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 ($10 million in 2024[8]) . 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.
InNew York City, Vietnam War veteranTravis Bickle takes a job as a night-shift taxi driver to cope with hischronic insomnia and loneliness, frequently visitingadult movie theaters and keeping a diary in which he consciously attempts to includeaphorisms such as "you're only as healthy as you feel". He becomes disgusted with the crime andurban decay that he witnesses in the city and dreams about getting "the scum off the streets".
Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign worker 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 anexistential crisis and seeing various acts of prostitution throughout the city, Travis confides in a fellow taxi driver, nicknamed Wizard, about hisviolent 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 withblack market gun dealer Easy Andy and buys fourhandguns. At home, Travis practicesdrawing 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 a man attempting to rob a convenience store run by his friend, leaving before the cops arrive as the convenience store owner proceeds to beat the non responsive robber.
In his trips around the city, Travis regularly encounters Iris, a 12-year-oldchild prostitute. Tricking herpimp 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.
Travis shaves his hair into amohawk 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 thebrothel where Iris works to kill Sport. He enters the building and shoots Sport and one of Iris's clients, amafioso. 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 the police respond to the scene, a delirious Travis mimics shooting himself in the head with his bloodyfinger.
Travis goes into a coma due to his injuries, but he is hailed by the press as a heroicvigilante and not prosecuted for the murders. He receives a letter from Iris's parents inPittsburgh, 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 off at her 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.
DirectorMartin Scorsese plays a dualcameo role, once in the background during Betsy's first appearance, and later as an unhinged passenger in Travis' taxi who intends to murder his unfaithful wife for cheating on him with ablack man.[10]
ActressDiahnne Abbott, who would go on to become Robert De Niro's wife in real life, plays anadult movie theater concession girl who rebuffs Travis' flirtatious advances.[1][11]
Martin Scorsese has stated that it wasBrian De Palma who introduced him toPaul Schrader,[12] andTaxi 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 also noted that Jef Costello (a solitary hitman), portrayed byAlain Delon inLe Samouraï, inspired the creation of Travis Bickle.[14][15][16][17][18][19] The role was, in fact, offered to Alain Delon, among many others.[20][21]
Schrader also used himself as inspiration. In a 1981 interview withTom Snyder onThe 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 astomach ulcer, Schrader wrote the screenplay forTaxi 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 thenational trauma of the war seemed to blend perfectly with Bickle's paranoidpsychosis, making his experiences after the war more intense and threatening.[26] Two drafts were written in ten days.[27]Pickpocket, a film by the French directorRobert Bresson, was also cited as an influence.[28]
InScorsese on Scorsese, Scorsese mentions the religioussymbolism 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 thesamurai's "death with honor" principle.[13]
While preparing for his role as Bickle,Robert De Niro was filmingBernardo Bertolucci's1900 in Italy. According to Boyle, he would "finish shooting on a Friday in Rome ... get on a plane ... [and] fly 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 toRome to resume filming1900.
Although De Niro had already starred inThe Godfather Part II (1974), he was recognized only one time while driving a cab in New York City.[30] De Niro apparently lost 35 pounds (16 kilograms) and was repeatedly listening to a taped reading of the diaries of criminalArthur Bremer. When he had free time while shooting1900, De Niro visited an army base inNorthern Italy and tape-recorded soldiers from theMidwestern United States, whose accents he thought might be appropriate for Travis's character.[31]
Scorsese brought in thefilm title designerDan Perri to design thetitle sequence forTaxi Driver. Perri had been Scorsese's original choice to design the titles forAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore in 1974, butWarner Bros. would not allow him to hire an unknown designer. By the time whenTaxi Driver was going into production, Perri had established his reputation with his work onThe Exorcist, and Scorsese was now able to hire him.
Perri created the opening titles forTaxi Driver usingsecond unit footage that he color-treated through a process of film copying andslit-scan, resulting in a highly stylized graphic sequence that evoked the "underbelly" of New York City through lurid colors, glowingneon signs, distorted nocturnal images, and deepblack levels. Perri went on to design the opening titles for a number of major films, includingStar Wars (1977) andRaging Bull (1980).[32][33]
Columbia Pictures gave Scorsese a budget of $1.3 million in April 1974.[12] On a budget of only $1.9 million, various actors took pay cuts to bring the project to life. De Niro andCybill 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.[3][34]
Taxi Driver was shot during a New York City summer heat wave and sanitation strike in 1975. The film ran into conflict with theMotion Picture Association of America (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 cinematographerMichael Chapman would ensconce themselves on the back seat floor and use available light to shoot. Chapman admitted that the filming style was heavily influenced byNew Wave filmmakerJean-Luc Godard and his cinematographerRaoul Coutard, as the crew did not have the time nor money to do "traditional things".[35]
When Bickle decides to assassinate Senator Palantine, he cuts his hair to amohawk style. This detail was suggested by actor Victor Magnotta, a friend of Scorsese's who had a small role as aSecret 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."[23]
Filming took place on New York City'sWest Side, at a time when the city was on the brink ofbankruptcy. According to producerMichael 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."[36]
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.[37]
Bernard Herrmann previously scored De Palma'sObsession, and De Palma introduced Herrmann to Scorsese.[40] 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."[41] The albumThe Silver Tongued Devil and I fromKris Kristofferson was used in the film, followingAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), in which Kristofferson played a supporting role.[42]Jackson Browne's "Late for the Sky" is also featured.
Some critics showed concern over 12-year-old Foster's presence during the climactic shoot-out.[43] 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 topsychological testing, attending sessions with aUCLA psychiatrist, to ensure that she would not be emotionally scarred by her role, in accordance withCalifornia Labor Board requirements monitoring children's welfare on film sets.[44][45]
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 ofTaxi Driver.[46]
Taxi Driver formed part of the delusional fantasy ofJohn Hinckley Jr.[47] that triggered hisattempted assassination of PresidentRonald Reagan in 1981, an act for which he was foundnot guilty by reason of insanity.[48] Hinckley stated that his actions were an attempt to impress Foster, on whom Hinckley was fixated, by mimicking Travis'smohawked appearance at the Palantine rally. His attorney concluded his defense by playing the movie for the jury.[49][50] 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.[51]
The climactic shootout was considered intensely graphic by theMPAA, who considered giving the film anX rating.[52] The film was booed at theCannes Film Festival for its graphic violence.[53] To obtain anR rating, Scorsese had thecolors 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.[54] However, in the special-editionDVD, 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.
There has been much discussion about the ending, in which we see newspaper clippings about Travis's "heroism" of saving Iris, and then Betsy gets into his cab and seems to give him admiration instead of her earlier disgust. Is this a fantasy scene? Did Travis survive the shoot-out? Are we experiencing his dying thoughts? Can the sequence be accepted as literally true? ... I am not sure there can be an answer to these questions. The end sequence plays like music, not drama: It completes the story on an emotional, not a literal, level. We end not on carnage but on redemption, which is the goal of so many of Scorsese's characters. They despise themselves, they live in sin, they occupy mean streets, but they want to be forgiven and admired.[55]
James Berardinelli, in his review of the film forReelViews, argues against the dream or fantasy interpretation, stating:
Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader append the perfect conclusion toTaxi Driver. Steeped in irony, the five-minute epilogue underscores the vagaries of fate. The media builds Bickle into a hero, when, had he been a little quicker drawing his gun against Senator Palantine, he would have been reviled as an assassin. As the film closes, themisanthrope has been embraced as the model citizen—someone who takes on pimps, drug dealers, and mobsters to save one little girl.[56]
On the 1990LaserDisc,DVD andBlu-ray, Scorsese acknowledges severalcritics' 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".[57]
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".[58] When asked on the websiteReddit 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".[59]
The film has also been associated with the 1970s wave ofvigilante films, but it has also been set apart from them as a more reputableNew Hollywood film. While it shares similarities with those films,[60] it is not explicitly a vigilante film and does not belong to that particular wave of cinema.[61]
The film can be seen as a spiritual successor toThe 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 fromThe Searchers specifically, the similarities between the two films are evident.[62]
The film has been labeled as "neo-noir" by some critics,[63][64] while others have referred to it as anantihero film.[65][66] 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 andYardbarker list this movie as belonging to thevetsploitation subgenre.[67][68]
Taxi Driver received universal critical acclaim.Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times 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.[71]
Writing forThe New Yorker,Pauline Kael called it the "fevered story of an outsider in New York, a man who can't find any point of entry into human society" and describes it as "more feverish" thanMean Streets. Kael goes on to say that no other film "has ever dramatized urban indifference so powerfully."[72]
On the review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, 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."[73]Metacritic gives the film a score of 94 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "universal" acclaim".[74]
Time Out magazine conducted a poll of the 100 greatest movies set in New York City.Taxi Driver topped the list.[78] In 2006, Schrader's screenplay was ranked the 43rd-greatest ever written by theWriters Guild of America.[79]Taxi Driver was also ranked as the 44th best-directed film of all time by theDirectors Guild of America.[80] In contrast,Leonard Maltin 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".[81]
In 2012, in aSight & Sound poll, Iranian filmmakerAsghar Farhadi selectedTaxi Driver as one of his 10 best films of all time.[82] Game designerHideo Kojima named it as one of his four favorite films, though he noted his preferences shift over time.[83]
The February 2020 issue ofNew York magazine listsTaxi Driver as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars".[84]
Taxi Driver,American Gigolo,Light Sleeper andThe 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.[107][108] The film also influenced theCharles Winkler filmYou Talkin' to Me?[109] In addition, atie-in book was published.[110]
AlthoughMeryl Streep had not aspired to become a film actor, De Niro's performance inTaxi 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."[111]
The 1994 portrayal of psychopath Albie Kinsella byRobert Carlyle in the British television seriesCracker was in part inspired by Travis Bickle, and Carlyle's performance has frequently been compared to De Niro's as a result.[112][113]
In the 2012 filmSeven Psychopaths, psychotic Los Angeles actor Billy Bickle (Sam Rockwell) believes himself to be the illegitimate son of Travis Bickle.[114]
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 fromJohn Huston's 1967 movieReflections in a Golden Eye, from a scene in whichMarlon Brando's character is facing the mirror,[119] 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.[120]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times 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."[121]
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 forTaxi Driver.
In 2006, a 30th-anniversary two-disc "Collector's Edition" DVD was released. The first disc contains the film, twoaudio commentaries (one by writer Schrader and one by ProfessorRobert Kolker) andtrailers. 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.[124][125]
To commemorate the film's 35th anniversary, aBlu-ray 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 forthe Criterion Collection, which was previously released on LaserDisc.[126]
As part of the Blu-ray production, Sony gave the film a full4K 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-newlosslessDTS-HD Master Audio5.1 soundtrack was also created from the original stereo recordings by Scorsese's personal sound team.[127][128] The restored print premiered in February 2011 at theBerlin Film Festival. To promote the Blu-ray release, Sony had the print screened atAMC Theatres across the United States on March 19 and 22.[129][130][131]
In late January 2005, De Niro and Scorsese announced a sequel.[132] At a 25th-anniversary screening ofRaging 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 withActors Studio hostJames Lipton.[133] 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.[134]
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 [laughs] making letter bombs.' But Bob didn't cotton to that idea, either."[135]
In 2010,Variety reported rumors thatLars von Trier, Scorsese and De Niro planned to work on a remake of the film with the same restrictions used inThe Five Obstructions.[136] 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".[137]
^"Taxi Driver - Golden Globes".Golden Globe Awards. RetrievedAugust 5, 2024.Robert De Niro stars as Travis Bickle in this oppressive psychodrama about a Vietnam veteran who rebels against the decadence and immorality of big city life in New York while working the nightshift as a taxi driver.
^Bouzereau, Laurent (Writer, Director, and Producer) (1999).Making Taxi Driver (Television production). United States:Columbia TriStar Home Video. 102 minutes in.The best movies that I know of are the seventies', precisely because I think people were really ... interested by the antihero, which has pretty much gone away now. ... I do think that it would be a movie that it would be very difficult to finance nowadays.
^Smith, Jeremy (June 10, 2020)."Vietnam War movies, ranked. 11. "Rolling Thunder"".Yardbarker.Archived from the original on March 9, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 29, 2024.Vetsploitation was a viable Hollywood genre in the late '70s and throughout much of the '80s. "First Blood," "The Exterminator," "Thou Shalt Not Kill… Except"… even "Taxi Driver" to a degree.
^"Taxi Driver Is Sensational".Variety. February 18, 1976. p. 24.
^"101 Greatest Screenplays". Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. RetrievedMarch 6, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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