A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action by attempting to liberate a presidential campaign worker and an underage prostitute.
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.Written by
Huggo
The restaurant where the cabbies gather to eat was a real-life hangout for taxi drivers called the Belmore Cafeteria at 28th Street and Park Avenue South. It has since been demolished, but the apartment building that replaced it is named the Belmore. See more »
Goofs
Travis is shown, and buys, a very small S&W Model 61 pistol, silver with white grips, which the black market gun runner misidentifies as being a Colt. Later Travis fires the guns he bought at a shooting range, but the small silver and white pistol is an Italian Armi-Galesi .25 ACP Nickel Pocket Pistol, not a Smith & Wesson. Later still Travis has the S&W Model 61 again. See more »
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.
See more »
Crazy Credits
The original television version of the film featured the following disclaimer before the closing credits: "To our Television Audience: In the aftermath of violence, the distinction between hero and villain is sometimes a matter of interpretation or misinterpretation of facts. 'Taxi Driver' suggests that tragic errors can be made.- The Filmmakers." See more »
Alternate Versions
Original UK cinema and video versions suffered a very brief 1 second sound cut to the scene where Iris unzips Travis's fly in the bedroom. The BBFC finally restored this cut in 1993. See more »
Masterpiece movie by the great Martin Scorsese the movie 10/10 by the shots the talks with out dialogue the performance is one of the best if not the best performance i ever saw in my life shame on Oscars for not giving Robert de Niro the Oscar for best performance, with the Perfect writing,dialogue and plot, one of the best movies have ever made in cinema.
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Masterpiece movie by the great Martin Scorsese the movie 10/10 by the shots the talks with out dialogue the performance is one of the best if not the best performance i ever saw in my life shame on Oscars for not giving Robert de Niro the Oscar for best performance, with the Perfect writing,dialogue and plot, one of the best movies have ever made in cinema.