His handling of women would suggest so. Unless he’s been paying for it (which seems unlikely given his disapproval of pimps) I just can’t see this guy talking his way into anyone’s panties.
It’s like he’s a stunted adolescent, I can’t even imagine him being much use in Vietnam, if he was even there at all. He behaves more like someone who was committed to a mental hospital aged 10 and only just got out.
His behaviour and the narrative seems to indicate he has paid for a 'tute in the past, but he probably got too obsessive so he was yeeted and blacklisted from tang citywide. That's probably behind his violent hatred of pimps, they were gatekeeping. Travis was just an incel.
shareHehe. Yeah Travis Bickle is the original incel.
His taxi was his basement. The adult cinema was his Pornhub subscription. The cab firm was his online incel chatroom. Jujubes were his Cheetos.
Not bad theories
shareExcept Travis actually wants to help people. He wants to help Iris and he stops that robbery. He's nasty and far too violent, but he's sticking his neck out for other people, and that's not very "incel".
Although, mostly, yes, I agree with you that he's pretty much an incel.
I wouldn’t call Travis an incel.
He was a Vietnam vet that suffered from sever PTSD. He’s seen and done some real shit. It’s a far cry from those losers.
He probably got up to some shenanigans in Vietnam at the very latest. I can't imagine women giving him the time of day for more than a couple chats. His longest relationship is probably with Betsy. I don't think he's a virgin, but I also have a feeling that the circumstances of his sexual life are pretty uncomfortable, at best.
shareYeah, something like this. Never a serious relationship because no woman would have him, experiences with prostitutes that left him feeling disgusted and ashamed. But perhaps he still thinks of prostitutes as the only women who are available to him, and as he's lonely and horny, he fixates on them.
But the fact that out of all the hookers on the street, he chooses one who's 14 to obsess over, does raise the question of whether his problems with relationships have a deeper and more disturbing component than his obvious weirdness.
That's certainly possible, although the film doesn't give us reason to really suspect this. He doesn't seem to be hitting on her in their interactions, he doesn't have any material of that nature in his apartment. The films he sees are about adults and the "ideal woman" he pursues is an adult, so I dunno.
I can conceive of Travis being the way you suggest, but for some reason, I don't think so. Then again, maybe that's just another thing he's bottling up inside himself. Maybe self-loathing is one of the reasons he goes 'round the bend and starts descending the way he does.
I suppose there's a possibility of an even deeper inner darkness, but it really is more likely that he just thinks she's the only one of the prostitutes he fixates on who can be "saved". Which isn't what I'd call realistic, a 14-year-old who's working the streets at that age undoubtedly comes from a background of horrific abuse, and has never had a living moment of innocence.
The only certainty... is that I don't want to know what's deep in Travis Bickle's mind.
I think you're right: he's got it in his head that's pure because she's young. Logic and reasoning don't penetrate Travis' thought processes, so he wouldn't conclude (or maybe even believe) that there was any mental and/or psycho-social scarring or trauma that have damaged Iris.
I think I know more-or-less what's in Bickle's mind; he tells us. All his voice-overs tell us the kind of dark stuff floating around in there, and we've seen similar ideas lead to horrible consequences in real life, so I think we know. I just know and I am sad for the truth there - the reality of PTSD and mental health and loneliness that so often creates this kind of mind-trap for so many people.