Taxi Driver

"On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody."

- Tagline

""Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I am God's lonely man.""

- Travis Bickle

Do we really need to repeat this movie's most famous line (which enters into several top #100 #10 lists on the subject)?

...In case we do. It's the famous "You talkin' to me?" scene. There, happy?

One of Martin Scorsese's most famous movies, made in 1976, it's the story of an insomniac and depressed New York City cab driver (Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro) who becomes obsessed with cleansing the city of human "trash" and goes insane. Better Than It Sounds, the film is notable for being one of De Niro's first massive roles and for Jodie Foster's breakout role, as a child prostitute. She was twelve years old at the time. Cybill Shepard, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks, and Peter Boyle also appear in the film, and Bernard Herrmann composed the music score (his last).

(Watching this movie knowing about John Hinckley Jr. makes several scenes, including, a different experience to watch.)

Not to be confused with Adventures of a Taxi Driver, an Awful British Sex Comedy that came out at about the same time.

This movie contains examples of:

 * Anti Hero: Travis Bickle practically invented the modern anti-hero. Travis is a Type V.
 * Asshole Victim: We're not supposed to cheer the carnage but Travis' victims (Robbers and pimps) do fall under this category.
 * Author Avatar: Travis for Paul Schrader, though Schrader obviously never went on a shooting spree (That We know of anyway).
 * Ax Crazy: Travis by the end of the movie.
 * One could easily make the case that Travis was insane from the very beginning.
 * He was insane, but he wasn't violent until he actually bought his guns.
 * Basement Dweller: Of the gun-idolizing, hero-complexing psychopath variety.
 * Beware the Quiet Ones: You'd better not provoke him.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Travis fantasizes about being one for months leading up to his eventual rampage. It's one reason
 * Black Blood: In order to attain an R rating, Scorsese had to desaturate the shootout scene, making the blood a dull pink rather than bright red. (General consensus is that the muted colors work in the scene's favor.)
 * Book Ends
 * Byronic Hero: Travis.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Travis uses every single weapon he buys.
 * City Noir: Most examples of City Noir in film draw inspiration from this one.
 * Cool Shades: Travis' famous Aviator Ray ban's.
 * Crapsack World: This is the worst New York has looked outside of apocalyptic science fiction.
 * Creator Cameo: Scorsese plays a passenger who watches his wife through a window from the street while detailing how he'd like to shoot her.
 * He also appears in the slow-motion introduction shot of Betsy in the background, sitting on a stoop. Whether or not this is the same character is unclear, but they are dressed differently and have a different hairstyle.
 * They're dressed differently. He keeps the same hair and beard in the scene.
 * Creepy Monotone: Travis.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Surprisingly averted. We learn almost nothing of Travis' past and, based on the anniversary card, he keeps in contact with his parents and cares about their opinion to lie to them about his life. It makes the film more interesting as you really wonder what happened to Travis to make him the way he is.
 * Dawson Casting: A controversial aversion with thirteen-year-old Jodie Foster playing a twelve-year-old prostitute in a graphically violent film. She had to go through psychological analysis to prove she could handle the role, and her older sister acted as her body double for some scenes.
 * Deconstruction: Of the Vigilante Man. Technically, on his first  outing as a vigilante, he  . This is what happens when an ordinary man takes up arms and goes against common thugs. And a physically fit ordinary man who supposedly had military training at that.
 * Discretion Shot: Travis's awkward phone call to Betsy, where the camera pans away from him to look down an empty hallway as though feeling his embarrassment, is an unusual example.
 * Don't Tell Mama: Travis lies to his parents about what is really going on with him to reassure them.
 * The Dulcinea Effect: Bickle is a weird Sociopathic Hero version. Taking pity on a random prostitute who was in his cab for a little over 30 seconds.
 * Dying Dream: A common theory about the ending, since Word of God says no, however.
 * Dyeing for Your Art: DeNiro surprisingly did not shave his head for the role (He was shooting 1900 in Italy as well). He did however drive a cab for twelve hours a day and study Mental Illness.
 * Embarrassing First Name: Iris hates her first name and prefers to be called "Easy." Travis insists upon calling her by her proper name.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: In the third act, Travis writes a letter to his parents, ensuring them he's fine, that he's dating a nice girl, and he loves them.
 * Finger Gun:
 * Firing One Handed: Travis Bickle would die before holding a gun in both hands.
 * Four Is Death: Travis buys four guns from Easy Andy.
 * Gainax Ending
 * Guns Akimbo: Parodied in one shot where Travis draws his .44 Magnum in his right hand and his snubnose revolver in his right. The barrel of the former is longer than the entirety of the latter.
 * Harpo Does Something Funny: Famously, the "You talkin' to me?" scene was only scripted as Travis looking at himself in the mirror and perhaps talking to himself.
 * Hero Complex: Travis has a major case of this.
 * Hollywood Personality Disorders: this movie is often used to show the schizotypal one.
 * Iconic Item: Travis' army jacket and of course the 44 Magnum.
 * Important Haircut: Bickle's mohawk, received just before his rampage.
 * In Memoriam: The end credits finish with one of these to Bernard Herrmann, who died just days after completing the score.
 * Job Title
 * Karma Houdini:.
 * Kick the Dog: A store clerk fed up of being robbed viciously beats with a crowbar a thief after Travis has killed him.
 * Loony Fan: The very loony John Hinckley Jr.
 * Loners Are Freaks
 * Moral Dissonance: Thanks for shooting up that den of prostitutes, you heroic rogue.
 * Of course thats assuming that the Hero worship actually happened.
 * Word of God says it did. Screenwriter Schrader said on DVD commentary that the fact that Bickle was worshipped as a hero was meant to be ironic, and that he would not be a hero when he snapped again (the cymbal crash and the look in his eyes in the rearview mirror at the end implied that he was as unstable as ever.).
 * Murder Suicide:.
 * New York City
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Travis, while mostly an Avatar for Paul Schrader, has more than a few similarities with Arthur Bremer who shot and paralyzed Governor George Wallace three years earlier.
 * No One Could Survive That: Subverted at the film's climax..
 * No Party Given: Senator Palantine, although his comments suggest that he is a Democrat.
 * No Social Skills: Everyone Travis interacts with seems to sense that there's something off about him.
 * Nothing Up My Sleeve: One of Travis's guns is hidden up his sleeve, and drawn using a speed-rig he made himself.
 * One Scene Wonder: Martin Scorsese's cameo as a psychotic passenger that Travis picks up.
 * Pet the Dog: Travis's love for his parents and concern for Iris.
 * Platonic Prostitution: Travis does this to convince Iris to give it up. She is resistant to the idea.
 * Pretty Little Headshots: Averted in the final shootout.
 * Quick Nip: Travis takes one right around when he purchases his guns.
 * Another shows up right before the  of his rampage.
 * Shallow Love Interest: Betsy.
 * Shell Shocked Veteran: Travis, possibly.1
 * Shout Out: Travis Bickle is named after Mick Travis, Malcolm McDowell's character in Lindsay Anderson's films If and O Lucky Man (and later Britannia Hospital). Also, in one scene in O Lucky Man, McDowell wears suspenders with no shirt, as DeNiro does in one scene here.
 * During her coffee-shop date with Travis, Betsy quotes from Kris Kristofferson's song "The Pilgrim, Chapter 33", and Travis later buys her the album on which it appears (The Silver Toungued Devil and I).
 * Movie billboards are seen for The Eiger Sanction, Dr. No, and possibly The Wind and The Lion (The billboard advertised Sean Connery).
 * Looking closely at one of the newspaper clippings at end of the film mentions Harry Kilmer as President of the Manhattan Cab Company. Harry Kilmer was the name of Robert Mitchum's private detective character in The Yakuza, which was writer Paul Schrader's first screenplay.
 * While it would be dumb to suggest that the .44 Magnum's inclusion is in itself a reference to Dirty Harry, the reason the gun is so popular and thus is included in the film is due to that movie.
 * Slasher Smile: Travis during the attempted assassination of Palantine.
 * Sociopathic Hero: Travis Bickle is a nice, quiet variant.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: Rough city, smooth jazz.
 * Suicide By Cop:.
 * The Taxi
 * This Is Sparta: "They... can not... touch...... her..."
 * Throw It In: Scorsese's cameo was completely unplanned as the actor that had been hired got sick. He states he hates being on camera and only did it out of desperation although audiences think he did very well.
 * Tranquil Fury: A lot of repressed passion beneath that quiet, cold surface.


 * Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Jodie Foster as a 12-year-old underage prostitute.
 * Unreliable Narrator: You cannot literally believe a word that Travis says. Or at least, you cannot take it at face value.
 * The Vietnam War: Bickle is a Vietnam vet - or so he claims.
 * His green jacket with "Bickle, T." emblazoned on the back would certainly back up that claim.
 * The PTSD also backs up this claim; many Vietnam war vets came back with major trauma.
 * Travis is also proficient in the use of guns and combat knifes, although that doesn't necessarily make him a war vet.
 * Vigilante Man: Travis.
 * Villain Protagonist: Travis approaches this, despite some of his more heroic actions.
 * You Talkin to Me: Trope Namer and Trope Maker.
 * Leading people to Watch It for The Meme.