使えそうな英語表現を集めてみた　シリーズ7

タイトル: 

The Ending Of Taxi Driver Explained

 URL: 

https://www.looper.com/162460/the-ending-of-taxi-driver-explained/

 英語表現:

A Vietnam War vet living in 1970s New York, Bickle has trouble sleeping at night, so he gets a job driving a taxi. He spends hours and hours inside that cab, cruising up and down the streets of Manhattan, watching the pimps, the pushers, and the prostitutes, and dreaming about the rain that will wash them all away. He seems to especially hate black people, as he gives the death stare to every African-American he sees. 

Aside from a few cabbie colleagues, Bickle is completely cut off from the world. His only true companion is the journal where he shares his increasingly demented thoughts. And Bickle has a lot to say about the world: He writes about his loneliness, his contempt for humanity, and we quickly realize he's got some major issues when it comes to mental health. Every sweltering day and every steamy night, his grip on reality gets shakier, his anger just keeps roiling and boiling (like an effervescent tablet), and sooner than later, it's all going to spill over.

Travis Bickle is a touch antisocial. Whether he's popping pills in his apartment or glaring at the world through his windshield, he's always alone. He has no connections with anyone... until the moment he sees her. 

Her name is Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), and to Travis, she is pure and perfect. The world "cannot touch her." Eventually, he decides to ask her out, so he walks into her place of work — she's a campaign advisor for Senator Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris), a man with plans to win the White House — and makes a solid first impression. Betsy is impressed, finding Travis mysterious and fascinating — but when the cabbie takes her out, she quickly realizes she's made a huge mistake. On their first official date, Travis takes Betsy to a porno theater, and when things start getting X-rated on the screen, Betsy bolts for it and tells Travis their short-lived relationship is definitely over.

Needless to say, Travis doesn't take the news well. He storms into her office, threatens her co-worker with some karate moves, and screams that Betsy is "just like the rest of them," the dregs of society that Travis hates so much. Feeling betrayed and scorned — even though he was the one acting like a creep — Travis' anger starts burning even brighter. And now that he's been rejected, the taxi driver starts down a dark path of revenge.

After the incident with Betsy, Travis quickly meets three people who will change his life forever. The first is an antsy, foul-mouthed man with bushy eyebrows and a bad attitude (director Martin Scorsese). He climbs in the back of Travis' cab and has him drive to a dingy apartment complex where he can spy on his wife. As it turns out, she's having an affair, and her jealous husband begins ranting and raving about how he's going to blow her away with a .44 Magnum. Travis is already dealing with some dangerous thoughts, and running into this would-be murderer certainly doesn't help.

Inspired by the man's misogynistic monologue, Travis meets up with a weasley gun dealer (Steven Price), and it's no coincidence that he purchases a .44 Magnum. Of course, that monster gun isn't the only weapon that Travis walks away with — he buys four firearms, and it's clear he's planning something big and bloody. But talking the talk and walking the walk are two very different things. And yeah, Travis is a veteran who's clearly scarred (both physically and mentally), but getting face-to-face with your target and pulling the trigger is a whole lot different than shooting an enemy soldier from a distance.

So does Travis have what it takes for coldblooded murder? Yeah, he totally does. While Travis is picking up groceries at a convenience store, a thief walks up to the register and demands all the money. That's when Travis pulls out a pistol, points it to the thief's head, and sprays his brains all over the counter. But Travis is just getting warmed up, and there's more killing to come.

Travis Bickle has some serious issues when it comes to women, and he absolutely hates the sex workers he sees on the streets. However, he feels differently about Iris "Easy" Steensma (Jodie Foster), a hooker he keeps spotting during his nightly drives through the city. In fact, he decides to become Iris' guardian angel. But what makes her different from the other prostitutes? Well, Iris is just 12 and a half years old.

When Irish first shows up, she jumps in the back of Travis' cab and begs him to drive off before she's dragged away by her pimp Matthew, a.k.a. Sport (Harvey Keitel). After his falling out with Betsy, Travis searches for Iris and encourages her to leave the nightlife behind. Iris claims she was stoned out of her mind the night she got into his cab. But now that she's clean, it seems she's confused about what she wants — part of her wanting to stay and part of her wanting to go back to her parents. (Of course, it's important to note that Iris definitely doesn't want some psycho vigilante to come into her life guns a-blazin'.)

As the movie nears the end, Travis fills an envelope full of money for Iris, so she can flee the Big Apple. Unfortunately, Sport has a stranglehold on her and won't be letting Iris go anytime soon. Needless to say, Travis thinks Sport is a degenerate, but his motives in helping Iris aren't 100 percent pure. While he's concerned about her well being, he also sees himself as a righteous white knight tasked with cleaning up the city. And whenever he interacts with Iris, it just reinforces his self-image of being a real-life superhero — an idea that's going to push Travis down a blood-soaked path.

In other words, Travis has become a hero. He's evaded the feds, and now, people see him as the guy who fought the mob and saved a kid. He's like a cab-driving Batman (with no moral quandaries about killing). And then, in the final few minutes of the film, Travis and Betsy reunite. She climbs into the back of his cab and asks how he's doing. Travis doesn't have much to say, but after dropping her off, he doesn't let her pay for the ride. Instead, he just smiles and rides off into the darkness.