Taxi Driver (1976)
Starring
Robert De Niro
Director
Martin Scorsese
Awards
Academy Award Nominations
Best Actor - Robert De Niro
Best Picture
Plot Synopsis
This urban nightmare has justifiably become one of Martin
Scorsese's most celebrated films. For psychotic, pistol-packing Vietnam vet Travis Bickle,
New York City seems like a circle of hell. Driving his cab each night through Times
Square, Bickle observes with fanatical loathing the sleazy lowlifes who comprise most of
his fares. By day he haunts the porno theaters of 42nd Street, taking his cues from the
violent vision of life portrayed in these movies. As Bickle's attempts to connect with the
people around him, the lovely blonde campaign worker he wants to date, a prepubescent
prostitute he tries to save, are thwarted, his pent-up rage grows, and this social outcast
turns into a walking time-bomb.
Film Notes
"Taxi Driver is the definitive cinematic portrait of
loneliness and alienation manifested as violence. It is as if director Martin Scorsese and
screenwriter Paul Schrader had tapped into precisely the same source of psychological
inspiration ("I just knew I had to make this film," Scorsese would later say),
combined with a perfectly timed post-Watergate expression of personal, political, and
societal anxiety. Robert De Niro, as the tortured, ex-Marine cab driver Travis Bickle,
made movie history with his chilling performance as one of the most memorably intense and
vividly realized characters ever committed to film. Bickle is a self-appointed vigilante
who views his urban beat as an intolerable cesspool of blighted humanity. He plays
guardian angel for a young prostitute (Jodie Foster), but not without violently
devastating consequences. This masterpiece, which is not for all tastes, is sure to
horrify some viewers, but few could deny the film's lasting power and importance." (Jeff
Shannon, Amazon.com)
Filmed on location in New York City. Color by Metrocolor.
Released theatrically in the USA February 1976. For its 20th anniversary, the film was
re-released theatrically in a version restored from the original camera negative with its
soundtrack in Dolby stereo for the first time. It opened in New York City February 16,
1996. Jodie Foster won a British Academy Award. Dedicated to composer Bernard Herrmann who
died December 24, 1975, the night after finishing the score for Taxi Driver. The
final credit reads "Our gratitude and respect." The film was inspired by the
diaries of Arthur Bremer (who tried to kill George Wallace), Dostoyevsky's Notes from the
Underground, the Harry Chapin song Taxi, and screenwriter Paul
Schrader's own experiences. In order to avoid an X rating, Scorsese was forced, during the
printing process, to desaturate the color of the brutally violent climax. The film led,
indirectly, to John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt on then-US President Ronald
Reagan. Hinckley claimed he did the act out of a desire to impress Jodie Foster who played
the child prostitute in Taxi Driver, a movie with which Hinckley was obsessed.
Albert Brooks made his screen acting debut with Taxi Driver.
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