Forty-five years ago today, the greatest actor-director team of all time was cemented on the mean streets of New York City. One of the most important films of the 1970s, "Taxi Driver" has only grown in esteem with each passing decade that gives us nothing like it. I discovered this movie as an angsty teenager with maturing tastes, and was awed by the quiet power and stark realism of Travis Bickle's tortured existence. Unlike many products of it's era, Martin Scorsese's first masterpiece was getting more relevant, as budding cinephiles needed to know more about the man behind "Goodfellas" and "Casino". Bernard Herrmann's hypnotic score and Paul Schrader's pulsating screenplay transports us inside the mind of an individual that most people would rather not know. Join me as I explain in detail why you should be as familiar with God's lonely man as I am.
A 31 year old, not-yet-super-famous Robert De Niro was about to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Godfather Part II", when he obtained a taxi driver's license to prepare for the role that would leave him unable to pretend to be a normal person. That's Joe Spinell at the desk, the late character actor best known as loan shark Mr. Gazzo in "Rocky", that OTHER great 1976 movie. Travis is quietly-creepy and socially unskilled and Vietnam surely screwed him up more than he was already. We're off to a great start.
Endless night shifts leave Travis depressed and unable to make meaningful connections with other human beings. I can relate(not that days are much better). A porno theater seems to be the only place our "hero" can unwind after his daily grind. After a feeble attempt to hit on an unfriendly counter girl(De Niro's real-life wife Diahnne Abbott would also appear in "The King of Comedy"), Bickle nervously buys snacks and candy and settles in. Adult film channels and Pornhub would later spare dateless loners the indignity.
Here's Travis failing to connect with his coworkers. In fairness, they all seem like bozos, which adds to the realism. Peter Boyle is the unofficial leader of this cabbie crew, and his presence here may surprise those that only know him from "Everybody Loves Raymond". I'm assuming Scorsese was a fan of his incendiary title role in 1970's "Joe", a controversial breakthrough for John G. Avildsen, which brings me back to "Rocky". There's no way around it. Sylvester Stallone's boxing franchise starter won Best Picture and Director over "Taxi Driver", "Network", "Bound for Glory", and "All the President's Men". That still rankles a few film fans, and you'd be hard-pressed to name two lead characters as philosophically different as Travis Bickle and Rocky Balboa. But they have one very important thing in common- 1976 cinema, and both films are touchtones for completely different reasons.
We first met Cybill Shepherd on a 1970 cover of Glamour magazine. That led to roles in Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show" and Elaine May's "The Heartbreak Kid". I'm sure every man has idealized some ethereal beauty in his periphary at least once, and that's never been depicted better than it is here. Schrader told her campaign coworker Albert Brooks that his character had been the hardest to write, and thanked him for doing more with the part than what was on the page. Brooks humorously pointed out that "Tom" is the nicest, most normal guy in the movie, and shouldn't have been that difficult to conjure up.
Travis scores a lunch date with Betsy with a ton of confidence and a speech he must have written in his head and memorized beforehand. She's never met anyone quite like him before. Neither have we. Travis telegraphs some of his later craziness, but this encounter otherwise goes about as well as it possibly could. In case you're wondering, Cybill got frustrated over a lack of respect and disappeared to her hometown of Memphis as the decade drew to a close. Critics treated Shepherd like someone who just happened to appear in great movies, while everyone around her was lavished with praise. She reemerged in the mid-'80s as a TV star on "Moonlighting", and went on to a long list of small screen credits.
Does anybody look good in their license photo?
Are you Charles Palantine, the candidate? Marcia Lucas, the wife of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas was one of this film's editors. I don't think that's a coincidence. Scorsese didn't want us focusing on this character too much, so he cast an unknown that looked the part(Leonard Harris only did one other movie). I don't follow political issues that closely, but someone needs to flush all the filth and scum in this headache-inducing city down the fucking toilet. Travis is tailormade for the Trump era.
A lot of couples come to dirty movies. Do they, Travis? I think every man dreads the inevitable moment when the object of his desire finds out something unappealing. "Taxi Driver" brilliantly depicts a deal-breaking scenario, as Betsy realizes she has lots of other options. There's other movies he could have taken her to, even though his culturally illiteracy doesn't allow him to know much about them. Did Bickle blow it on purpose, knowing subconsciously that this "romance" was never going much further?
The empty hallway pan lets us know that Betsy won't be available for another date, one of many wonderfully artistic touches that most filmmakers wouldn't even think of. Travis demands an in-person explanation, and his combat pose is terrifying because of where Scorsese's keeps the camera. We're witnessing this man lose it from Betsy's POV. She's just like all the others...
Scorsese, filling in at the last-minute for an absent actor, is spellbinding as a sinister passenger that puts some bad ideas in Travis' head. This is like divine intervention from the movie gods. Marty could have had a career in front of the camera, if he hadn't been so gifted behind it. I have a theory that this bearded .44 Magnum enthusiast might not even be real, and may represent Bickle's mental degradation. Later that night, Peter Boyle's Wizard fails to make Travis feel better about his circumstances with a rambling monologue bathed in ominous red lighting. The short of it- cheer up, we're all fucked.
How hard is it for unbalanced individuals to acquire firearms? Not hard at all, it turns out. Scorsese's fast-talking friend Steven Prince was somehow perfect as the hyperactive hustler "Easy Andy"("That's a beautiful little gun"), despite not even being a real actor! This film was bettered multiple times by pure happenstance. Bickle buys an arsenal, but passes on grass, coke, and a Cadillac. That black comedy mixed with the sound of children laughing outside are brilliant touches that add to our unease about what's taking place.
Travis starts exercising and eating right, which would be great if it wasn't for those homicidal urges. A large gun collection and a porn habit isn't the healthiest combo. Is De Niro the GOAT? If we can erase 25% of his overstuffed filmography, it wouldn't even be a question. His famed ability to fully inhabit a character took Marlon Brando's Method revolution to the next level. At least five of his films will be on any respectable list of the top 100 films of all time(six have been inducted into the NFR). President Obama awarded him the prestigious Medal of Freedom. Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks have similarly large legacies, and they've both cited De Niro- and "Taxi Driver" specifically- as a major influence.
Henry Krinkle is interested in joining the Secret Service. He thinks he'd be good at it. Travis scopes out a Palantine campaign rally in another moment that underlines his inability to interact with people in a normal way. I think we should have more compassion and understanding for individuals that don't move through this life with ease or approach new people and places in the most graceful way. The '76 Best Actor Oscar was posthumously given to Peter Finch for "Network". I disagree with that one.
"I'm the only one here". The key line in this legendary improvisation. Scorsese has admitted he gets bored when actors stick too close to the script. Great things can occur when freedom is allowed on a set, and that's exactly what happened when Bob was given a few extra minutes in front of Bickle's mirror during an imaginary confrontation. Joe Pesci's "funny how" speech in "Goodfellas" and presumably many moments in "The Wolf of Wall Street" would be created by Marty's loose way of working.
Travis helps Victor Argo out during a convenience store robbery, a disturbing scene in a film with no shortage of disturbing scenes. I can see viewers in the mid-'70s confusing this film with a "Death Wish"-style revenge thriller, if they're not looking hard enough. "Taxi Driver" is arguably a snapshot of the city's lowest point. A fiscal AND spiritual crisis drove nearly a million people to the safety of the suburbs, a population loss that wouldn't be recouped until the dual rebirth of Wall Street and Times Square in the 1990s.
TV sucked before streaming.
It's time to talk about Jodie Foster. The future two-time Oscar winner was twelve when she learned that acting is a serious profession. Travis has been spotting Iris on the sidewalk throughout the film and is thoroughly disgusted. The child prostitute tried to escape her pimp in the back of his cab much earlier, leaving Travis with a crumpled $20 to forget the whole thing. He doesn't. A muscular Harvey Keitel makes the most of his screentime as Sport, and his exchanges with De Niro are no less memorable than they were in "Mean Streets".
I don't know who's weirder. Travis manages to get Iris out of her cheap hotel brothel and into a nearby diner the next morning. Scorsese first discovered Foster for 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". Her breakfast with Bickle was the start of her greatness. We have to talk about Ronald Reagan. John Hinckley Jr. was a depressed loner who strongly identified with this film when he fired six shots at our 40th President and his entourage in March 1981. A near-assassination caused a day-long delay of that year's Academy Awards where De Niro and Scorsese would be celebrated for "Raging Bull", in an eerie coincidence. This incident, though largely forgotten now, and it's subsequent press gave "Taxi Driver" a macabre notoriety that insured it would never be. I should note that Hinckley was released from an insane asylum in 2016 after a quarter-century of psychotherapy and appears to be a completely changed man today.
Harvey Keitel was with Scorsese at the very beginning, as the star of his micro-budgeted directorial debut, 1967's "Who's That Knocking at My Door". They would work together a total of six times, most recently in 2019's "The Irishman". Quentin Tarantino must have considered it a miracle in 1991, when Harvey helped launch his career with "Reservoir Dogs"(his love for "TD" is well-documented). In Schrader's original script, Iris had a black pimp. Scorsese didn't want to emphasize the story's racial implications any further, so he cast his old pal Keitel. This uncomfortable scene is one of a few that doesn't include Travis. Let's legalize prostitution, tax it, and put predators like Sport out of business permanently.
I'm a little disappointed that De Niro didn't really shave his head into a Mohawk but he was already booked for Elia Kazan's farewell "The Last Tycoon"(a bad movie btw). So, shout-out to make-up artist Dick Smith("The Exorcist", "Amadeus") whose convincing bald-cap is in a Queens, NY museum. I think Travis inspired every psycho '80s kid to rock this look. Bickle makes a half-hearted attempt to put Betsy out of work, before fleeing the scene of this campaign rally to put Plan B into effect.
Travis has to direct all the simmering rage he has inside somewhere. Marty makes viewers feel like they're standing on the other side of the street by shooting this confrontation with Sport at a distance with no cuts. The climactic shoot-out is sudden and shocking with subtle special effects and no music. Cinematographer Michael Chapman worked with Gordon Willis on "The Godfather" and Bill Butler on "Jaws", and put his handheld camera skills to excellent use in the hallway, the stairs, and that infamous hotel room. Scorsese avoided the ire of the MPAA and an X-rating with the desaturated blood of three gangsters(including Sport). Travis takes two bullets(one in the neck) but doesn't have enough of his own to commit suicide.
The film's epilogue is open to interpretation. If the film's final moments are taken literally, Travis recovers and returns to his cab a hero, as this newspaper clipping and a letter from Iris' father indicates(curiously read to us in the same stilted manner as the letters to his own parents). Betsy comes back around, with a newfound respect for him. I happen to agree with Roger Ebert's theory that we're witnessing Bickle's dying dream. The long overhead shot that follows the brothel bloodbath could be taken as his soul leaving the body. For what it's worth, Scorsese and Schrader never confirmed this. Or is Travis alive and looking for another reason to snap? It's up to you.
Legend has it that Hitchcock's favorite composer Bernard Herrmann died one day after finishing his terrific "Taxi Driver" score(December 24th, 1975). Maybe God doesn't hate Travis Bickle after all. This unforgettable character is as timely and potent as ever, as nightly newscasts remind us far too often. Some movies have to shine a light on the world we live in. It's not always fun, and most of our superhero-obsessed film industry doesn't even try. Travis' intensely-personal plight touches on so many things- loneliness, depression, America's gun fetish, soul-crushing work, ineffectual political leadership, the way we discard veterans. He's the reason I don't keep a diary. If only De Niro and Scorsese could depict the dark side of the male psyche for another fifty years. "Taxi Driver" is one of the world's greatest films.
