Taxi Driver Film and Sociological Analysis

Flashcards covering the plot, characters, and sociological themes of the film Taxi Driver as discussed in the lecture notes.

Travis Bickle is a $26$-year-old __________ and former U.S. Marine who drives a taxi in New York City.

Vietnam veteran

Travis takes the job of taxi driver primarily because he suffers from __________.

insomnia

Travis's main form of communication, which provides the film's voice-over narration, is his __________.

journal

Early in the film, Travis expresses his hatred for the city by stating, "Someday a real __________ will come and wash all this scum off the streets."

rain

Travis's urban experience is shaped by value conflicts and the absence of stabilizing social institutions described by __________ theorists.

Chicago school

Travis becomes attracted to a political campaign worker named __________, whom he describes as an "angel."

Betsy

Betsy tells Travis that he reminds her of a song lyric describing a man who is a "prophet and a pusher" and a "__________."

walking contradiction

Travis's date with Betsy fails when he takes her to see a movie at a __________.

porn theater

The presidential candidate traveling in Travis's cab who asks about the country's biggest problem is __________.

Charles Palantine

A $12$-year-old runaway named __________ appears in Travis's cab while trying to escape her pimp.

Iris

The pimp who forces Iris out of the taxi and is later killed by Travis is named __________.

Sport

A disgruntled passenger, played by Martin Scorsese in a cameo, describes a plan to kill his wife with a __________.

$$.44~Magnum$$

Travis tells his fellow cabbie, the __________, that he has "some bad ideas" in his head.

Wizard

While practicing with his firearms in front of a mirror, Travis repeatedly asks his reflection, "__________?"

You talkin' to me

In a routine visit to a __________, Travis kills a young black male who is attempting a robbery.

convenience store

Despite his mental breakdown and the violent bloodbath he causes, the film's conclusion shows Travis being hailed as a __________.

hero

The film depicts New York City as an __________, which the Chicago school defines as a place of corruption, value conflict, and isolation.

interstitial zone

According to Burgess, Travis is struggling to find "a place and role in the total __________ of city life."

organization

Chicago school theorists viewed __________ as a normal component of transitional urban environments grounded in social conditions.

criminality

The film uses __________—such as images viewed through windshields and rearview mirrors—to emphasize the distortion in Travis's perceptions.

optical motifs