I have lived in New York City for my entire life and I cannot imagine growing up anywhere else! I have grown accustomed to certain aspects of this city including the busy morning commute on my way to school, the infinite cabs in every part of the city, the constant pushing and shoving in trains, and just the fast-pace of the city. New York has had a tremendous impact on shaping my identity because many of my behaviors are a direct result of growing up in such a fast-paced city. For example, I am always in a hurry to get everywhere, I know that I always have to be prepared to take a different train route to my destination, and I usually use the presence of cars on the streets (rather than the walk signs) to control whether or not I cross the street. Interestingly enough, the film Taxi Driver strongly affected my perception of New York City. Scorsese portrays a New York City that I am not familiar with- the New York City before Disneyfication.
The protagonist, Travis Bickle, strongly impacted my opinions of the film. From the very beginning, Travis appears to be an exceptional New York cab driver who claims he will not discriminate against his passengers. However, he offers the audience his opinions about the filthy streets of New York and expresses his disgust of the street crime and prostitution. Throughout the film, he proves to be a mentally unstable individual and he made me realize how corrupt New York City once was. Hypocritically, he takes Betsy to a porn film in Times Square despite claiming to be disturbed by all the corruption in the city. His actions are absurd and seem to be as a result of his inability to find himself. Through his actions, it is clear that he is a lonely New Yorker. He even refers to himself as “God’s lonely man” (Taxi Driver, Scorsese 1979).
The idea of loneliness in the film shows a grim side of New York City. New York City seems to be such an enjoyable place to live in, filled with many different forms of entertainment and diverse people. Still, the film shows how significant personal connections are difficult to develop. The people in the city don’t pay attention to Travis. He is suffering from loneliness throughout the entire film. Even the crowds that are shown in Taxi Driver are doing their own thing and illustrate how isolated everyone is from each other.
This theme, of loneliness, that Scorsese illustrates made me recognize that some ideas of New York City are misleading. The idea of living in an ideal city is not always accurate. Taxi Driver is now one of my favorite films because it opened my eyes to certain aspects of the City that I seemed to disregard. Films such as this one are necessary to portray the grim and dark aspects of New York because New York is not always an exuberant and dreamlike place.
