The Searchers and Taxi Driver: Hmm...

Within the films The Searchers and Taxi Driver, there lies virtual thought and the concept of reality. These ideas contain the bleeding hearts and cold souls of these movies. The overlying shadow of both of these films attempts to express one notion that is very vague and blurry: the exact definition of a hero. Is a he a champion of justice, even if by means of vigilantism, a conqueror of conscience, repressing thoughts in order to let emotions reign supreme in the vast mind, or both? While both of these films certainly hold their own, the underlying investigations within them are similar in nature.
In John Ford’s The Searchers, a man goes on a years-long search with his nephew (though he refuses to acknowledge it) to find his long ago captured niece. His hatred of the Comanche drives him to find her before she becomes too corrupted in his mind. It is also a difficult task when his one companion is himself part Comanche. However, he still presses on, aspiring to one day retrieve the girl and return her to her parents. When they come upon her, though, she appears to want to stay with her new Comanche family. The man accepts this, realizing that she is no different than any other of them. He prepares to wipe out the tribe, intending to kill her as well. In the end, as he chases her down, a revolver in his hand, something happens. He restrains his contemplation and takes her in his arms. He realizes that she is still who she used to be, and his current path could also affect others with drastic consequences. Suppressing his previous considerations, he takes the girl back home to her blood relatives. Why his preconceived notions suddenly melt away is unknown. However, his heroism is truly established at this pivotal moment. Before this he is seen as almost villainous, with his bigotries and carelessness for much besides himself. This can be similarly related to Travis Bickle, the (sort-of) protagonist of Taxi Driver.
This film, directed by Martin Scorsese, is a tale of a haunted, or perhaps just plain psychotic man who is sick and tired of the scum plaguing the streets of New York. He sees it every night as he drives a taxi throughout the infamous city, unable to sleep. Things really turn over when he meets a pimp, holding a twelve year-old girl and using her to satisfy paying customers. This infuriates our anti-hero, and he incites a bloody rampage through a hotel, killing the pimp and his cohorts. He “saves” the girl from her “captives,” returns her to her parents, and receives great praise for his murderous deeds. The heroism established in this film is moreover an observation, or even a satire, of modern society and its foolish perceptions. During the entire picture, it becomes more and more obvious that this certain taxi driver doesn’t exactly rate up with what one would call a normal hero. In fact, he almost appears to bring himself down to the level of the “scum of the earth” that he so wishes to eradicate from his city. So how should the average viewer of this film view him? It is almost obvious that even in his own mind, he knows he has to become bad to take out the evil, or fight fire with fire, if one will. In all this, it appears that the director wished to portray him as a mentally ill man and that even he could achieve heroism in this bizarrely functioning country.
While both of these protagonists are certainly different, they come together in a way that one might not expect. The protagonist of The Searchers sees himself thriving in reality, and is aware of true dangers. The taxi driver is living in a fantasy world, making himself the champion and taking everyone into his thoughts with him. While these seem like complete opposites, their contradictions make them so far apart that they are almost one in the same.

Taxi Driver was meant to be even more derivative of The Searchers than the final product. In Paul Schrader's original script, Sport and his associates are all African-Americans. Also all the racist comments made by others in the film were written for Travis. Scorsese and his producers didn't want to explore the racism, which is fundamental to The Searchers. They counted on De Niro's charisma and Herrmann's score to drum up audience sympathy for Travis, and by '76 it was "not-cool" anymore to be a bigot, not even in the South. So Schrader had to make some changes, Marty said. Scorsese wanted the youth audience to enjoy this immoral revenge fantasy guilt-free.
The Searchers is a masterpiece.