Never understood how people can sit there and say that the ending was a dream sequence yet the director, screenwriter, and star of the movie all said Travis Bickle survives.

The music every time he saw her is the best thing in film.. you don’t get that anymore .. a soothing jazz melody against the downfall of man

What did Travis do before he became a taxi driver? He was in Vietnam. I think that is the great unspoken backdrop of the story.

The jazz soundtrack is fire

It's been confirmed that the ending was real. When he glances at the mirror twice, it meant that Travis isn't completely "cleared" yet.

Interesting, tough I disagree with your interpretation of the ending of the movie being a dream sequence. The very last scene, after he drops Betsy off, he aggressively looks in his rear-view mirror, in a sort of paranoid manner. We would think that after the climax, his character would evolve and find meaning in his life (as per the existentialist overtones presented in the film). This is illustrated by his calm and laid back conversation with Betsy in the cab. However, his look back in the mirror subverts this, and shows that he has not evolved, and will go back to his destructive tendencies.

Uh, Betsy was attracted to Travis at first. She indicates that by agreeing with him when she says "I wouldn't be here if I didn't" to Travis. She wasn't just "being nice." Yes, she thinks he's weird and off-putting and knows he's from a different socio-economic background than her, but I think much the way Travis hates degeneracy but is also fascinated by it, Betsy (like many women) is fascinated by the "danger" of certain men like Travis even if they're not as socially savvy as bores like Tom. That's how women work, man. They have hormones too. They don't date according to "pure reason" anymore than guys. So it's not as simple as saying "Betsy was just being nice." Yes, the relationship was obviously doomed to failure; but he legitimately impressed her and amused her and excited her the first time he walked into the headquarters. Unfortunately for Travis, his keen insight into Betsy that initially impressed her didn't translate to actually planning out a reasonable date. People who are autistic like that can be insightful one moment and then totally obtuse in the next moment. Like Betsy herself said (and hits at the main strand of the film), he's a "walking contradiction" (partly truth, partly fiction). We all are on some level. It's just more notable in some than it is in others.

I saw it when I was 15 years old, no film has ever affected me as this. I don't find any film as relatable as this. One of a kind masterpiece.

He's not dead or in jail. However, Scorsese did say that Travis's arc is ultimately circular and that he hasn't really changed for the better or snapped out of his crazy trip by the end of the film. History is likely to repeat itself in his world, hence why the ending credits and the start of the film blend together intentionally.

The days go on and on... they don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people.

Thanks to this movie I have the most badass Steam name. Travis Pickle.

I love that mirror glance at the end. WHEN HE SURVIVED, LITERALLY CONFIRMED. ITS NOT LIKE A BATMAN COMIC WHERE THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF CREATORS, ITS AN ORIGINAL FILM. THE DIRECTOR AND LEAD ACTORS INTENTION FOR THE ENDING IS FACT

This movie is so deep on many levels..Anyone who has felt alone looks at this film in such a different way..

We need you back Jack‼‼‼‼

this is the first video of yours I have stumbled upon. sad to see it was your last but looking forward to checking out your previous videos

Bernard Herrmann is awesome with the music of the movie

Back in 2002 my cousins all thought I was weird becuz I was 12years old and I would always rent Taxi Driver from the library.... it was like one of my fav even at 12... interesting vid

1 second in and the music... oh god help

3:27 did you notice the Martin Scorsese cameo? He’s staring at Betsy while sitting against the wall

One of the best films ever made. Fucking amazing.

I moved to NYC back in 1978. Just before leaving, my girlfriend and I were watching this movie. About mid-way through, she turned to me and said in a worried voice, "Do you really want to move there?" I lived there for 5 years before moving back home. I came to know both sides of the city. I was captivated by it's majestic beauty but I could see how someone could get sucked in by it's seamier and more dangerous side (as two of my friends did, both ending up as fatalities).

He didn't "murder" that armed robber, he was robbing and did that at his own peril, got what was coming to him. Albeit from someone with a screw loose who was almost a straight up bad guy.

PTSD oozes thru every frame....of this film...

It's easy seeing Travis's point of view what being a Vietnam vet myself just saying

I appreciate the unique look at the movie, because I hadn't heard of some of these view before: however, I'm pretty sure Scorsese said the final scene is reality within the narrative and isn't a dream sequence. People would look at Bickle as a hero, and I think it's supposed to be irony that the same motivation for his behavior would lead him to be reveled as a hero or villian entirely based on the victims he chose. Had gone with his original plan, he'd be looked at as evil, but since that failed and he went after Sport instead, he's a heroic vigilante. Also, I think Betsy was being more than nice, which is another assessment by you that I had no heard before. As autistic as Bickle was, I think she was genuinely intrigued by him. It was pretty clear he asked her out on a date. But he's self-destructive, so he fucked that up. It's always nice to hear new views though, and art is subjective.

Still hoping you make a happy return one day. Miss ya Jack!

I think it's too easy to cast Travis as some kind of anti-social freak, with little or no social awareness, when in truth, there's a little of Travis in most men. Most men have these fantasies, but for most men they remain fantasies - or are restricted to minor acts of violence and anti-social behavior. Mental illness is often an exaggerated expression of common-place schemas, and I think that's what Scorsese and Schrader see Travis Bickle as - a prism through which to explore common masculine archetypes. If Travis was just an odd ball, with no connection to society - Taxi Driver would be just a film about a pathology, What makes Taxi Driver such a disturbing film, is Travis's similarities to us, not his weirdness. His need for recognition, his need to play up to the Alpha male stereotypes; the attack on the ego at being rejected by a woman; the scapegoating of sexual criminals as a way to appease his own weaknesses, are not uncommon schemas, We've all felt a few of them from time to time. . In fact, it's not that Travis is unconnected to society, his problem lies in his over-connected relationship with society. He is a total product of society, with no subjective reality. His whole reality is a construct of media tropes and platitudes. And there lies the central paradox of the post modern reality, wherein virtual interaction is ubiquitous - to make up for the absence of real social interaction. However, Travis is not the only character suffering this contradictory trauma, almost every other character demonstrates the same over-connection to the 'culture', as they communicate through Errol Flynn's bathtub, Kris Kristofferson records, tabloid headlines about organized crime Hollowness of speech is another theme, from Wizard's blowhard useless advice, to the empty rhetoric of Palantine - a general state of phatic communication pervades. Of people going through the motions of social interaction, without actually communicating. Travis is no more or less anti-social than the rest of the characters, it's just he's less adept at playing the game of phatic communication. He wants to play the game, but he just can't work out the rules.

I relate to Travis a bit. I SAY a BIT because I’m not a psycho. I just relate to being awkward and being more comfortable being rejected and extremely awkward when someone says yes to a date or to simply hang out

3:26 Thats Scorcese there on the stoop, in the black shirt. Also Scorcese playing the character who's got that 44 magnum for his wife in the back of Bickle's taxi.

It should be mentioned that Travis is a war veteran and much of his tendencies root from an inability to deal with some sort of trauma/PTSD he experienced. It is also what has desensitized him to all of the violence of New York.

0:40, I struggled to make it past this point as frankly I completely disagree with your idea that he is reading the letter as if he thinks he's a hero. I think the clear point is that we, the audience, have seen Travis essentially completely lose his mind over the course of the film, brought on by the isolation he feels to the city he lives in - then at the tipping point he takes a gun and kills a heap of people. Yes, these people are 'bad guys', but this isnt a good guy vs bad guy movie, its purely to do with Travis' mental state. So to then see a newspaper clipping alongside a letter referring to him as a hero is like the city who made him the man he is, goes on to praise him for something which we, the audience know isn't something to be praised for - that being his poor mental health.

Damn. I came a little late but you've left a wealth of content that I can now go back through. So. Thanks for the great channel and the attention to quality you put into these, man.

Please come back soon, just re-watched this and found myself missing you.

cinema is dying how we once knew it and you gave true cinema fans a different pov please come back jack

Very interesting that Batsy comes back to him at the very end, she also realised something. Thank you for your videos.

This is one of the best reviews, I have ever seen. Thanks for the video and thank for the channel.

PLEASE COMEBACK WITH YOUR CHANEL ITS SO GOOD MEN

You know the movie is great when people still make analysis about it even decades later

The most relatable thing is how he tries to improve himself but stays in his vices

This commentary made me watch the movie yet another time... brilliant...

This being your favorite movie along with being your last video is haunting yet apt

This is the best analogy almost like you have the script in your hand. Thank you for a job well done.

jack, I hope you are well...hope you find the hunger to review more flics...miss ur reviews

I feel this movie on so many levels.

we miss you jack

Loved your analysis. The only thing that I still can't decide about the movie is wether the end is a dream or figment of Travis"s imagination or real and that he was praised but yet still emotionally unhinged. Anyways thanks for a succinct break down of one of the truly great films of all time.

WOW! One more, maybe the last, from you, but thank you, thank you so much! Now I will enjoy this!

One of those movies that stays with you all day long. I can't get the imagery out of my head. Complete ethereal experience that I can't say I have shared with many other movies.

Thanks for your videos. Your take on the Good The Bad and The Ugly was the first one I saw, and it was great. So as most of your videos. Thank you for sharing.

I just discovered your channel. I hope to see more. Great work.

Just found your Channel and man its a shame u havent uploaded in 3 years, Ur dissections are great and well documented

He survived. When he looked in the mirror in the final scene, he saw his dark side staring back at him. A dream sequence wouldn't let that happen.

Thanks Jack

I'm pretty sure that shooting an armed robber while in the act of commiting a felony isn't only not "murder", it's legal...

It's just relief after the climax, great ending to a great movie

if you’re out there and you’re reading this please come back

He has such a cool jacket

That is a great analysis thanks 🙏

I need to watch this again. Watched it for the first time a few months back and while I enjoyed it I'm not quite sure what makes it as legendary as people label it.

where you been bro? love these reviews

What a great movie to end, what a great review to end. Thank you for everything Jack, good luck on your new path and hope to see you in the future.

Well done!

This your last review, it sucks I just got this video in my recommendation and I really liked it

damn, late to your channel... great review of one of my fav movies of all.

Always fascinated by how different your takes on things are. I'm just 1 minute and 24 seconds in and I interpret literally everything the opposite of what you've said so far. We start off in his delusion, he's the first person we see and so we immediately adopt his perspective whereas at the end we are pulled out of it, no longer seeing things subjectively through his eyes but objectively as things are and realizing the way the world sees him as compared to the way we now know him to actually be.

Your analysis are SO GOOD, you should have more subscribers.

5:14 Betsy was "just being nice to him"? I disagree, look at her in that scene, her eyes. She is genuinley intrigued with him. That is sincere female interest

Great movie review...good lock for the future..

This is a very well thought out analysis, except for the dream sequence.

One of my all time favorites which I've watched maybe a dozen times over the years and you picked out a couple of little things I missed. Nice one, great vid :)

great analysis

Miss ya

we will miss you

3:20 Notice the bum sitting on the stoop. He’ll never amount to anything.

Insightful yet short, just the right amount of information ... and inspiration to watch Taxi Driver again. Thanks!

The pathology and mystique of loneliness is a dangerous story

I didn't get dumped until Feb 5th of this year at 33 years old and I finally understood Travis' sting of rejection I'd seen since my early 20s. Boy or man, it cuts to your core.

Wow I just watched this movie before you uploaded this. What a coincidence.

Whats been going on with you, sure hope you come back! Love your film analysis.

5:21 Wow, the look on her face...and the feelings she embodies...and how those very feelings are betrayed by the words she uses to negate them... This is just sheer brilliance!

3:24 is that Martin Scorsese in the background, black shirt. Maybe he is watching over Travis lol

One of the best series I’ve had the honor to watch on KZfaq! Really great final review and I can’t wait to see what’s next for you, Jack. Godspeed.

Marvis bicycle is the main character of axe in powder

OH MY GOD. I was waiting for this topic for such a long time! Thanks, Jack! Your reviews are so worth watching!

This is such a bittersweet video. I've watched many film analysis, but your channel always make me excited about a new upload. That's because you always select the rare gems to talk about & analyze it in ways that go deeper than most. Hope you'll find your passion soon :) til then, thank you & good luck.

so great

3:23 hey Marty! His longest cameo in any of his films, Scorsese also reappears as the man who’s going to kill his wife’s alleged lover.

Jack's Movie Reviews you should do a character study for Sam Winchester. Love from KSA

Is he alive? It’s been 4 years

I'm so glad I watched this, I had completely missed all these tones in the movie. I took it entirely at face value somehow, even though there is that bizarre part at the end where he is somehow picking up Betsy in his cab after murdering those people, like life just went back to normal the next day. He rejects Betsy, who wants to date him now that he's a hero. But, it's all just a part of his fantasy of finally getting even with a mad world. Thank you for making this.

10:28 elevator scene with Arthur and his love interest sophie, Arthur later does this after he calls for Sophia's attention, and when he walks into her apartment and she is frightened. Think about it

COME BACK JACK!!!!

This is the foundation to the joker

Fuckin' BANGER breakdown bro

Notice how many cans of coke are seen just in the scenes in this video..

Fantastic review. We will miss your phenomenal reviews. Good luck with whatever you will be occupied from now on. Thank you for your contribution to the film community.

Thank you for breaking down my favorite fictional character of time! 😍

This is a morality tale and does not glorify violence. It forces us to LOOK at evil, in fact we can't look away.

I relate to him a lot

This movie is brilliant. A sequel is impossible and unnecessary to me, since the movie just starts right over at the end: Travis is ignoring the fact that he is just like everyone else, and is instead convincing himself he is New York City's salvation and that his vigilantism is justified.