Tobin also does what he has to. Tobin writes “The Metal Children” because it is an outlet for him to express his thoughts and emotions after a tough time in his life. When this novel gets banned in Midlothia, however, Tobin sets out to speak on behalf of his novel. After dealing with this, Tobin starts to clean up his life. He writes another bestselling novel and gets back in shape. Just like Travis desired in “Taxi Driver”, Tobin gives his life a purpose again.
