Taxi Driver

In Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver,  he uses main character, Travis's, mental state as the focal point in the plot. Travis is a Vietnam war veteran and mentally is not okay, he suffers from sleep deprivation and thus applies for a nighttime taxi driving job. From one of his first pick ups he gives a very pretty woman a ride, and from there on Travis is fixated on her and tries his best to win her over. He is socially unaware though, and screws up his chances by taking her to an XXX movie theater. She rejects him and that takes a toll on Travis, and his character flips, shaves a mohawk, and turns violent from that point on. Travis becomes obsessed with guns and weapons, and this is when the audience realizes that there is no happy ending for Travis. And so, eventually he escalates, and shoots up the pimp and his (for lack of a better word) whorehouse. He ends up badly wounded and bleeding in the hospital, and then the film either flashes forward or backwards to Travis driving the taxi with his full head of hair and somewhat sanity. This is what I believe is a flash back, and that Scorsese is offering that the entire movie was a figment of his imagination in his PTSD head. If this theory was true and the whole movie was just a thought into the future in Travis's head if he pursued this woman, then that would be incredible, and a huge mind game to the audience.