Taxi Driver

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Taxi Driver
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Julia Phillips & Michael Phillips
Written by Paul Schrader
Starring Robert De Niro
Jodie Foster
Harvey Keitel
Cybill Shepherd
Peter Boyle
Albert Brooks
Leonard Harris
Music by Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography Michael Chapman
Editing by Tom Rolf
Melvin Shapiro
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) Flag of the United States February 8, 1976
Flag of Australia 10 June 1976
Running time 113 min.
Country U.S.
Language English
Budget $1.3 Million (estimated)[1]
IMDb profile

Taxi Driver is a 1976 film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The movie is set in early post-Vietnam Era New York City and stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a lonely, isolated taxi driver, and Jodie Foster as the twelve-year-old prostitute he attempts to save.

Contents

Travis Bickle (De Niro), a Marine who fought in the Vietnam War, is a lonely and depressed young man of 26 from the Midwest. After getting honorably discharged from the army, he settles in New York City where he becomes a nighttime taxi driver due to chronic insomnia.[2] Bickle spends his restless days in seedy porn theaters and driving around Manhattan.

Bickle becomes interested in Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), an aide for New York Senator Charles Palantine, who is running for the presidential nomination and is promising dramatic social change. She is initially intrigued by Bickle and agrees to a date with him after he flirts with her and sympathizes with her own apparent loneliness. On the date, however, Bickle is clueless about how to treat her, and thinks it a good idea to take her to a pornographic film. Offended, she ends the date early and takes a taxi home alone. The next day he tries to reconcile with Betsy, phoning her and sending her flowers, but all attempts are in vain.[2]

"You talkin' to me?" Alone in his apartment, Bickle postures and practises his moves in front of the mirror.
"You talkin' to me?" Alone in his apartment, Bickle postures and practises his moves in front of the mirror.

Rejected and depressed, Bickle begins to turn violent. Disgusted by what he witnesses while driving through the city, he decides to get organized and start getting in shape. He then buys a number of pistols from an illegal dealer a fellow cab driver told him about and practices a menacing speech in the mirror, while pulling out a revolver that he attached to a spring loaded holster on his left arm ("You talkin' to me?" was ad-libbed by DeNiro.) Being psychologically attached to Betsy and angry at the world, he begins to stalk Senator Palantine.

Bickle is revolted by what he considers the moral decay around him. Iris (Foster), a 12 year-old child prostitute, gets in his cab one night to escape her pimp.[2] Later he talks to her pimp and pays for her time, although he does not have sex with her and instead tries to convince her to leave her pimp. The next day, they meet for a breakfast and Bickle becomes obsessed with saving her, despite her lack of interest, explaining that she was "stoned" when she tried to escape, and that her pimp Matthew (Harvey Keitel), whom she calls "Sport", appears to be a kind and caring person.[2] Travis then tries to convince her to return home to her parents and go back to school, but fails. Of Sport, Bickle says, "Someone has to do something to him...he is the lowest kind of person on earth, He is the worst...sucking scum I have ever seen."[2]

Travis Bickle with a mohawk before trying to assassinate Senator Palantine.
Travis Bickle with a mohawk before trying to assassinate Senator Palantine.

Bickle then attempts to assassinate Senator Palantine at a public rally. He is spotted by Secret Service men and flees.[2] Bickle returns to his apartment, then drives to Alphabet City where he shoots Sport, before storming into the brothel and killing the bouncer, the wounded Sport (who has followed Bickle), and Iris's mafioso customer.

A brief epilogue ends the film and shows Bickle recuperating from the incident. He receives a letter from Iris's parents who thank him for saving their daughter, and the media hails him as a hero for saving her.[2] Bickle returns to his job, where one of his fares is Betsy. She comments about his saving of Iris and Bickle's own media fame, yet Bickle denies being any sort of hero.

In the original draft of the screenplay, writer Paul Schrader had written the role of Sport as a black man. There were also additions of other negative black roles. Scorsese believed that this would give the film an overly racist subtext, so they were changed to white roles.[3]

Travis Bickle's first name was a homage to the Mick Travis character (played by Malcolm McDowell) in if.... (1968) and O Lucky Man! (1973), the latter of which was one of Scorsese's favorite films at the time.[citation needed]

When Bickle determines to assassinate Senator Palantine, he cuts his hair into a mohawk. This detail was suggested by actor Victor Magnotta, a friend of Scorsese's who had a small role as a Secret Service agent and who had served in Vietnam. Scorsese later noted, "Magnotta had talked about certain types of soldiers going into the jungle. They cut their hair in a certain way; looked like a mohawk... and you knew that was a special situation, a commando kind of situation, and people gave them wide berths ... we thought it was a good idea."[3]

The actress who played Iris's friend in the film was a working prostitute studied by Jodie Foster to help create her role.[3]

Jodie Foster as "Iris"
Jodie Foster as "Iris"

The climactic shoot-out was, for its era, intensely graphic.[4] To attain an "R" rating, Scorsese desaturated the colors, making the brightly-colored blood less prominent.[5] In later interviews, Scorsese commented that he was actually pleased by the color change and he considered it an improvement over the originally filmed scene, which has been lost. However, in the special edition DVD, Michael Chapman, the film's cinematographer, regrets the decision and the fact that no print with the unmuted colors exists anymore.

Some critics expressed concern over young Jodie Foster's presence during the climactic shoot-out. However, Foster stated 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. Rather than being upset or traumatized, Foster said, she was fascinated and entertained by the behind-the-scenes preparation that went into the scene.[3] In addition, before being given the part, Foster was subjected to psychological testing to ensure that she would not be emotionally scarred by her role, in accordance with California Labor Board requirements.[6]

Some have seen the epilogue, in which Bickle is hailed as a hero, as Bickle's dying fantasy, while others see it as a real resolution of his acts. Statements by Schrader in which he said the final scenes were meant to comment on how criminals become celebrities in America's unbalanced society, seem to strongly indicate that the ending was not intended to be a fantasy. Comments by Scorsese on the ending also do not show any intent to imply that the ending is taking place only in Travis's head. Nevertheless, a large group of fans, including some film critics, still argue for this interpretation.

At the very end, as Betsy departs his cab, Bickle drives away, and a curious ring sounds as Bickle quickly adjusts his mirror, before the credits roll on the background of the bright and distorted city lights seen from the cab's perspective. Director Scorsese comments on this final moment in his Laserdisc commentary, mentioning that the "mirror glance" could be a symbol that Bickle might fall into depression and violent rage once again in the future.

Roger Ebert has written of the film's ending,

"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."[7]

James Berardinelli, in his review of the film, argues against the dream or fantasy interpretation, stating "Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader append the perfect conclusion to Taxi 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, the misanthrope has been embraced as the model citizen -- someone who takes on pimps, drug dealers, and mobsters to save one little girl."[8]

Taxi Driver was a financial success and was nominated for several Academy Awards and received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.[9] In later years, the film was ranked #52 on the American Film Institute's list of "100 Years, 100 Movies",[10] and #22 on its "100 Years, 100 Thrills".[11] Bickle was also named as #30 on their villains list.[12] It has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.[13] Roger Ebert added Taxi Driver to his list of "Great Movies,"[14] alongside other Scorsese films also on the list such as Raging Bull, GoodFellas, Mean Streets and The Age of Innocence. The film earned $28,262,574 in the United States.[15]

The film was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best films of all time.[2]

Wins

Nominations

In an interview on Inside the Actor's Studio in 1999, Robert De Niro stated that he and Martin Scorsese had discussed the possibility of making a sequel to this film. According to De Niro, the two agreed that it would be interesting to see where Travis Bickle ended up 30 years later. But during Scorsese's interview on the show in 2002, the director stated that he would never make a sequel to any of his films.

In May 2005 Majesco announced that it was going to publish a video game sequel to Taxi Driver, developed by Papaya Studio. [3] In January 2006 the game was canceled due to financial problems. [4]

Taxi Driver was reportedly part of a delusional fantasy on the part of John Hinckley, Jr.[16][17] which triggered his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, an act for which he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.[18][19] His stated reason was that the act was an attempt to impress Jodie Foster by mimicking Travis' mohawked appearance at the Palantine rally. The movie was so influential that his attorney concluded his defense by playing the movie.

  1. ^ IMDb Taxi Driver: Business http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075314/business
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Taxi Driver 1976. Columbia Pictures
  3. ^ a b c d Making "Taxi Driver" DVD Documentary [1]
  4. ^ "a stupid orgy of violence".Down these mean streets, David Robinson (The Arts) The Times, Friday, Aug 20 1976; pg. 7; Issue 59787; col C
  5. ^ Taxi Driver at All Movie Guide Accessed 2007-09-16.
  6. ^ Foster interview by Boze Hadleigh (March/June 1992)
  7. ^ Ebert's Review of Taxi Driver Rogerebert.com 1 January 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2007.
  8. ^ http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/t/taxi.html
  9. ^ Canes Film Festival Retrieved 10 March 2007.
  10. ^ AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies Retrieved 10 March 2007.
  11. ^ AFI's 100 Years... 100 Trills Retrieved 10 March 2007.
  12. ^ AFI 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains Accessed 14 March 2007.
  13. ^ Films Selected to The National Film Registry, Library of Congress, 1989-2005 Retrieved 10 March 2007.
  14. ^ Roger Ebert's List of Great Movies Rogerebert.com Added to the list 1 January 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2007.
  15. ^ Box Office Mojo - Taxi Driver Retrieved 31 March 2007.
  16. ^ Taxi Driver: Its Influence on John Hinckley, Jr.
  17. ^ Taxi Driver by Denise Noe
  18. ^ The John Hinckley Trial & Its Effect on the Insanity Defense by Kimberly Collins, Gabe Hinkebein, and Staci Schorgl
  19. ^ Verdict and Uproar by Denise Noe

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Films directed by Martin Scorsese
1960s What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963)  • It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964)  • The Big Shave (1967)  • Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)
1970s Street Scenes (1970)  • Boxcar Bertha (1972)  • Mean Streets (1973)  • Italianamerican (1974)  • Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)  • Taxi Driver (1976)  • New York, New York (1977)  • American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978)  • The Last Waltz (1978)
1980s Raging Bull (1980)  • The King of Comedy (1983)  • After Hours (1985)  • The Color of Money (1986)  • The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)  • New York Stories (1989)
1990s Goodfellas (1990)  • Cape Fear (1991)  • The Age of Innocence (1993)  • Casino (1995)  • Kundun (1997)  • My Voyage to Italy (1999)  • Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
2000s Gangs of New York (2002)  • The Blues (2003) • The Aviator (2004)  • No Direction Home (2005)  • The Departed (2006)  • Shine a Light (2008)  • Shutter Island (2009)
Produced You Can Count On Me (2000)  • Nyfes (2004) • The Young Victoria (2008)  • The Wolf of Wall Street (TBA)
Preceded by
Chronicle of the Years of Fire		 Palme d'Or
1976		 Succeeded by
Padre Padrone
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_Driver"
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