5 Most Valuable Minutes

7:40-12:40

You talkin' to me?

I selected these 5 minutes as the most important because it contains his famous "you talkin' to me?" speech which highlights his hatred of the scum of New York, the very scum he wishes to wipe away, and states he has reached his limit and his breaking point. He believes that all of these low-lifers will continue to trash and dirty up his city, and rather than let that happen he decides he wants to flush everything away and start all over again, destroying the bad in an effort to create a 'perfect city' in the eyes of our anti-hero protagonist Travis Bickle, which would cause many deaths, thus revealing more of his anti-hero life. Additionally, there is a poster of Palpantine in his room, who is the first person that he told of his views of the city and his desire to flush away the scum. The fact that this is in his room shows that he hoped Palpantine could carry out his plan, but also shows he doubts the capabilities of Palpantine and that soon he counts Palpantine as an enemy as well. Next, there is a robbery at a local convenience store that Travis is shopping at, and Travis ends up shooting the robber, who happens to be African American. The director wanted to show the aspects of society, especially that of the stereotypes and racism of the time. Also, this showed the first step towards the climatic murder scene. This murder is the first major inclination of extreme violence in Travis, and verifies his hatred of scum, which he sees as mainly the African American community. After this scene, there is a scene of the t.v. which illustrates the loneliness of Travis, as watching the couples dancing together saddens him. After, there is a voice over saying 'we have suffered,' which refers to the Vietnam war, one of the greatest losses of American life in the history of the country, and Bickle is a discharged marine that served in this terrible war. All of these display the development of the anti-hero in Travis Bickle, and allow for his emergence as this anti-hero character that emerged following the Vietnam War.