Taxi driver through dostoevsky.

February 19, 2021

Taxi Driver Isn’t From Dostoevsky, It’s Through Dostoevsky!

Despite a 100-year chasm and huge geographical gap between them, I never had any doubt about the Doesteyvyskian lingerings in Taxi Driver. They languish in both the inner and outer surfaces of the film, making it the subtle and undisclosed cinematic adaptation of the Russian giant.

The protagonist who is accurately aware of his dreadful loneliness, dwelling like a mouse in tiny apartments that seals his delinking from the rest of the world, his constant and vocal disdain for the “filth” and “scum” that he sees around - the first half of Taxi Driver is like a direct jump from Notes from Underground. Then reaching a breaking point after realizing that have-nots will get swept away repeatedly by the brooms of have-all till this world exists, and plotting of the killings to break away from the mental prison proves that there is eternal Raskolnikov in every ounce of Travis Bickle. Their paths differ too, asserting the individualism of existentialism, as Raskolnikov confesses his crime and seeks refuge in religion to find redemption. Travis Bickle, on the other hand, remains removed from society and quite far from being redeemed - keeping open the possibility that he may slip back into his squalid dwelling again.

But the bridge between Taxi Driver and Dostoevsky runs much longer than this. While scrolling through a page dedicated to Russian writers, I came to know that when he was in London, Dostoevsky saw a little and underage prostitute. Ravaged by it, as he considered child abuse as the worst vice that man can have, he gave all his money to that hapless prostitute and promised to help her by all possible means. It didn’t take me even a fraction of a second for me to teleport back to the Taxi Driver scene where De Niro sees the tiny, little prostitute (Foster) for the first time, and he ceases from being what he was before!