''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American
neo-noir psychological drama film directed by
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
and written by
Paul Schrader. Set in a morally decaying
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
following the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, it stars
Robert De Niro as veteran
Marine and
taxi driver
Travis Bickle, whose mental state deteriorates as he works nights in the city. The film also features
Jodie Foster,
Cybill Shepherd,
Harvey Keitel,
Peter Boyle,
Leonard Harris and
Albert Brooks (in his first feature film role).
Filming began in summer 1975, with actors taking pay cuts to ensure that the project could be completed on its low budget of $1.9 million. For the score,
Bernard Herrmann composed what would be his final score. The music was finished mere hours before his death, and the film is dedicated to him.
Theatrically released by
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
on February 8, 1976, the film was critically and commercially successful despite generating controversy for both its graphic violence in the film's climax, and for the casting of 12-year-old Foster as a
child prostitute. The film received numerous accolades, including the at the
1976 Cannes Film Festival and four nominations at the
49th Academy Awards, including
Best Picture,
Best Actor (for De Niro) and
Best Supporting Actress (for Foster).
Although ''Taxi Driver'' generated further controversy for inspiring
John Hinckley Jr.'s
attempted assassination of President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
in 1981, the film has remained popular. It is considered one of the
greatest films ever made, and one of the most
culturally significant and inspirational of its time. In 2022, ''
Sight & Sound'' named it the 29th-best film ever in its decennial
critics' poll, and the 12th-greatest film of all time on its directors' poll, tied with ''
Barry Lyndon''. In 1994, the film was designated as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" significant by the U.S.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
and was selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
.
Plot
In
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, Vietnam War veteran
Travis Bickle takes a job as a night-shift taxi driver to cope with his
chronic insomnia and loneliness, frequently visiting
adult movie theaters and keeping a diary in which he consciously attempts to include
aphorisms such as "you're only as healthy as you feel". He becomes disgusted with the crime and
urban decay that he witnesses in the city and dreams about getting "the scum off the streets".
Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for Senator and presidential candidate Charles Palantine. Travis enters the campaign office where she works and asks her to join him for coffee, to which she agrees. Betsy agrees to go on a second date with him, during which he takes her to an adult movie theater, which she leaves immediately. He attempts to reconcile with her, but fails. Enraged, he storms into the campaign office where she works and berates her before being kicked out of the office.
Experiencing an
existential crisis and seeing various acts of prostitution throughout the city, Travis confides in a fellow taxi driver, nicknamed Wizard, about his
violent thoughts. However, Wizard dismisses them and assures him that he will be fine. To find an outlet for his rage, Travis follows an intense physical training regimen. He gets in contact with
black market
A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...
gun dealer Easy Andy, and buys four
handguns. At home, Travis practices
drawing
Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
his weapons, going as far as creating a quick-draw firearm hidden in his sleeve. He begins attending Palantine's rallies to scope out his security. One night, Travis shoots and kills a man attempting to rob a convenience store run by a friend.
In his trips around the city, Travis regularly encounters Iris, a 12-year-old
child prostitute. Tricking her
pimp and abusive lover Sport into thinking that he wants to solicit her, Travis meets with her in private and tries to persuade her to stop prostituting herself.
Soon, Travis shaves his hair into a
mohawk and attends a public rally where he plans to assassinate Palantine. However,
Secret Service agents see Travis putting his hand inside his jacket and approach him, which escalates to a chase. Travis escapes pursuit and makes it home undetected.
That evening, Travis drives to the
brothel where Iris works to kill Sport. He enters the building and shoots Sport and one of Iris's clients, a
mafioso. Travis is shot several times but manages to kill the two men. He fights with the bouncer, whom he manages to stab through the hand with his knife and kill with a gunshot to the head. Travis attempts to die by suicide, but has no bullets. Severely injured, he slumps on a couch next to a sobbing Iris. As police respond to the scene, Travis mimics shooting himself in the head with his bloody
finger
A finger is a prominent digit (anatomy), digit on the forelimbs of most tetrapod vertebrate animals, especially those with prehensile extremities (i.e. hands) such as humans and other primates. Most tetrapods have five digits (dactyly, pentadact ...
.
Travis goes into a coma due to his injuries, but he is heralded by the press as a heroic
vigilante and not prosecuted for the murders. He receives a letter from Iris's parents in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, who thank him and reveal that she is safe and attending school.
After recovering, Travis returns to work, where he encounters Betsy as a fare. Betsy tells him that she followed his story in the newspapers. Travis drops her at home but declines to take her money, driving off with a smile. He becomes agitated after noticing something in his rearview mirror, but continues driving into the night.
Cast
Production
Development
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
has stated that it was
Brian De Palma who introduced him to
Paul Schrader, and ''Taxi Driver'' arose from Scorsese's feeling that movies are like dreams or drug-induced reveries. He attempted to evoke within the viewer the feeling of being in a limbo state between sleeping and waking.
Scorsese cites
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
's ''
The Wrong Man'' (1956) and Jack Hazan's ''
A Bigger Splash'' (1973) as inspirations for his camerawork in the movie.
Scorsese also noted that Jef Costello (a solitary hitman), portrayed by
Alain Delon in ''
Le Samouraï'', inspired the creation of Travis Bickle. The role was, in fact, offered to Alain Delon, among many others.
Before Scorsese was hired,
John Milius and
Irvin Kershner were considered to helm the project.
When writing the script, Schrader drew inspiration from the diaries of
Arthur Bremer (who shot presidential candidate
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...
in 1972
), as well as the
Harry Chapin song "
Taxi", which is about an old girlfriend getting into a taxi. For the ending of the story, in which Bickle becomes a media hero, Schrader was inspired by
Sara Jane Moore's
attempted assassination of President
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
, which resulted in her being on the cover of ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
''.
Schrader also used himself as inspiration. In a 1981 interview with
Tom Snyder on ''
The Tomorrow Show'', he related his experience of living in New York City while battling chronic insomnia, which led him to frequent pornographic bookstores and theaters because they remained open all night. Following a divorce and a breakup with a live-in girlfriend, he spent a few weeks living in his car.
After visiting a hospital for a
stomach ulcer, Schrader wrote the screenplay for ''Taxi Driver'' in "under a fortnight". He stated, "The first draft was maybe 60 pages, and I started the next draft immediately, and it took less than two weeks." Schrader recalled, "I realized I hadn't spoken to anyone in weeks
..that was when the metaphor of the taxi occurred to me. That is what I was: this person in an iron box, a coffin, floating around the city, but seemingly alone."
Schrader decided to make Bickle a Vietnam vet because the
national trauma of the war seemed to blend perfectly with Bickle's paranoid
psychosis
In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...
, making his experiences after the war more intense and threatening. Two drafts were written in ten days. ''
Pickpocket'', a film by the French director
Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, Ellipsis (narrative device), ellipses, an ...
, was also cited as an influence.
In ''Scorsese on Scorsese'', Scorsese mentions the religious
symbolism in the story, comparing Bickle to a saint who wants to cleanse or purge both his mind and his body of weakness. Bickle attempts to kill himself near the end of the movie as a tribute to the
samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
's "
death with honor" principle.
Dustin Hoffman was offered the role of Travis Bickle but turned it down because he thought that Scorsese was "crazy".
Al Pacino and
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He is known for his Leading actor, leading man roles in film and television. In a career spanning over seven decades, he has received List of awards and nominations received by ...
were also considered for Travis Bickle.
Pre-production
While preparing for his role as Bickle, De Niro was filming
Bernardo Bertolucci's ''
1900'' in Italy. According to Boyle, he would "finish shooting on a Friday in Rome ... get on a plane ...
ndfly to New York". De Niro obtained a taxi driver's license and, when on break, would pick up a taxi and drive around New York for a couple of weeks before returning to
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
to resume filming ''1900''.
Although Robert De Niro had already starred in ''The Godfather, Part II'' (1974), he was recognized only one time while driving a cab in New York City. De Niro apparently lost 35 pounds (16 kilograms) and was repeatedly listening to a taped reading of the diaries of criminal
Arthur Bremer. When he had free time while shooting ''1900'', De Niro visited an army base in
Northern Italy and tape-recorded soldiers from the
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
, whose accents he thought might be appropriate for Travis's character.
Scorsese brought in the
film title designer
Dan Perri to design the
title sequence for ''Taxi Driver''. Perri had been Scorsese's original choice to design the titles for ''
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'' in 1974, but
Warner Bros. would not allow him to hire an unknown designer. By the time when ''Taxi Driver'' was going into production, Perri had established his reputation with his work on ''
The Exorcist
''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on The Exorcist (novel), his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller (play ...
'', and Scorsese was now able to hire him.
Perri created the opening titles for ''Taxi Driver'' using
second unit footage that he color-treated through a process of film copying and
slit-scan, resulting in a highly stylized graphic sequence that evoked the "underbelly" of New York City through lurid colors, glowing
neon signs, distorted nocturnal images, and deep
black levels. Perri went on to design the opening titles for a number of major films, including ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
'' (1977) and ''
Raging Bull'' (1980).
Filming
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
gave Scorsese a budget of $1.3 million in April 1974. On a budget of only $1.9 million, various actors took pay cuts to bring the project to life. De Niro and
Cybill Shepherd received $35,000 to make the film, while Scorsese was given $65,000. Overall, $200,000 of the budget was allocated to performers in the movie.
[
''Taxi Driver'' was shot during a New York City summer heat wave and sanitation strike in 1975. The film ran into conflict with the ]Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...
(MPAA) due to its violence. Scorsese de-saturated the colors in the final shootout, which allowed the film to get an R rating. To capture the atmospheric scenes in Bickle's taxi, the sound technicians would get in the trunk while Scorsese and his cinematographer Michael Chapman would ensconce themselves on the back seat floor and use available light to shoot. Chapman admitted that the filming style was heavily influenced by New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
and his cinematographer Raoul Coutard, as the crew did not have the time nor money to do "traditional things".
When Bickle decides to assassinate Senator Palantine, he cuts his hair to a mohawk style. This detail was suggested by actor Victor Magnotta, a friend of Scorsese's who had a small role as a Secret Service agent and had served in Vietnam. Scorsese noted that Magnotta told them that, "in Saigon, if you saw a guy with his head shaved—like a little Mohawk—that usually meant that those people were ready to go into a certain Special Forces situation. You didn't even go near them. They were ready to kill."
Filming took place on New York City's West Side, at a time when the city was on the brink of bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
. According to producer Michael Phillips, "The whole West Side was bombed out. There really were row after row of condemned buildings and that's what we used to build our sets ..we didn't know we were documenting what looked like the dying gasp of New York."
The tracking was shot over the shootout scene, filmed in an actual apartment, and took three months of preparation. The production team had to cut through the ceiling to shoot it.
Music
Bernard Herrmann previously scored De Palma's '' Obsession'', and De Palma introduced Herrmann to Scorsese. The music by Herrmann was his final score before his death on December 24, 1975, several hours after Herrmann completed the recording for the soundtrack, and the film is dedicated to his memory. Scorsese, a longtime admirer of Herrmann, had particularly wanted him to compose the score; Herrmann was his "first and only choice". Scorsese considered Herrmann's score of great importance to the success of the film: "It supplied the psychological basis throughout." The album '' The Silver Tongued Devil and I'' from Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...
was used in the film, following '' Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'' (1974), in which Kristofferson played a supporting role. Jackson Browne's " Late for the Sky" is also featured.
Controversies
Casting of Jodie Foster
Some critics showed concern over 12-year-old Foster's presence during the climactic shoot-out. Foster said that she was present during the setup and staging of the special effects used during the scene; the entire process was explained and demonstrated for her, step by step. Moreover, Foster said that she was fascinated and entertained by the behind-the-scenes preparation that went into the scene.
In addition, before being given the part, Foster was subjected to psychological testing, attending sessions with a UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
psychiatrist, to ensure that she would not be emotionally scarred by her role, in accordance with California Labor Board requirements monitoring children's welfare on film sets.
Additional concerns surrounding Foster's age focused on the role that she played as Iris, a prostitute. Years later, she confessed how uncomfortable the treatment of her character was on set. Scorsese did not know how to approach different scenes with the actress. The director relied on Robert De Niro to deliver his directions to the young actress. Foster often expressed how De Niro, in that moment, became a mentor to her, stating that her acting career was highly influenced by the actor's advice during the filming of ''Taxi Driver''.
John Hinckley Jr.
''Taxi Driver'' formed part of the delusional fantasy of John Hinckley Jr. that triggered his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
in 1981, an act for which he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Hinckley stated that his actions were an attempt to impress Foster, on whom Hinckley was fixated, by mimicking Travis's mohawked appearance at the Palantine rally. His attorney concluded his defense by playing the movie for the jury. When Scorsese heard about Hinckley's motivation behind his assassination attempt, he briefly considered quitting filmmaking as the association brought a negative perception of the film.
MPAA rating
The climactic shootout was considered intensely graphic by some critics, who considered giving the film an X rating
An X rating is a film rating that indicates that the film contains content that is considered to be suitable only for adults. Films with an X rating may have scenes of graphic violence or explicit sexual acts that may be disturbing or offensive ...
. The film was booed at the Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
for its graphic violence. To obtain an R rating, Scorsese had the colors desaturated, making the brightly colored blood less prominent. In subsequent interviews, Scorsese commented that he was pleased by the color change, and considered it an improvement on the original scene. However, in the special-edition DVD, Michael Chapman, the film's cinematographer, expresses regret about the decision and the fact that no print with the unmuted colors exists anymore, as the originals have since deteriorated.
Themes and interpretations
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
of the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' has written of the film's ending:
James Berardinelli, in his review of the film for '' ReelViews'', argues against the dream or fantasy interpretation, stating:
On the 1990 LaserDisc
LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
, DVD and Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
, Scorsese acknowledges several critics' interpretation of the film's ending as Bickle's dying dream. He admits that the last scene of Bickle glancing at an unseen object implies that Bickle will fall into rage and recklessness in the future and that he is like "a ticking time bomb".
Writer Paul Schrader confirms this in his commentary on the 30th-anniversary DVD, stating that Travis "is not cured by the movie's end", and that "he's not going to be a hero next time". When asked on the website Reddit
Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
about the film's ending, Schrader said that it is not to be taken as a dream sequence but that he envisions it as returning to the beginning of the film, as if the last frame "could be spliced to the first frame, and the movie started all over again".
The film has also been associated with the 1970s wave of vigilante films, but it has also been set apart from them as a more reputable New Hollywood
The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema (not to be confused with the New American Cinema of the 1960s that was part of Experimental film, avant-garde underground film, underground cinema), was a movemen ...
film. While it shares similarities with those films, it is not explicitly a vigilante film and does not belong to that particular wave of cinema.
The film can be seen as a spiritual successor to '' The Searchers'', according to Roger Ebert. Both films focus on a solitary war veteran who tries to save a young girl who is resistant to his efforts. The main characters in both movies are portrayed as being disconnected from society and incapable of forming normal relationships with others. Although it is unclear whether Paul Schrader sought inspiration from ''The Searchers'' specifically, the similarities between the two films are evident.
The film has been labeled as " neo-noir" by some critics, while others have referred to it as an antihero
An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero or two words anti hero) or anti-heroine is a character in a narrative (in literature, film, TV, etc.) who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism and morality. Al ...
film. When shown on television, the ending credits feature a black screen with a disclaimer mentioning that "the distinction between hero and villain is sometimes a matter of interpretation or misinterpretation of facts". This disclaimer was thought to have been added after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, but, in fact, it had been mentioned in a review of the film as early as 1979. '' LA Weekly'', Letterboxd and Yardbarker list this movie as belonging to the vetsploitation subgenre.
Reception
Box office
The film opened at the Coronet Theater in New York City and grossed a house record of $68,000 in its first week. It went on to gross $28.3 million in the United States, making it the 17th-highest-grossing film of 1976.
Critical response
''Taxi Driver'' received universal critical acclaim. Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
of the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' instantly praised it as one of the greatest films he had ever seen, claiming:
''Taxi Driver'' is a hell, from the opening shot of a cab emerging from stygian clouds of steam to the climactic killing scene in which the camera finally looks straight down. Scorsese wanted to look away from Travis's rejection; we almost want to look away from his life. But he's there, all right, and he's suffering.
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 162 reviews and an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A must-see film for movie lovers, this Martin Scorsese masterpiece is as hard-hitting as it is compelling, with Robert De Niro at his best." Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
gives the film a score of 94 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "universal" acclaim".
''Taxi Driver'' was ranked by the American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
as the 52nd-greatest American film on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list, and Bickle was voted the 30th-greatest villain in a poll by the same organization. ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' ranked ''Taxi Driver'' at number 33 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics. ''Empire
An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
'' also ranked him 18th in its "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll, and the film ranks at 17 on the magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.
'' Time Out'' magazine conducted a poll of the 100 greatest movies set in New York City. ''Taxi Driver'' topped the list. Schrader's screenplay was ranked the 43rd-greatest ever written by the Writers Guild of America. ''Taxi Driver'' was also ranked as the 44th best-directed film of all time by the Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of Film director, film and Television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dir ...
. In contrast, Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...
gave a rating of 2 stars (out of 4) and called it a "gory, cold-blooded story of a sick man's lurid descent into violence" that was "ugly and unredeeming".
In 2012, in a '' Sight & Sound'' poll, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi selected ''Taxi Driver'' as one of his 10 best films of all time. Quentin Tarantino has also listed the movie among his 10 greatest films of all time. Game designer Hideo Kojima
is a Japanese video game designer. Regarded as one of the pioneering auteurs of video games, he developed a strong passion for film and literature during his childhood and adolescence, which in turn has had a significant influence on his game ...
named it as one of his four favorite films, though he noted his preferences shift over time.
The February 2020 issue of '' New York'' magazine lists ''Taxi Driver'' as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars".
Accolades
American Film Institute
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (1998) – #47
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills (2001) – #22
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains (2003)
** Travis Bickle – #30 Villain
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes (2005)
** "You talkin' to me?" – #10
* AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores (2005) – Nominated
* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) (2007) – #52
Other honors
*National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
– Inducted in 1994
*The film was chosen by ''Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' as one of the 100 best films of all time.
*In 2015, ''Taxi Driver'' ranked 19th on BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.
Legacy
''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" films. Screenwriter Paul Schrader (who directed the latter three films) has said that he considers the central characters of the four films to be one character who has changed as he has aged.[Interview with Paul Schrader](_blank)
, BBC Radio 4's Film Programme, August 10, 2007 The film also influenced the Charles Winkler film '' You Talkin' to Me?'' In addition, a tie-in book was published.
Although Meryl Streep had not aspired to become a film actor, De Niro's performance in ''Taxi Driver'' had a profound impact on her. She said to herself, "That's the kind of actor I want to be when I grow up."
The 1994 portrayal of psychopath Albie Kinsella by Robert Carlyle in British television series '' Cracker'' was in part inspired by Travis Bickle, and Carlyle's performance has frequently been compared to De Niro's as a result.
In the 2012 film '' Seven Psychopaths'', psychotic Los Angeles actor Billy Bickle (Sam Rockwell
Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...
) believes himself to be the illegitimate son of Travis Bickle.
The vigilante ending inspired Jacques Audiard for his 2015 -winning film '' Dheepan''. The French director based the eponymous Tamil Tiger character on the one played by Robert De Niro to make him a "real movie hero". The script of '' Joker'' by Todd Phillips also draws inspiration from ''Taxi Driver''.
"You talkin' to me?"
De Niro's "You talkin' to me?" segment has become a pop culture
Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...
mainstay. In 2005, it was ranked number 10 on the American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
's AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
In the relevant scene, the deranged Bickle is looking at himself in a mirror, imagining a confrontation that would give him a chance to draw his gun:
You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?
While Scorsese said that he drew inspiration from John Huston's 1967 movie '' Reflections in a Golden Eye'', from a scene in which Marlon Brando's character is facing the mirror. Screenwriter Paul Schrader said that De Niro improvised the dialogue, and that his performance was inspired by "an underground New York comedian" whom he had once seen, possibly including his signature line.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
of the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' said of the latter part of the phrase, "I'm the only one here", that it was "the truest line in the film.... Travis Bickle's desperate need to make some kind of contact somehow—to share or mimic the effortless social interaction he sees all around him, but does not participate in."
In his 2009 memoir, saxophonist Clarence Clemons said that De Niro explained the line's origins during the production of ''New York, New York
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...
'' (1977), with the actor seeing Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
say the line onstage at a concert. In the 2000 film '' The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle'', De Niro would repeat the monologue with some alterations in the role of the character Fearless Leader.
Home media
The first "Collector's Edition" DVD, which was released in 1999, is packaged as a single-disc edition. It contains special features such as behind-the-scenes footage and several trailers, including one for ''Taxi Driver''.
In 2006, a 30th-anniversary two-disc "Collector's Edition" DVD was released. The first disc contains the film, two audio commentaries (one by writer Schrader and one by Professor Robert Kolker) and trailers. This edition also includes some of the special features from the earlier release on the second disc, as well as some newly produced documentary material.
To commemorate the film's 35th anniversary, a Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
was released on April 5, 2011. It includes the special features from the previous two-disc collector's edition, plus an audio commentary by Scorsese that was released in 1991 for the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...
, which was previously released on LaserDisc.
As part of the Blu-ray production, Sony gave the film a full 4K digital restoration, which includes scanning and cleaning the original negative (removing emulsion dirt and scratches). Colors were matched to director-approved prints under guidance from Scorsese and director of photography Michael Chapman.
An all-new lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack was also created from the original stereo recordings by Scorsese's personal sound team. The restored print premiered in February 2011 at the Berlin Film Festival. To promote the Blu-ray release, Sony had the print screened at AMC Theatres
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...
across the United States on March 19 and 22.
Possible sequel and remake
In late January 2005, De Niro and Scorsese announced a sequel. At a 25th-anniversary screening of '' Raging Bull'', De Niro talked about the development of a story featuring an older Travis Bickle. In 2000, De Niro expressed interest in returning to the character in a conversation with Actors Studio host James Lipton. In November 2013, he revealed that Schrader had written a first draft, but both he and Scorsese thought that it was not good enough to proceed.
Schrader disputed this in a 2024 interview, saying, "Robert is the one who wanted to do that. He asked Marty and I. ..So he pressed Marty on it and Marty asked me and I said, 'Marty, that's the worst fucking idea I've ever heard.' He said, 'Yeah, but you tell him. Let's have dinner.' So we had dinner at Bob's restaurant and Bob was talking about it. I said, 'Wow, that's the worst fucking idea I've ever heard. That character dies at the end of that movie or dies shortly thereafter. He's gone. Oh, but maybe there is a version of him that I could do. Maybe he became Ted Kaczynski and maybe he's in a cabin somewhere and just sitting there, making letter bombs. Now, that would be cool. That would be a nice Travis. He doesn't have a cab anymore. He just sits there aughsmaking letter bombs.' But Bob didn't cotton to that idea, either."
In 2010, '' Variety'' reported rumors that Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier (né Trier; born 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter.
Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series ''Secret Summer'', von Trier's career has spanned more than five decad ...
, Scorsese and De Niro planned to work on a remake of the film with the same restrictions used in '' The Five Obstructions''. However, in 2014, Paul Schrader said that the remake was not being made. He commented, "It was a terrible idea," and "in Marty's mind, it never was something that should be done".
See also
* Martin Scorsese filmography
* 1976 in film
* List of cult films
* List of films featuring psychopaths and sociopaths
* List of films set in New York City
* Crime in New York City
* History of the United States (1964–1980)
** History of New York City (1946–1977)
Notes
References
Works cited
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External links
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{{Authority control
1976 films
1970s American films
1976 crime thriller films
1976 controversies in the United States
1970s English-language films
1970s psychological thriller films
1970s psychological drama films
1970s vigilante films
American crime thriller films
American neo-noir films
American vigilante films
Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan
BAFTA winners (films)
Columbia Pictures films
Existentialist films
Fiction with unreliable narrators
Films about assassinations
Films about child prostitution
Films about prostitution in the United States
Films about stalking
Films about sexual repression
Films about taxis
Films directed by Martin Scorsese
Films produced by Julia Phillips
Films produced by Michael Phillips (producer)
Films scored by Bernard Herrmann
Films set in a movie theatre
Films set in New York City
Films shot in New York City
Films with screenplays by Paul Schrader
Films about insomnia
Casting controversies in film
Obscenity controversies in film
Rating controversies in film
Political controversies in film
Palme d'Or winners
United States National Film Registry films
Social thriller films
English-language crime thriller films
Films about veterans
Films about psychopaths and sociopaths