Taxi Driver
1976 · Directed by Martin Scorsese
Original language: English
- crime
- drama
The story
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.
What it’s like
Night-soaked and sodium-orange, Taxi Driver lives in the glow of wet asphalt, sickly neon and steam rising from manhole grates, with Michael Chapman's grainy 35mm photography turning Manhattan into a place of sweat, exhaust and flickering marquees. Camera stays close and watchful, often through the windshield or from the back seat, and the rhythm is slow, hypnotic and then suddenly violent. Bernard Herrmann's last score, all brooding strings and saxophone, hangs over long stretches of empty driving and stretches of quiet insomnia. The vibe is feverish loneliness and rising dread, best suited to a late-night, alone-in-the-dark viewing rather than anything light. Its intensity is high: sustained unease, sexual menace and a brutal, bloody climax with real violence and gunfire, plus strong language and drug and prostitution themes. It is not gentle. It is for people who want a character study of alienation and obsession, uncomfortable and unsettling, that trusts the viewer to sit inside a disturbed mind.
More films like Taxi Driver
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved Taxi Driverand we’ll explain which ones fit you.
