Taxi Driver

by Amy Taubin

Paul Schrader was in meltdown in 1972. Drinking heavily, living in his car, he was hospitalised with a gastric ulcer. There he read about Arthur Bremer's attempt to assassinate Alabama Governor George the story was the germ of his screenplay for Taxi Driver (1976). Executives at Columbia hated the script, but when Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, who were flying high after the triumphs of Mean Streets (1973) and The Godfather Part II (1974), signed up, Taxi Driver became too good a package to refuse.Scorsese transformed the script into what is now considered one of the two or three definitive films of the 1970s. De Niro is mesmerising as Travis Bickle – pent-up, bigoted, steadily slipping into psychosis, the personification of American masculinity post-Vietnam. Cybill Shepherd and Jodie Foster give fine support and Scorsese brought in Bernard Herrmann, the greatest of film composers, to write what turned out to be his last score. Crucially, Scorsese rooted Taxi Driver in its New York locations, tuning the film's violence into the hard reality of the city. Technically thrilling though it is, Taxi Driver is profoundly disturbing – finding, as Amy Taubin shows, racism, misogyny and gun fetishism at the heart of American culture.In her foreword to this special edition, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series, Amy Taubin considers Taxi Driver anew in the context of contemporary politics of race and masculinity in the US, and draws on an exclusive interview with Robert De Niro about his memories of making the film.

102 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 25, 2019

Reviews

[Russio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first class instalment of the BFI series, in just 75 pages this really opens up critical readings of the film. So much connecting tissue makes the character of Travis really solidify as a lone wolf male with a castration complex. This 25 year old edition posits that the ensuing period of history more than shows the portents of the movie. I would add that the subsequent 25 to them hammered the point home even further. God help us!

[Alex Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best film ever made, its presentation of loneliness and finding a purpose in life as well as masculinity are incredible