Taxi Driver (1976)

A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out, attempting to save a teenage prostitute in the process.

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writer:

Paul Schrader

Stars:

Albert Brooks, Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster

Top 250 #56 | Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 26 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Diahnne Abbott	...	Concession Girl (as Diahnne Abbot)
Frank Adu	...	Angry Black Man
Victor Argo	...	Melio (as Vic Argo)
Gino Ardito	...	Policeman at Rally
Garth Avery	...	Iris' Friend
Peter Boyle	...	Wizard
Albert Brooks	...	Tom
Harry Cohn	...	Cabbie in Bellmore
Copper Cunningham	...	Hooker in Cab
Robert De Niro	...	Travis Bickle (as Robert DeNiro)
Brenda Dickson	...	Soap Opera Woman
Harry Fischler	...	Dispatcher
Jodie Foster	...	Iris
Nat Grant	...	Stick-Up Man
Leonard Harris	...	Charles Palantine

Storyline

Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in New York City. As he suffers from insomnia, he spends his time working as a taxi driver at night, watching porn movies at seedy cinemas during the day, or thinking about how the world, New York in particular, has deteriorated into a cesspool. He's a loner who has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the one bright spot in New York humanity is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator Charles Palantine. He becomes obsessed with her. After an incident with her, he believes he has to do whatever he needs to make the world a better place in his opinion. One of his priorities is to be the savior for Iris, a twelve-year-old runaway and prostitute who he believes wants out of the profession and under the thumb of her pimp and lover Matthew.

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Plot Keywords:

new york city | taxi | prostitute | taxi driver | insomnia | 

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Taglines:

On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

8 February 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Taksist

Filming Locations:

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,300,000 (estimated)

Gross:

SEK 6,283,970 (Sweden)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Bill/Phillips, Italo/Judeo Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min 110 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR (re-release) Stereo

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kristy McNichol auditioned six times for the role of Iris before losing out to Jodie Foster.

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Goofs

When Travis meets with Betsy the first time at the Palantine office, an overhead shot shows him beginning to sweep his arm through the air above the desk. In the next shot, from the front, his arms are in a different position.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[a telephone rings loudly]
Personnel Officer: [to the dispatcher] Harry, answer that.
[to Travis]
Personnel Officer: So whaddya want to hack for, Bickle?
Travis Bickle: I can't sleep nights.
Personnel Officer: There's porno theaters for that.
Travis Bickle: Yeah, I know. I tried that.
Personnel Officer: So what do you do now?
Travis Bickle: Well, I ride around nights mostly... subways, buses... I figure, you know, if I'm gonna do that I might as well get paid for it.

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Connections

Referenced in Wise Guys (1986)

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Soundtracks

"HOLD ME CLOSE"
Lyrics by Keith Addis
Music by Bernard Herrmann

User Reviews

Live it and lose it

Scorsese's best. Not too many hyper-critical reviews of this film have anything near as intelligent to say about what the director and the screenwriter had in mind when they created this American gem.

To those people that have seen it and thought it was "slow" or the pacing was sub par, they don't know what they're talking about; "Taxi Driver" is about the gradual and eventual take-over of insanity, and not about violence, action-shoot-'em-up 'slash' car chase... or whatever they expected from it. The modern audience today is expecting everything--comedy, drama, unbearable suspense, spfx--all rolled-up into one-stop entertainment... and no, I'm not anybody's grandfather, or here to tell you that movies were great in my day, but, viewers, lighten up already.

De Niro, and the rest of the cast, do a serviceable job in this micro-cosmic window into the life of Travis Bickle--a Vietnam vet--who, true, writes mind-numbing entries in his diary, leads a, for the most part, dull existance as a cabbie, and strikes out with a female political campaigner who, after Travis becomes a hero, discovers she is indeed attracted to unstable, sometimes violent chauffeurs.

The rest of this movie's story is for the less initiated viewer; decide whether you've truly become desensitized to sexual and violent content in today's films... Ah, forget it! You have to have lived at least some of which goes on in "Taxi Driver," or you've just been plain lucky in this life so far.