http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/taxidriver.htm
After doing some research on “Taxi Driver,” I stumbled upon a website about the assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan. Apparently he was shot by a man named John Hinckley Jr., who was obsessed with the movie and Robert DeNiro’s character, Travis Bickle. According to the article on the website, Hinckley imitated many aspects of Travis’ life. He wore the same outfits that Travis wore in the movie, wrote letters to his parents about his imaginary girlfriend, was obsessed with Jodie Foster, and of course, he tried to assassinate Reagan. Another point to note was that both Travis and Hinckley were both loners and outsiders within their society. It amazes me how the level of insanity consumed Hinckley’s life and how it paralleled with Travis’ character.
Not only did Hinckley imitate Travis’ looks but he also imitated Travis’ psychotic state of mind. According to the article, Hinckley believed that he could escape his loneliness and be rewarded for his actions by killing others, just as Travis had done when he killed Sport, the hotel manager, and the pimp. When looking at Hinckley’s attempted assassination on Reagan and the ruthless murders that Travis committed, we see that there was no justifiable reason for killing the victims of these crimes. The only driving force behind any of these killings was the suspects’ psychotic thinking and their false assumptions that killing these individuals would somehow cure their loneliness.
Ironically, it was determined that both Travis and Hinckley would not be severely punished for their crimes. Hinckley was acquitted because he was clearly insane while Travis was never sent to jail for murdering all of his victims. So in a literal sense, the crimes committed by Travis and Hinckley did free them in some way. It makes one reassess our legal system when murderers are free to once again roam the streets just because they plead insanity.
Thanks for the interesting post Minhaj. I was not aware of this previously but while reading it, I could not help but wonder if the media was to blame for the violence projected on Hinckley. Is the media a bad influence on society? Of course there must be some bad apples in society who imitate what they see on screen, but what’s stopping the good apples from doing the same? Did Hinckley personally have a vendetta against Reagan? Or was it monkey see monkey do?
Jenny, I like the point your bring up with the media’s influence on society. I think it is true that the media has a great influence on society. After all, a lot of what we learn about the world around us is learned through various forms of media, such as newspapers, news channels, songs, movies, etc. Since there is a creative mind behind all of these forms of media, it is possible to influence society’s views or behavior by somehow manipulating the messages that the media relays to its audience, even though the influence or outcome is not always a benefit to society. In the case of Hinckley, it was “monkey see, monkey do.” He was obsessed with Travis so he tried to imitate everything Travis did, including an assassination attempt on the President. According to the article, he had nothing against Regan.
Since I’m getting in the habit of playing devil’s advocate, why stop here? 🙂 Couldn’t we also flip it around and talk about “society’s influence on the media?” But let’s back up: What exactly is “the media”? “Media” is a plural word, as in more than one medium. Does it make sense to lump all the newspapers, magazines, tv programs, movies, etc. together as one, overarching, all-powerful entity known as “The Media”? Also, by all accounts, Hinckley was mentally unstable (even the court that acquitted him felt that he was not capable of making rational decisions), so does it make sense to see his attempt on Reagan as an example of the ways in which movies influence action?