A question about "Taxi Driver"

When Travis (DeNiro) goes to kill Palantine at the rally, but is seen and takes off -- What was his reason for trying to kill him?

 

What was Palpatine doing at a rally?

 

The idea had been growing in my brain for some time. TRUE force. All the king's men cannot put it back together again.

He sees Palatine as a dishonest phony.

 

Though IMDb labels him as "A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran " the film never says he was in the Vietnam War or that he is mentally unstable, does it? He didn't act it, in my mind.

 

He had control of the Senate and the courts. He was too dangerous to be left alive.

 

He's basically insane at that point. Palantine has become an obsession, probably because he actually gave Palantine a ride. His insanity needs no other reason.

In short, it doesn't make sense particularly.

And the Vietnam Vet . . . I think there may be a single line where that is referenced . . . but I can't recall for sure.

 

When Travis (DeNiro) goes to kill Palantine at the rally, but is seen and takes off -- What was his reason for trying to kill him?

This is a case in which Bickle mis-directs feelings of self-loathing, alienation, and sexual angst, onto a superficially "disconnected" figure. Scorse's earlier films have dealt very significantly with the unhealthy sexual obsession and guilt which haunts their male characters; in "Taxi Driver," as in "Raging Bull" and "Mean Streets," the protagonist suffers from what Freud termed the "Madonna-Whore complex." In the case of "Taxi Driver," Bickle's obsession extends to two principal characters: Betsy, the beautiful young woman played by Cybill Shepard, and Iris, the teenage prostitute that Bickle attempts to "save." In a simplistic sense, Freud's notion would suggest a man whose self-esteem is so low, that he cannot view a woman as anything other than one of two things: virgin or whore. The two women in "Taxi Driver" appear to represent each of the aforementioned extremes: Betsy is a blonde goddess, photographed by Scorsese in slow-motion, who becomes the object of Travis' desire - he unsuccessfully attempts to court her, and subsequently alienates Betsy by choosing to take her to see a porno film. There is a powerful, heartbreaking scene in which Travis phones her after their final date, trying to reconcile the situation, and as he is being rejected, Scorsese's camera tracks away from Bickle, and onto the image of an empty hallway; the director is telling us that this scene of rejection is too painful for us to watch. After his "failure" with Betsy, Travis devotes himself to the salvation of Iris, the teenage prostitute. This development recalls John Ford's great film, "The Searchers," which served as the primary inspiration for Paul Scrader's "Taxi Driver" screenplay; in both films, the male protagonists (played by John Wayne and Robert De Niro, respectively) become fixated with saving two young women (Natalie Wood and Jodie Foster) who may in fact have no desire to be "rescued." Therefore, this behavior is infinitely more revealing as to the character of each of these anti-heroic figures, than it does about any sort of "self-righteous" crusade which becomes the focal point of these men?s existences.

In Scorsese's picture, the "corrupt" are personified by Sport, Iris' pimp (played by Harvey Keitel), and Palatine (Leonard Harris), a Senatorial candidate whose opinions do not necessarily conform to the ones that were originally perceived by Travis Bickle earlier in the film. The taxi cab encounter, which Rogue1-and-a-half alluded to, represents the point at which Bickle's ideas surrounding Palatine's character become diminished; the notion of idealization in contrast to reality is once again re-asserted. To bring the sexuality theme full-circle, it is important to remember that Betsy worked for Palatine's campaign committee, and so it is therefore reasonable to draw a parallel which connects the relationship between Sport and Iris, and the one (although it doesn't really exist) between Palatine and Betsy; in other words, both men have been objectified as domineering figures who assert control over, and thus "corrupt," the innocence or virginal quality, of the two females who occupy the foreground of Scorsese's film (at least that is how Travis sees things). Consequently, Bickle transforms himself into a quasi-fascist superman whose sole purpose is to cleanse the sins of humanity ("one day...a great rain will come and wash away all the scum from these streets").


He's basically insane at that point. Palantine has become an obsession, probably because he actually gave Palantine a ride. His insanity needs no other reason.

Yes, but as I've indicated above, his targets are not entirely arbitrary (although perhaps their significance exists on a more subconscious level for Bickle).

And the Vietnam Vet . . . I think there may be a single line where that is referenced . . . but I can't recall for sure.

I believe it was mentioned in one of the pi