Taxi Driver (1976)
95%RT Audience Score: 93%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 4 Oscars
22 wins & 20 nominations total
A must-see film for movie lovers, this Martin Scorsese masterpiece is as hard-hitting as it is compelling, with Robert De Niro at his best.
Taxi Driver is a film that will make you feel like you need a shower after watching it, but in a good way. Martin Scorsese’s direction is top-notch, and Robert De Niro’s performance as Travis Bickle is nothing short of iconic. The film’s exploration of loneliness, isolation, and the dark side of humanity is as relevant today as it was when it was released in 1976. Plus, who can forget that classic line, “You talkin’ to me?” If you haven’t seen Taxi Driver yet, do yourself a favor and hop in this cab for a wild ride.
Production Company(ies)
Columbia Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Bill, Phillips
Distributor
Columbia Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
87 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, New York, USA
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
1976
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Stereo Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 53m
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Language(s):English, Spanish
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Feb 8, 1976 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 14, 2007
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Peter Boyle, directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Dave Kehr, Nigel Andrews, Pauline Kael, Tara Brady, Tom Huddleston, Derek Malcolm, Brian Eggert, David Gonzalez, Sarah Brinks, Josh Larsen, Mike Massie, produced by Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips, R rating, New York City, taxi driver, insomnia, mental illness, loneliness, obsession, prostitution, violence, presidential candidate, campaign worker, 12-year-old prostitute, urban indifference, fascism, human soul, American folk hero, human psyche, Vietnam War, paranoid psychosis, Bernard Hermann, tragic tale, masterpiece
Worldwide gross: $28,570,902
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $162,021,653
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 806
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 17,668,664
US/Canada gross: $28,262,574
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $160,273,167
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 485
US/Canada opening weekend: $116,458
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $660,417
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,337
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $1,300,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $7,372,121
Production budget ranking: 1,796
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $3,969,887
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $150,679,645
ROI to date (est.): 1,329%
ROI ranking: 83
Jodie Foster – Iris
Cybill Shepherd – Betsy
Harvey Keitel – Sport
Victor Argo – Melio
Peter Boyle – Wizard
Director(s)
Martin Scorsese
Writer(s)
Paul Schrader
Producer(s)
Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 4 Oscars
22 wins & 20 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (96) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (92) | Rotten (4)
It would be hard to imagine an American film more squarely in the European “art” tradition than this…
June 14, 2022
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
The problem lies less with what the film has to say than the way it says it: the laboriousness with which its sermon on the seeds of fascism is spelled out.
May 12, 2020
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
TOP CRITIC
No other film has ever dramatized urban indifference so powerfully; at first, here, it’s horrifyingly funny, and then just horrifying.
September 6, 2018
Pauline Kael
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
As with John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards (Travis’s spiritual forefather), his thwarted patriarchal possessiveness is not tempered by anything like genuine concern, yet it is enough… to make him a peculiarly American folk hero.
March 3, 2017 | Rating: 5/5
Tara Brady
Irish Times
TOP CRITIC
Martin Scorsese’s unflinching plunge into the darkest recesses of the human soul feels painfully relevant.
February 6, 2017 | Rating: 5/5
Tom Huddleston
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
This is a wholly remarkable film, flaws and all. In fact, even the flaws are significant.
February 17, 2016
Derek Malcolm
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Travis Bickle and thus Scorsese’s film is a blank slate onto which we project our own meaning, making the film strangely and uniquely universal, in spite of the artful treatment and shocking subject matter.
March 20, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
Taxi Driver is a cinematic masterpiece and Scorsese’s best direction of his career.
February 14, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
David Gonzalez
Reel Talk Inc.
Even though it was not a film I really enjoyed, it was a well-made film. Scorsese knows how make a film that explores the human psyche at a time when the country was still healing from a lost war.
April 1, 2021
Sarah Brinks
Battleship Pretension
…stares Travis Bickle directly in the eyes, then gets swallowed by the gaze.
March 3, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm
A dark, powerful, stylized, potent production that takes the viewer deeper into a persona of insanity and alienation than many will want to go.
August 31, 2020 | Rating: 10/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
One of the all-time great movies.
August 14, 2020
Allen Almachar
The MacGuffin…
Plot
Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in New York City. As he suffers from insomnia, he spends his time working as a taxi driver at night, watching porn movies at seedy cinemas during the day, or thinking about how the world, New York in particular, has deteriorated into a cesspool. He’s a loner who has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the one bright spot in New York humanity is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator Charles Palantine. He becomes obsessed with her. After an incident with her, he believes he has to do whatever he needs to make the world a better place in his opinion. One of his priorities is to be the savior for Iris, a twelve-year-old runaway and prostitute who he believes wants out of the profession and under the thumb of her pimp and lover Matthew.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no specific tidbit about someone in the cast mentioned on the Fresh Kernels page.for Taxi Driver.
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