[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

It's interesting that Nos no.1 places Travis Bickle in the Villain category and Demon places him in the heroes.

I'd be more inclined to place him in the heroes list but i think it's a fine line as he is obviously mentally disturbed, paranoid and a ticking bomb waiting to explode, but in the film this ultimately leads him to use the pent up rage within him to save a young girl in trouble.

Leading him towards a place of redemption and readjustment.

But it is also apparent in the films final moments that a relapse could be around the corner at any moment.

I'd say struggling against his mental demons and using that destructive power positively makes him more heroic in my mind.

He is someone who, using the criteria I put in the initial post, could probably fit in both categories:

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

– Hero: someone who prevails in extreme circumstances and dramatises a sense of morality, courage and purpose. Though they may be ambiguous or flawed, they often sacrifice themselves to show humanity at its best.

– Villain: someone who wickedness of mind, selfishness of character and will to power are sometimes masked by beauty and nobility, while others may rage unmasked. They can be horribly evil or grandiosely funny, but are ultimately tragic.

Bickle seems to have "a sense of morality, courage and purpose" and arguably sacrifices himself "to show humanity at its best". (I see the end of the film as a dying hallucination, assuming he died in the shootout.) However, he is also "horribly evil or grandiosely funny, [and is] ultimately tragic", so it's with you can overlook the appalling racism and propensity for a violent solution to a situation with which he disagrees and see something heroic in this. He is either a flawed hero or a villain whose actions have a positive consequence.