Taxi Driver

So I watched Taxi Driver the other night and I loved the documentary which came along with the DVD. I had been warned that Taxi Driver was a disgustingly violent movie. The documentary talked about how the ratings board made Scorsese de-saturate the shooting scene. For the 1970’s it was violent but you can see much worse on cable TV today. Robocop was a lot bloodier. I have to admit that I can see Scorsese’s point about the last scene but it really makes more sense to me to use my husband’s interpretation. We know that the movie is a descent into madness with an ending which has a socio-political message about violence in society. But what if Travis did die in Iris’s apartment and the final scene is not reality but a dream sequence in which everything Travis did caused things to work out for the best of all possibilities. It would do more to support the descent into madness than looking at it as a “Travis is okay and he’s famous and it all turned out wonderful and he saved Iris.” The movie makes more sense to me anyway if the scenes after the climatic overhead shot are just a dream in Travis’s head.