He is so lonely and isolated in the bad parts of New York that the only theatres he knows of are porn theatres, so he assumes when people say they're going out to see a movie, that's the kind of movie he thinks they're going to. He doesn't realize how socially unacceptable that is.
shareJust recently I thought it was Travis' way of getting back at the concession stand girl who rejected him. He wants her to see him walk into the theater with a girl like Betsy as a way of saying "Who needs you?".
But yeah, him being out of touch with reality is a bit more likely.
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I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire.
He was socially backward.
I thought that the concession stand girl was total comedy. Him flirting with her and getting rejected is the setup, and the audience seeing minutes later that he is at a porn is the punchline.
We thought, "WHY is she being this bitchy?.... Ooooooohhhh...."
She doesn't want to have a thing to do with that place's clientele.
I thought that the scene with Cybill Shepard was, as other people have stated, just a symptom of his isolation and disconnect from reality.
It was a completely different place.
The first Porn Movie place was just a hole in the wall with 20 seats. Kind of like a backroom porn palace.
The place he took cybel Sheppard was a regular movie theatre that showed adult flicks...He thought it was classy.
I think a combination of these two things.
shareThat's an interesting thought. I kind of makes sense, however she wasn't there. Actually in real life that girl Diahnne Abbott, was Deniro's girlfriend at the time. She is also known for Rita in King of Comedy, where she played Deniro's girlfriend...of sorts.
shareExactly, he's out of touch with reality. He works as a night time cabbie, and it is then that he sees the "filth and scum". He is a lonely guy, not knowing how people in society function, even for leisure. He has the capacity to attempt to socialise and take Betsy out to a movie, but again it's the wrong sort of film, and a dirty one at that.
There was a Clint Eastwood film playing across the road. It was "The Eiger Sanction"(1975). He could have taken her to see that.
I think Travis is just very socially inept. Quite possibly he might have Asperger's Syndrome(although I don't know if that term existed in the 70's), and just isn't good on picking up social cues, or recognizing when something might be considered inappropriate by others. That surely wasn't the only reason, but it very likely could have been one of the reasons.
shareHe heard tings about the director.. He heard tings.
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> Why does he take her to see a porn movie?
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he saw other couples go to the porn movies so he thought that was normal and he hoped that he could bring a date.
shareTravis Bickle is clueless, antisocial, and borderline psycho at the beginning of the movie. He thinks that such a movie is just fine to take a lady to. The couples he sees in the audience are normal couples to him. He's sincerely surprised at and doesn't understand Betsy's reaction to him taking her there. These are all examples of someone who is seriously out of touch with reality.
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