Dirty Harry, James Bond, and Travis Bickle

My favorite scenes of Martin Scorcese's 1976 film, Taxi Driver, feature Travis shortly after deciding to take action against the "scum" of New York City. His exercise routine, his homemade holsters, and his quick-draw practice are all fascinating to me. I'll stick with the best of these scenes, when Travis buys guns from the illegal arms and substances dealer Easy Andy. It's my favorite scene for two simple reasons. I like Easy Andy's voice and I think describing guns or describing things as if they were guns sounds really cool.

The scene has some moments that could be analyzed for hours... Travis aiming his new gun at people on the streets below, the idea of Travis consulting an arms and drug dealer to take out arms and drug dealers, Andy and Iris sharing the same nickname, etc. But I thought it would be more fun to examine each of the guns he bought individually and see how they tie into his more subtle personality traits. Obviously he makes his own sleeve holster out of a drawer slide and adds a boot-sheathed knife to his arsenal later, but this is the scene where he arms himself with enough lethal weaponry to take down, say, a small group of pimps and gangsters.

Anyone will tell you that some of the things Easy Andy says is inaccurate and that it is out of character for military veteran Travis Bickle to not notice when he's wrong. I am trying to analyze the filmmaker's intent and am therefore taking the movie's words as fact for now, even if it isn't always true.

.44 Magnum: $390 ($350 for the gun and $40 for the handmade holster). Easy Andy's description: "Stop a car at 100 yards, put a round right through the engine block... That's a beauty. I could sell this gun to some jungle bunny in Harlem for 500 bucks. But I take care to sell high-quality goods to the right people... This might be a little too big for practical purposes... the Magnum, you use that in Africa for killing elephants."

Travis pays the most for this hand cannon, and it is the most powerful of any of his new weapons. Easy Andy claims it can shoot through a car engine and kill elephants. Travis takes this because he feels he has a huge problem ahead that he needs heavy ordinance to confront. The gun is nearly impossible to conceal, especially without a holster. Travis takes it anyway because subtlety is not his goal. As his "We ARE the people" pin and mohawk later demonstrate, Travis is trying to make statement visually as well as through his actions. He would want people to see him as a figure of power.

The .44 Magnum is also the signature weapon of Dirty Harry, the murderous homicide detective from the eponymous 1971 film. Dirty Harry Callahan made the weapon famous for being "the most powerful handgun in the world" (at that time) and for using it kill criminals harshly and without mercy. Like Dirty Harry, Travis is trying to rid New York City (well, Dirty Harry was in San Francisco, but it's a big city, too) of the street crime, thugs, drug dealers, pimps, killers, etc. Revolvers were already a signature of Dirty Harry's star, Clint Eastwood, as he famously portrayed outlaws, lawmen, and several other "cowboy" roles in many Westerns. Travis sees himself as a Clint Eastwood character. His past is irreconcilable, he's gone so long without killing, but circumstances are dire and the city needs and outlaw to clean up the streets by putting bodies in the ground. The .44 caliber is iconic for its lethality and danger.

The camera shows the gun slowly, which I could analyze like Freud all day long. But let's move on.

.38 snub-nose: $250. Easy Andy's description: "Look at this. That's a beautiful little gun. It's nickel-plated, snub-nose, otherwise the same as a service revolver. It'll stop anything that moves. That .38, that's a fine gun. Some of these guns are like toys. That .38, you go out and hammer nails with her all day, come back and it'll cut dead center on target every time. It's got a really nice action to it. Heck of a wallop."

This is a glamorous gun, nickel-plating being the spinning rims of the gun world. Since it's akin to a service revolver (a revolver issued to the armed forces in the military), Travis is already familiar with it, which is why it is the weapon he chooses to put in his homemade sleeve holster for instant access and the only gun he aims at civilians while with Easy Andy. Yet another revolver, Travis's second favorite gun can also be seen as an extension of the cowboy persona he feels he has. As any first person shooter gamer will tell you, the snub nose sacrifices accuracy for easier concealment. While the .44 caliber is known for its power, the .38 is a more "standard" caliber of weapon, since it balances the power of a higher caliber with the discretion of, say, a .357 or something smaller.

To further emphasize my belief that Travis sees himself as the classic American heroic archetype, the cowboy, he practices quick-drawing his revolvers. The Western genre's most iconic cliche is the gun duel, wherein whoever is quicker on the draw is the one who lives to see another day.

Colt .25 automatic: $125. Easy Andy's description: "It's a nice little gun. It's a beautiful little gun. Holds six shots in the clip. One in the chamber. If you're dumb enough to put a round in the chamber."

I don't know much about this gun and could not find much about it. It's not a revolver, but it's still a six-shooter. I'm starting to get the sense that even though Travis Bickle put himself through a strict exercise and diet routine, all the while practicing his one-liners ("You talkin' to me?") and quick-draws and making new holsters, he is too shortsighted to get accustomed to firing guns with large magazines.

380 Walther: $150. Easy Andy's description: "Holds eight shots in the clip. That's a nice gun. Yeah, that's a beautiful little gun, look at that. During World War II, they used this gun to replace the P-38. Just given out to officers."

Oh, eight shots this time. Shows what I know. Anyway, this gun was reserved for officers originally. This and the aforementioned service revolver are symbolic of Travis taking the law into his own hands figuratively by taking law-enforcement weapons into his own hands literally.

The Walther is the signature weapon of James Bond, another iconic character who was licensed to kill. Travis believes he too is above the law, and that his actions will save American society, just as Bond's killing sprees save his country.


What is a jungle bunny?