Taxi Driver

9 February 1976114 min,

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

Plot: 

A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.

Where to Watch: 

 

Cast & Crew

Robert De Niro

Travis Bickle

Jodie Foster

Iris Steensma

Harvey Keitel

Matthew 'Sport' Higgins

Leonard Harris

Senator Charles Palantine

Diahnne Abbott

Concession Girl

Gino Ardito

Policeman at Rally

Murray Moston

Iris' Time Keeper

Richard Higgs

Secret Service Agent

Bill Minkin

Tom's Assistant (uncredited)

Bob Maroff

Mafioso (uncredited)

Victor Argo

Melio, Delicatessen Owner

Sound

Bernard Herrmann

Original Music Composer

Rick Alexander

Sound Re-Recording Mixer

Gordon Davidson

Sound Effects Editor

James Fritch

Sound Effects Editor

Sam Gemette

Sound Effects Editor

David M. Horton

Sound Effects Editor

Editing

Billy Weber

Assistant Editor

Marcia Lucas

Supervising Film Editor

Directing

Writing

Camera

Michael Chapman

Director of Photography

Production

Art

Charles Rosen

Art Direction

Fun Facts of Movie

  • Director Martin Scorsese claims that the most important shot in the movie is when Bickle is on the phone trying to get another date with Betsy. The camera moves to the side slowly and pans down the long, empty hallway next to Bickle, as if to suggest that the phone conversation is too painful and pathetic to bear; this shot also showcases his isolation and loneliness.
  • Jodie Foster claims that Robert De Niro would regularly phone her up and suggest they have coffee together. They would then rehearse the diner scene over and over to the point where Foster got bored, but still De Niro would insist they continue rehearsing.
  • Robert De Niro worked fifteen hour days for a month driving cabs as preparation for this role. He also studied mental illness, and during his off-time when filming Novecento (1976), visited a US Army base in Northern Italy and tape-recorded conversations with Midwestern soldiers so that he could pick up their accent.
  • Between the time Robert De Niro signed a $35,000 contract to appear in this film, and when it began filming, he won the Oscar for his role in The Godfather: Part II (1974), and his profile soared. The producers were worried that De Niro would ask for a deserved larger pay raise, since Columbia Pictures was very concerned about the project, and were looking for excuses to pull the plug on it, but De Niro said he would honor his original deal so the film would get made.
  • Jodie Foster was twelve years old when the movie was filmed, so she could not do the more explicit scenes (her character was also twelve years old). Connie Foster, Jodie’s older sister, who was nineteen when the film was produced, was cast as her body double for those scenes.
  • When Paul Schrader was first writing the script, he believed that he was just writing about loneliness, but as the process went on, he realized he was writing about the pathology of loneliness. His theory being that, for some reason, some young men (such as Schrader himself) subconsciously push others away to maintain their isolation, even though the main source of their torment is this very isolation.

(Source: IMDb)

Be the first to review “Taxi Driver”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

There are no reviews yet.

error: Content is protected!