How Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle is still terrifyingly relevant 50 years on
Taxi Driver remains an overwhelming experience and Robert De Niro’s career-kick-starting role continues to resonate in today’s society
This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.
Though half a century has passed, the film remains an overwhelming experience, richly detailed and beautifully made. Because of its lean US$1.3 million budget, most of it was shot on the fly – during a heatwave, no less – turning pre-clean-up New York into a hellscape, with our protagonist’s taxi emerging from a Mephistophelian cloud of steam.
“I’m not interested in a realistic look – not at all, not ever,” Scorsese said. “Every film should look the way I feel.”
With a sultry score by Hitchcock favourite Bernard Herrmann – his last – and vibrant cinematography by Michael Chapman, Taxi Driver plunges us into the subjectivity of Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle (De Niro) as he prowls the nocturnal streets, disgusted by the ugliness around him.