What’s real and what’s in Travis’ head?

Nearly 50 years since Martin Scorsese delivered one of his greatest movies, there are still those looking to have the Taxi driver End explained. Taxi driver Build to a bloody climax and conclude with a cryptic sequence of events – events that could be in Travis Bickle’s head. When interpreted literally, the 1976 film ends with Travis Bickle saving an adolescent sex worker by killing her pimps. However, a closer look implies that Travis’ life ends in a figurative hell that he references throughout Taxi driver.

Travis (Robert De Niro) is a loner who is detached from reality. He is a US Marine who previously served in Vietnam and struggles to connect with acquaintances, such as a romantic interest, Betsy (Sybil Shepherd), a campaign volunteer for a presidential candidate. in taxi driver, Everything changes for Travis after he spots a 12-year-old sex worker named Iris (Jodie Foster). Travis finds a purpose and plans to help the girl, which leads to the violent Taxi driver ending however, Due to Travis’ fragile psyche, it is unclear which parts of these Taxi driver Endings are real.

The transformation: real

Travis Bickle Shane “The Man With No Name” really happened

The Taxi driver The end begins with the protagonist preparing a political assassination. When a militarized Travis shows up at a Palantine rally, wearing a mohawk and aviator shades, he gives up his real identity. Earlier, Wizard explained how a person can become his job, and Now Travis has completely transformed into someone else – the man with no name. Previously, he was identified as a suspicious individual after lying to a Secret Service agent. At this moment, he tries to assassinate the politician but it is not successful.

This version of Travis suggests he is delusional and detached from reality. Shortly before the assassination attempt, he writes a letter to his parents and says that he does “sensitive work” For the government. Travis tells Iris that he “Must do something for the government,” And that he “Could go away for a while.” He projects an image that allows him to make sense of the world in which he lives. “All my life needed was a sense of somewhere to go,” Travis writes in early Taxi driver. He identified that place as hell on earth.

Travis’ descent into hell on earth: real

Travis’s final rampage really happened

Travis becomes a fatalist in the Taxi driver ending He believes that he is supposed to kill Palantine – a man who claims to represent the “The people.” Travis also believes that he will save “Sweet Iris” By purifying the symbolic “filth”, Who is Matthew, Iris’ pimp (Harvey Keitel). It is the same frame of mind showcased in Taxi driver That unfortunately inspired John Hinckley Jr. s real-life assassination attempt on US it. President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley was hoping to get the attention of Jodie Foster, who played the role of Iris.

in Taxi driver, Travis kills Matthew and then waits a few moments before ascending into “Hell on Earth”.A New York City building where men pay for sex with teenage sex workers. Aesthetically, the entire sequence – which ultimately sees the movie’s ever-growing tension boil over in memorably gory fashion – is inspired by Scorses’ admiration of Caravaggio, an Italian baroque artist known for blending the sacred with the profane.

First, Travis blasts a pimp’s hand and finally shoots him in the head. By saving Iris from harm, Travis has eliminated a “profane” threat and protected a “sacred” figure. One of Scorsese’s trademark visuals in Taxi driver Could be the premise for a Caravaggio painting, as the Italian artist incorporated extreme violence into his work. As a character, Travis takes a similar approach by painting the walls red and then sacrificing himself. In a small twist, however, Travis’ plan fails when he runs out of bullets.

Travis’ Survival and Arrest: Not Real

Travis died at the end of Taxi Driver

Travis dies of his wounds in the Taxi driver ends after the police arrive; A moment that is foreshadowed by an earlier one Taxi driver quote when he suggests Betsy Will “Die in hell like the rest of them.” The irony is that Travis becomes one of the pack, A dead criminal who believes his actions serve a higher purpose. Scorsese shoots from above to remind the audience that they are looking down on Travis and the other victims who lie in the hell they created. An angelic figure in white, Iris, is the sole survivor, framed with religious imagery.

On the left side of the frame: the “sick”. On the right side of the frame: the “saint”. In the middle: Travis – a fusion of both Caravaggian concepts. To reinforce the idea that Travis died in Taxi driverThe camera slowly pans the room as the police assess the scene, frozen in shock. The camera finally settles into the street to show that a giant mess still exists. The implication: Travis did not clean up anything but instead contributed to the dirt. yet, Taxi driver Leave it to the audience to interpret.

Was Travis just wrong in his actions? Or did Travis’ delusional mind and moral righteousness get the best of him? Essentially, Scorses gives the audience a Caravaggian ending. Travis can be viewed as a “holy” figure who lives on. Or he could be viewed as a “profane” murderer who is stuck in purgatory, or hell.

The letter from Iris’ father: not real

Travis being hailed as a hero was all in his head

taxi driver s Epilogue makes it like Travis survived and became a New York City hero for saving young Iris, whose father reads a thank-you letter through voice-over narration. If the audience listens closely, Iris’ father’s writing and speech patterns mirror Travis’ diary entries and narration. Travis is either alive and creating another false narrative to justify his actions, or he is imagining an idealized version of ​​events at his moment of death. Based on Scorsese’s visual evidence, the letter from Iris’ father is a figment of Travis’ imagination.

Travis and Betsy Reunite: Not real

Betsy and Travis do not reconcile before the end of the film

When Betsy shows up in Travis’ vehicle during Taxi driverThe two seemingly reunite and rekindle a possible romance. however, This is another idealized version of events that Travis imagines. The streets are suspiciously clean at the end of this violence and crime spree-infused movie and Betsy’s hair blows in the wind like an angel. And it’s not a coincidence that she wears white. This is the “holy” end of Scorsese Taxi driver: An angel with the face of Betsy welcomes Travis to heaven.

The Final Moments: Not real

The closing shots of Taxi Driver are in Travis’ mind

Scorsese finally leaves viewers with a “profane” ending Taxi driver. After Travis and Betsy go their separate ways, a brief moment of chaotic sound design brings the audience back to reality, whatever that might be. And the look in Travis’ eye suggests that He is certainly not in a peaceful place. The taxi driver continues, but he is in a hellish realm and repeats the same loop. To quote Betsy from earlier in the film, Travis is “Part truth, part fiction … a walking contradiction.”

The real meaning of the taxi driver finish

The world is damaged, not the people in it

There are several theories as to why Taxi driver End means. However, the one closest to the different things in the movie that are real and fantasy tells the viewer that the end is a damnation of a damaged society – not a damaged individual. While Travis Bickle is a dangerous man who lives in his own fantasy world much of the time, the things that happen around him are all too real, including the society that mostly turns a blind eye when a child is put on the streets for sex Worker. .

Scorsese goes a long way to show that Bickle didn’t fix anything. Instead, he only made things worse and this is another way to see that society has a way of chewing and spitting out people, including those who think they are working to make things better. The ending is not one where Travis becomes the hero he always wanted to be. Instead, he dies and society won’t even think about him again. in the Taxi driver Ultimately, the world is a horrible place where anyone trying to fix it will fail and never change anything.

Does the end of Taxi Driver still hold up?

The ending of Taxi Driver is iconic

Taxi driver does a phenomenal job of taking audiences on an unnerving descent into palpable madness, but whether the 1976 classic’s ending holds up is a rather polarizing question. It’s easy to see why this concept is so widely debated nearly 50 years later, but Scorsese’s ending is still perfect. Travis Bickle is at the wheel for taxi driver s Quite a disturbing ride; It is clear that he is dangerous, but he controls a lot of how the story is presented with his diary entries and a glimpse of his daily existence.

After being well acquainted with Travis’ psyche, it is only natural viewers experience taxi driver s ending through his detached and delusional lens. The ending renders both a purposefully ethereal atmosphere and extraordinary, unlikely events that do not connect with what has gone before in the film. These elements give even more of a look into Travis’ deranged psyche and flawed self-perception after his death while signaling to viewers that the wrap-up is just an extension of Travis’ unreliable narrative.

How the end of Taxi Driver is received

The ending of Taxi Driver, like the rest of the movie, received almost universal praise

It’s no surprise that the end of Taxi driver was celebrated by critics when it was released in 1976, and remains a key reason the film is still widely discussed almost 50 years later. The Martin Sorcese movie often finds its way to many “greatest movies of all time” lists, and the final moments contribute to this legacy (and is considered in the Top 10 by the likes of Quentin Tarantino).

While the fact that the ending of Taxi driver was incredibly well, seems like something of an obvious statement given the prestigious legacy of the movie, it’s still a noteworthy achievement. Especially the fact that the final moments did not hide its success is especially impressive because of the ambiguous nature of the climax.

Ambiguous endings are always a risky gamble for filmmakers. There are many otherwise-hard movies in the history of cinema that failed to achieve the acclaim they should have due to an ending that does not answer enough questions. Taxi driver Certainly leaves things open-ended, but Scorsese does it in such a way that it works to the benefit of the movie, rather than becoming a complaint or criticism.

Taxi driver It remains, both in the eyes of contemporary viewers and critics, an example of how to make an ambiguous ending right. This gives the audience just enough to understand that this is a conclusion to Travis’ story, leaving a lot of questions that are endearing rather than frustrating. This has ensured the lasting legacy of the movie, and is a key reason for this Taxi driver Cemented Martin Scorsese’s name as an all-time great among directors.

Other Amazingly Ambiguous Sorcerous Endings

Taxi Driver is not the director’s only movie that is open to interpretation

The Taxi driver Ending ranks as one of Martin Scorsese’s best movie climaxes and the filmmaker certainly has a knack for ambiguous endings. The most notable Example of this is as Shutter Island wake up. Although different from Taxi driver In many ways, this ultra-dark psychological thriller imbues the audience with a similar kind of doom-infused unease. Shutter Island Ends with Teddy Daniels/Andrew Laeddis (Leonardo DiCaprio) acknowledging awareness of who he is and how he’s about to be lobotomized.

But, in yet another twist, the Martin Sorceres movie is bookended with Leonardo DiCaprio’s eary delivery of this philosophical question: “This place makes me wonder; What would be worse…to live as a monster or to die as a good man?” The question is important and thought-provoking, and it parallels Shutter Island’s Essence. Still, a great deal is left up in the air. Does Teddy/Andrew remember who he is? There is a lot of ambiguous, implicit commentary about the stories people tell themselves to survive.

There are two other Martin Sorcese movies with endings that, while not entirely ambiguous, are certainly left to a certain level of viewer interpretation. The author’s 2006 Irish mafia and law enforcement-centered drama The departed Ends immediately after Collin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is shot to death in his apartment. The death of his character is rewarding, because he is one of multiple”rat” Over the movie working for another side. The camera pans to a real rat, with a government building in the background.

Of course, this is a clear parallel to Sullivan being a rat and the two-faced nature of some of the movie’s treacherous characters. However, there’s more to it than that. The building also symbolizes how cCorruption and criminality run rampant in any government—let alone a city like Boston—which has a notorious reputation for both. Still, there is ambiguity about exactly what Scorsese is saying about “rat“And corruption; audience members must decide for themselves.

There’s also another Robert De Niro-starring Martin Scorsese movie with a semi-ambiguous ending: The king of comedy. The 1982 black comedy-infused drama ends the story of stand-up comedian Rupert Pupkin after he’s supposedly gone to prison for his kidnapping scheme. After a few years he’s out on parole, has a new autobiography, and has been surprisingly successful since his legal troubles. The king of comedy Ends with an announcer repeating different, adoring versions of “Ladies and gentlemen, Rupert Pupkin!”

like Taxi driverThe sour ending leaves one wondering how any of this is possible. As with Travis Bickle, it is seemingly impossible that what is depicted is reality. Also, as in Taxi driver, The king of comedy Ends with the kind of reality its deeply flawed protagonist Will To believe, although there is no possible way the events are anything but unreliable narration of an unhinged character. Still, the movie’s delusional ending, as well as how it ties in with artistic commentary on show business, is brilliantly subjective.