Director: Martin Scorsese Cinematographer: Michael Chapman
Leading on from the critical acclaim of Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese continued further into the darker side of New York City with a film set soon after the Vietnam War. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a lonely and depressed young man and former Marine living in Manhattan who becomes a night time taxi driver in order to cope with his chronic insomnia. Bickle becomes attracted to a young woman (Cybill Shepherd), shows concern for a child prostitute (a disturbingly precocious turn from Jodie Foster), and becomes progressively more troubled over what he sees as the city’s filth and human scum. His compressed anger finally erupts into a rage focused simultaneously on Foster’s pimp and Shepherd’s boss, a political candidate. Brilliant and controversially violent, the film features an alarming psychological atmosphere (enhanced by a jazzy and eerie music score by Bernard Hermann), a remarkable central performance from De Niro and established Scorsese as one of the great talents of the New Hollywood era.
40th Anniversary Edition [Blu-ray]
DVD/LIMITED COLL EDIT/2 DISC
Original Soundtrack Recording
Steve Schapiro: Taxi Driver (book)
(24×36) (Two Guns, Smiling) Poster Print
Movie Poster featuring Robert Deniro and Jodi Foster 8 x 10 Inch
You Lookin’ At Me? Bundle (Mastered in 4K) with Travis Bickle Action Figure
Lists:
- No. 15 on The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films of All-Time (2020)
- No. 5 on Sight and Sound Directors Poll Top 100 Films (2012)
- No. 1 on the Best films to win Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (2009)
- No. 1 on Time Out New York’s 101 best New York movies of all time (2016)
- Robert De Niro’s performance as Travis Bickle was placed No. 5 on The Pendragon Society’s 100 Greatest Film Acting Performances of All-Time (2019)
CAST
- Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle
While preparing for his role as Bickle, De Niro was filming Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 in Italy. According to co-star Peter 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 to Rome to resume filming 1900. De Niro apparently lost 35 pounds and listened repeatedly to a taped reading of the diaries of Arthur Bremer (who attempted to assassinate presidential candidate George Wallace). When he had time off from shooting 1900, De Niro visited an army base in Northern Italy and tape-recorded soldiers from the Midwestern United States, whose accents he thought might be appropriate for Travis’s character.
- Jodie Foster as Iris
- Harvey Keitel as Sport
- Cybill Shepherd as Betsy
- Albert Brooks as Tom
- Leonard Harris as Charles Palantine
- Peter Boyle as Wizard
- Steven Prince as Andy, Gun Salesman
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips
Screenplay by Paul Schrader
Music by Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography Michael Chapman
Edited by Tom Rolf, Melvin Shapiro
Running time 113 minutes
Country United States
Language English