Taxi Driver- Is Travis Good or Bad? (Bad)

            In the film Taxi Driver, Travis is introduced as an innocent veteran, not able to sleep and simply wanting to do something with his life. Although Travis is introduced as vulnerable, this does not necessarily mean that he is innocent. In the beginning of the film, Travis admires a girl, and finally builds up the nerve to ask her out. After flattering her at a restaurant, his character is shown to be sensitive and compassionate. His character takes a turn when he disrespectfully takes her to a pornographic movie, and gets angry that she was upset with him. From this point on his actions become more violent, he prepares to shoot a candidate and buys as many weapons as he can. In the end of the movie, I was surprised to see that Travis was viewed as a hero by Iris’s parents. Although he saved a young girl, I definitely do not consider him a hero. I believe that Travis thought of saving Iris as a game, something he could distract himself with when he wasn’t driving taxis. He definitely had a lot of other options other than killing and wounding several people in the building, but chose the violent way for his own pleasure, which is something a villain would do. Both characters that meant a lot to him, Iris and Betsy, brought out a violent side of him in this film. His relationships with both of them started off endearing, and then once they both didn’t go the way he wanted them to, he got violent. (Iris didn’t leave her job and Betsy didn’t want to date Travis again). All of these events and relationships brought out characteristics in Travis that were not heroic, molding him into a villain who found pleasure in violence and murder.