Light Sleeper is a 1992 American crime drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader and starring Willem Dafoe , Susan Sarandon , and Dana Delany . Set in New York City during a sanitation strike, the gritty neo-noir film stars Dafoe as a high-class drug dealer battling a midlife crisis before becoming embroiled in tragic events following the chance encounter with a former girlfriend. While under-performing at the box office, the film was regarded favorably by critics.
42-519: Travis Bickle is a fictional character and the anti-hero protagonist of the 1976 film Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese . The character was created by the film's screenwriter Paul Schrader . He is portrayed by Robert De Niro , who received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Travis Bickle is a 26-year-old living in New York City . When applying for a job as a taxi driver, he says he
84-491: A porn theater he frequents, which disgusts her and makes her refuse to see him again. After Betsy rejects him, Bickle becomes increasingly paranoid and starts acting out his fantasies. He buys several guns and takes to carrying them secreted about his person – taped to his limbs, for example, or in hidden spring-loaded holsters . He begins a physical training regimen which consists of doing 50 pushups and 50 pullups every morning and practices an intimidating, thuggish presence in
126-544: A looking glass' (1999), which features the well-known scene in which Bickle asks, "You talkin' to me?" while gazing into a mirror. In Gordon's piece, the scene is projected onto large dual screens placed on opposite walls of a gallery space and plays on a continual loop. This artwork can be seen in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum , New York. The art duo Beagles & Ramsay created an artwork titled We Are The People – Suck On This (ICA, London 2000), which featured
168-732: A process that Northrop Frye called the fictional "center of gravity". This movement indicated a literary change in heroic ethos from feudal aristocrat to urban democrat, as was the shift from epic to ironic narratives. Huckleberry Finn (1884) has been called "the first antihero in the American nursery". Charlotte Mullen of Somerville and Ross 's The Real Charlotte (1894) has been described as an anti-heroine. The antihero became prominent in early 20th century existentialist works such as Franz Kafka 's The Metamorphosis (1915), Jean-Paul Sartre 's Nausea (1938), and Albert Camus 's The Stranger (1942). The protagonist in these works
210-643: A video based on re-staged, downbeat version of Taxi Driver. Ramsay was dressed and styled to appear like Travis Bickle, complete with mohawk, and handed a petition into the British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. This artwork can be seen in the Glasgow Museums Collection and includes the petition which reads We Are The People – Suck On This, which is signed only by the two artists. Todd Phillips ' 2019 film Joker pays tribute to Travis Bickle and Taxi Driver through
252-590: Is a former U.S. Marine who served in the Vietnam War and was given an honorable discharge in May 1973, and has had "some" education. With few friends, and suffering from depression , loneliness, existential crises , and severe and chronic insomnia , he takes a job as a graveyard shift cab driver to occupy his time, working grueling 12–14 hour shifts 6–7 days a week. Working late at night in dangerous neighborhoods, his customers tend to include pimps and drug addicts. He
294-410: Is an indecisive central character who drifts through his life and is marked by boredom , angst , and alienation . The antihero entered American literature in the 1950s and up to the mid-1960s as an alienated figure, unable to communicate. The American antihero of the 1950s and 1960s was typically more proactive than his French counterpart. The British version of the antihero emerged in the works of
336-412: Is not interested in having sex with her; instead, he tries to persuade her to leave prostitution and return home. Iris rebuffs him, only increasing his anger and resolve to take her away from a perilous life. He confronts Sport and shoots him in the stomach, leaving him to die on the street. He then goes on a rampage through a brothel with his concealed weapons while Iris is servicing a client. Bickle shoots
378-469: Is that the antihero is doomed to fail before their adventure begins. The second constitutes the blame of that failure on everyone but themselves. Thirdly, they offer a critique of social morals and reality. To other scholars, an antihero is inherently a hero from a specific point of view, and a villain from another. This idea is further backed by the addition of character alignments , which are commonly displayed by role-playing games. Typically, an antihero
420-620: Is the focal point of conflict in a story, whether as the protagonist or as the antagonistic force. This is due to the antihero's engagement in the conflict, typically of their own will, rather than a specific calling to serve the greater good. As such, the antihero focuses on their personal motives first and foremost, with everything else secondary. An early antihero is Homer 's Thersites , since he serves to voice criticism, showcasing an anti-establishment stance. The concept has also been identified in classical Greek drama , Roman satire , and Renaissance literature such as Don Quixote and
462-540: Is visibly angered by them, and begins fantasizing about "cleansing" such "filth" from the streets. Bickle becomes attracted to a woman, Betsy ( Cybill Shepherd ), who works in the local campaign office of presidential candidate and United States Senator Charles Palantine. Bickle often spies on Betsy from his cab, and finally enters the office with the pretense of wanting to support the candidate, and asks her out. They meet for coffee, and Betsy finds him strange but charming, and agrees to see him again. He then takes her to
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#1732858508739504-720: The Berlin International Film Festival in February 1992 and was released in the US on August 21 that same year, earning $ 1 million at the box office. It gained mostly positive reviews and received various nominations, including the Independent Spirit Award . Willem Dafoe was awarded the Sant Jordi Award as best actor. In a telegram, German filmmaker Wim Wenders congratulated Schrader, stating that his direction
546-568: The English poet Lord Byron . Literary Romanticism in the 19th century helped popularize new forms of the antihero, such as the Gothic double . The antihero eventually became an established form of social criticism, a phenomenon often associated with the unnamed protagonist in Fyodor Dostoyevsky 's Notes from Underground . The antihero emerged as a foil to the traditional hero archetype ,
588-596: The picaresque rogue. An anti-hero that fits the more contemporary notion of the term is the lower-caste warrior Karna , in The Mahabharata . Karna is the sixth brother of the Pandavas (symbolising good ), born out of wedlock, and raised by a lower caste charioteer. He is ridiculed by the Pandavas, but accepted as an excellent warrior by the antagonist Duryodhana , this becoming a loyal friend to him, eventually fighting on
630-408: The wrong side of the final just war . Karna serves as a critique of the then society, the protagonists, as well as the idea of the war being worthwhile itself – even if Krishna later justifies it properly. The term antihero was first used as early as 1714, emerging in works such as Rameau's Nephew in the 18th century, and is also used more broadly to cover Byronic heroes as well, created by
672-621: The " angry young men " of the 1950s. The collective protests of Sixties counterculture saw the solitary antihero gradually eclipsed from fictional prominence, though not without subsequent revivals in literary and cinematic form. During the Golden Age of Television from the 2000s and into early 2020s, antiheroes such as Tony Soprano , Gru , Megamind , Jack Bauer , Gregory House , Dexter Morgan , Walter White , Don Draper , Nucky Thompson , Jax Teller , Alicia Florrick , Annalise Keating , Selina Meyer and Kendall Roy became prominent in
714-501: The 2012 comic book Before Watchmen: Rorschach , written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Lee Bermejo . Bickle's "finger gun" was also referenced in season 1 of FX horror television series American Horror Story in the scene where the police attempt to arrest Tate Langdon after he commits a mass shooting. Tate mimes the finger gun to his head, resulting in the police opening fire, killing him. Natasha Lyonne 's Russian Doll references Bickle in season 2, episode 1, at
756-496: The 42nd best in cinematic history. The character has often been referenced in popular culture due to his famous "You talkin' to me?" monologue. The scene was listed by IGN as the 4th best moment in film history when counting their top 100. Bickle sinisterly utters the line while he stands in front of the mirror, clad in a USMC jacket, threatening his unseen foes with the gun up his sleeve. The line has been parodied multiple times throughout film history, including by De Niro himself in
798-643: The 7:36 mark, with her character Nadia Vulvokov speaking the line, "Hey, Travis Bickle, what year do you think it is, man?" One of the "Elite Bundle" skin sets in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege partially references Travis Bickle's signature mohawk and sunglasses. Antihero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero ) or anti-heroine is a main character in a narrative (in literature, film, TV, etc.) who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism , and morality . Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions that most of
840-407: The approaching bouncer's hand off as soon as he walks in, but he in turn is shot in the neck from behind by a dying Sport. Bickle begins to advance only to have the wounded bouncer attack him while going up the stairs. Iris' client, a Mafioso , overhears the previous gunshots; he sneaks up behind the distracted Bickle and shoots him in the arm. Bickle kills the mafioso and the bouncer, and then turns
882-430: The audience considers morally correct, their reasons for doing so may not align with the audience's morality. Antihero is a literary term that can be understood as standing in opposition to the traditional hero, i.e., one with high social status, well liked by the general populace. Past the surface, scholars have additional requirements for the antihero. The " Racinian " antihero, is defined by three factors. The first
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#1732858508739924-445: The banking and financing sector with drugs. While Ann contemplates switching to the cosmetics business, LeTour, who suffers from insomnia , has lost his perspective in life. One night LeTour meets his ex-wife Marianne, with whom he once shared an intense but destructive relationship due to drug abuse. Although they stopped taking drugs, Marianne refuses his offer for a new start. After spending one night together, she tells him that this
966-619: The character of Arthur Fleck (played by Joaquin Phoenix ). The character's descent into madness and chaos was seen as reminiscent of Bickle, leaving many critics and audiences to speculate whether the character was an homage to Bickle or simply the use of familiar storylines. The film further references the character by having Robert De Niro play the character of Murray Franklin, a talk-show host pivotal in Arthur Fleck's descent into madness and subsequent transformation into The Joker. De Niro's casting
1008-586: The film The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle . The line can also sometimes be heard in the famous game Grand Theft Auto III when the player tries to steal a taxi by forcing the driver out. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate United States president Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress the actress Jodie Foster , who played Iris in Taxi Driver . Hinckley's inspirations for his assassination attempt were directly linked to Travis Bickle's attempted assassination of Charles Palantine in
1050-503: The film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Schrader knows this world of insomnia, craving and addiction. And he knows all about people living in a cocoon of themselves. […] In film after film, for year after year, Paul Schrader has been telling this story in one way or another, but never with more humanity than this time”. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote Light Sleeper
1092-569: The film, with Hinckley even fashioning his appearance to resemble Bickle's mohawk and army jacket. Ironically, Bickle's character was inspired by Arthur Bremer , who attempted to assassinate presidential candidate George Wallace on May 15, 1972. Upon hearing of Hinckley's assassination attempt, Taxi Driver director Martin Scorsese considered quitting the film industry. Several contemporary artists have directly referenced and appropriated Travis Bickle and Taxi Driver in their artwork. These include Douglas Gordon in his video installation 'Through
1134-416: The gun on himself, but finds that he is out of ammunition. Severely injured, Bickle collapses on Iris' couch. When the police arrive, Bickle stares at them and smiles, pointing his bloodied finger like a gun at his head. The newspapers hail Bickle as a hero for rescuing Iris. While in hospital he receives a letter from her parents, thanking him for returning their daughter to them; she had been sent home after
1176-416: The head, which Arthur does as well. The Clash song "Red Angel Dragnet" on the 1982 album Combat Rock references Travis Bickle and directly quotes or paraphrases some of his lines from the movie. Punk rock band Rancid recorded a song called "Travis Bickle", which was released on their 2003 studio album Indestructible . Metalcore band Emmure also recorded a song called "Travis Bickle", which
1218-903: The imprisoned hero is shown contemplating a new and hopefully better existence. The movie was still in the process of fundraising when production began, so Schrader financed the first three weeks of pre-production using his own money. Light Sleeper was the first artistic collaboration of Willem Dafoe and Paul Schrader, who met during filming of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ . Dafoe and Schrader later collaborated in Affliction (1997), Auto Focus (2002), The Walker (2007), Adam Resurrected (2008), Dog Eat Dog (2016) and The Card Counter (2021). Schrader had originally intended to use songs from Bob Dylan's album Empire Burlesque , but Schrader and Dylan could not agree on which songs to use and Schrader decided to use songs by Michael Been instead. Light Sleeper premiered at
1260-411: The look of Bickle, complete with the haircut and tries to kill Governor James Devlin . In the 1990 film Look Who's Talking Too , John Travolta 's character refers to another as "Travis Bickle" during an argument with Kirstie Alley . The limo driver character in the 2003 Comedy Central film Windy City Heat is named Travis Bickle. Travis Bickle made a cameo appearance during the third issue of
1302-443: The mirror to use on whoever challenges him. Eventually, he shaves his head into a Mohawk . He attends one of Palantine's speeches, apparently intent on shooting him. However, he attracts the notice of Secret Service agents and flees. He later becomes obsessed with protecting Iris Steensma ( Jodie Foster ), a 12-year-old prostitute he has seen on his route. He pays her pimp, Matthew "Sport" Higgins ( Harvey Keitel ), for her time, but
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1344-532: The most popular and critically acclaimed TV shows. This rise of the modern antihero zeitgeist may explain contemporary political outcomes, such as the popularity of non-traditional populists including Donald J. Trump . In his essay published in 2020, Postheroic Heroes - A Contemporary Image (german: Postheroische Helden - Ein Zeitbild) , German sociologist Ulrich Bröckling examines the simultaneity of heroic and post-heroic role models as an opportunity to explore
1386-657: The other three films) has stated that he considers the central characters of the four films to be one character, who has changed as he has gotten older. De Niro received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Bickle. In the American Film Institute 's AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains , Bickle was named the 30th greatest film villain of all time. Empire magazine also ranked him 18th in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll. Premiere ranked De Niro's performance as
1428-415: The outer hallway, distracting Tis's henchmen and allowing John to take the initiative. LeTour kills Tis and both of his henchmen in the subsequent shootout, and is superficially wounded. He lies down on the hotel bed, showing no anger or pain, only a profound weariness, as police sirens can be heard in the distance. Ann visits LeTour in jail, where he expresses his hopes for a better future. The film hints at
1470-469: The place of the heroic in contemporary society. In contemporary art, artists such as the French multimedia artist Thomas Liu Le Lann negotiate in his series of Soft Heroes , in which overburdened, modern and tired Anti Heroes seem to have given up on the world around them. Light Sleeper John LeTour, a 40-year-old New Yorker, is one of two delivery men for Ann, who supplies an exclusive clientele in
1512-436: The police a lead to Marianne's last whereabouts. At the wake, Marianne's sister Randi tells him not to feel guilty for what happened. When Tis orders a new supply and insists that LeTour deliver it, he senses that Tis wants to dispose of him. Ann accompanies him to Tis's hotel but, when it becomes clear that a confrontation with Tis cannot be avoided, LeTour tells her to wait for him downstairs. Ann leaves, but raises an alarm in
1554-437: The police arrived and found out she was a runaway. After recovering he sees Betsy, who tells him that she read about him in the news; when she gets out of the cab and asks him how much the ride costs, he smiles and drives away. Taxi Driver , American Gigolo , Light Sleeper , and The Walker make up a series referred to variously as the "Man in a Room" or "Night Worker" movies. Screenwriter Paul Schrader (who directed
1596-457: The possibility that Ann will wait for him. Schrader has described the film as a "man and his room" story like American Gigolo and his most famous screenplay which became the basis for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver . In this film his character is dealing with anxiety over his life and the external forces that threaten it. Light Sleeper also shares with American Gigolo an ending reminiscent of Robert Bresson 's Pickpocket , in which
1638-409: Was also a reference to another collaboration between him and Scorsese with their 1983 film The King of Comedy and his character Rupert Pupkin. The film includes a visual reference to Bickle miming shooting himself in the head in a scene in an elevator between Arthur and his neighbour, Sophie ( Zazie Beetz ). Sophie mentions how much she hates living in the apartment block and mimes shooting herself in
1680-572: Was her way of saying goodbye. Unbeknown to Marianne, her mother died at the hospital while she was with LeTour. The next time she meets LeTour, she attacks him, demanding that he get out of her life once and for all. Meanwhile, the police start observing LeTour because one of his clients, Tis, is connected to the drug-induced death of a young woman. On his next delivery, LeTour witnesses a heavily drugged Marianne in Tis' apartment. Only minutes after his departure, she falls several stories to her death. LeTour gives
1722-536: Was in a league with that of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu , who both Wenders and Schrader admire. In a 2005 interview, Schrader called Light Sleeper his most personal film. Light Sleeper received positive reviews from critics. It holds an 87% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 45 reviews, with a rating average of 7.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, " Light Sleeper requires patience, but delivers commensurate rewards -- and boasts an absorbing performance from Willem Dafoe." Metacritic assigned
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1764-514: Was released on their 2007 studio album Goodbye to the Gallows . Hip-Hop artist Prime Minister Pete Nice mentions Travis Bickle in a lyric of the song "Blowin' Smoke" on the Dust to Dust album. Alternative musician Rusty Cage* recreated scenes as Travis Bickle in the music video for the 2018 song "The Grave". In the season 4 episode of Oz titled "A Town without Pity", Clayton Hughes dresses in
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