Violence is in the atmosphere in Taxi Driver—the whole city pulses with the threat. Travis says that he has to clean blood off the backseat of his cab some nights, and encounters a crazy passenger who wants to murder his own wife for cheating on him.
Travis decides the only way he can deal with this atmosphere is to turn violent himself, shooting a robber at a convenience store and plotting to assassinate Palantine before finally killing Sport and two others instead. The city itself is so violent, and so eager for violence, that it's not able to recognize Travis' violence as a product of his mental aberration—it seems like a natural or even a heroic response to his situation.
Questions about Violence
- Is violence ever the answer?
- How bad should we feel about Sport's death? Should we feel bad at all? Why or why not? What about the other two guys Travis kills?
- Why does Travis think he needs to work out his problems through violence? What else could he have done?
- What is the end of the movie saying about violence? Is it arguing that it can work out sometimes, or is this completely ironic?
Chew on This
You could use Taxi Driver as an example of how pursuing vigilante justice is inherently unstable and underlined by craziness. It might pretend to be justice, but it's really just a way of satisfying the avenger's super-aggressive impulses.
On the other hand, you could claim that Travis might've used his violent impulses in a worse way (i.e. killing Palantine) if he hadn't taken them out on Sport and Co. It's not that vigilante murder is so great, but maybe Travis could've dealt with his enemies in a non-lethal way?