Taxi Driver
4 Oscar Nominations·AFI #52·BFI #29·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.
What critics thought
One of the most acclaimed American films ever made, Taxi Driver finds Scorsese transforming Travis Bickle's psychological unraveling into a visceral portrait of urban alienation — De Niro's performance and Paul Schrader's screenplay are consistently singled out across decades of critical writing. The lone significant dissent questions whether the film's brutality serves any redemptive purpose, a tension that has kept the conversation alive long after its release.
“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.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“no other film has ever dramatized urban indifference so powerfully”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
Genres
Crime, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorMartin Scorsese
StarringRobert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle
ComposerBernard Herrmann
Taxi Driver
4 Oscar Nominations·AFI #52·BFI #29·National Film Registry
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.
What critics thought
One of the most acclaimed American films ever made, Taxi Driver finds Scorsese transforming Travis Bickle's psychological unraveling into a visceral portrait of urban alienation — De Niro's performance and Paul Schrader's screenplay are consistently singled out across decades of critical writing. The lone significant dissent questions whether the film's brutality serves any redemptive purpose, a tension that has kept the conversation alive long after its release.
“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.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“no other film has ever dramatized urban indifference so powerfully”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
Genres
Crime, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorMartin Scorsese
StarringRobert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle
ComposerBernard Herrmann
Rent/Purchase