If you look at Travis Bickle through the lens that he's a lonely, depressed, withdrawn social outcast, then yes, he is relatable to those who interpret him in that way. He is the “angry young man” character that is no different from Holden Caulfield or William Foster.

Taxi Driver (1976) remains hauntingly relatable in 2026 because it captures the universal feelings of urban alienation and social isolation. Travis Bickle represents "God's lonely man"—someone surrounded by millions of people in a bustling city yet feels completely invisible and disconnected from them. His struggle to find purpose and his growing resentment toward a world he views as "filthy" or "decaying" mirrors modern anxieties about societal decline and the "echo chambers" of loneliness. The film explores the "incel" or "lone wolf" archetype long before those terms became mainstream, showing how a lack of healthy human connection can warp a person's sense of heroism and morality. Many viewers relate not to his violent actions, but to his desperate, clumsy attempts to be "normal" and his deep-seated need to be noticed. It's a psychological portrait of the "outsider" that feels as relevant in our digital age as it did in the grit of 1970s New York.