Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, and Harvey Keitel Release Year: 1976
Despite being surrounded by millions of people in New York City, Travis is entirely isolated. Schrader's script perfectly captures the concept of "loneliness in crowds," where urban dwellers exist in close proximity but fail to truly see or acknowledge one another. 🪞 The Contradictory Anti-Hero Taxi Driver YIFY
Won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and received four Academy Award nominations. 📝 Plot Summary Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, and
Travis views himself as a righteous cleanser of a dirty city, yet he spends his free time consuming pornography, harbors racist biases, and exhibits deeply erratic behavior. He is a classic unreliable protagonist whose morality is entirely warped by his own fractured psyche. 🌋 Post-War Trauma 📝 Plot Summary Travis views himself as a
His attempt to find a normal human connection fails miserably when he takes Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a political campaign worker, to a live pornographic theater on a date. After she rejects him, Travis's mental state rapidly deteriorates. He pivots his focus toward "saving" Iris (Jodie Foster), a 12-year-old runaway forced into prostitution by a pimp named Sport (Harvey Keitel).
The story follows (played by Robert De Niro), a 26-year-old honorably discharged U.S. Marine living in New York City. Suffering from severe insomnia and deep-seated loneliness, Travis takes a job as a night-shift taxi driver. He spends his nights driving through the decaying, crime-ridden streets of 1970s Manhattan, growing increasingly disgusted by what he perceives as the "scum" of the city.
The film features a brilliant, haunting neo-noir jazz score by Bernard Herrmann (his final work before his death), juxtaposing smooth saxophone melodies with jarring, ominous brass notes.