Taxi Driver

Name: Taxi Driver
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Released: February 7, 1976
Duration: 114 min
Rating: 94
Cast: Albert Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Diahnne Abbott, Frank Adu, Garth Avery

1976

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 23 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 814 Ratings

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7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 814 Ratings

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Taxi Driver

Movie Details & Credits

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: February 7, 1976

Starring: Albert Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Diahnne Abbott, Frank Adu, Garth Avery, Gino Ardito, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Robert De Niro, Victor Argo

Summary: Scorsese’s 1976 masterpiece is the all-too-real story of a psychotic New York cabby who is driven to violence in an attempt to rescue a teenage prostitute. [Sony]

Director: Martin Scorsese

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 114 min

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Awards & Rankings

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Total Film Jamie Graham

Watch this 4K restoration of Scorsese’s ’76 masterpiece, its colours a seeping virus, and marvel that he originally planned to shoot on black-and-white video. Read full review

100

Empire William Thomas

The blend of Schrader's script, Scorsese's direction and De Niro's performance is both riveting and unnerving. A film that will stay with you forever. Read full review

100

CineVue John Bleasdale

Scorsese’s direction always keeps us uncomfortably close to Travis’ subjectivity, whether we’re prowling night time Manhattan or gazing into a glass of Alka-Seltzer until the whole world disappears into the healing hiss. Read full review

100

Desson Thomson

It hasn't aged so much as triumphantly metastasized. [20th Anniversary Release] Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

The film can be seen as a series of his failed attempts to connect, every one of them hopelessly wrong.... This utter aloneness is at the center of Taxi Driver, one of the best and most powerful of all films, and perhaps it is why so many people connect with it even though Travis Bickle would seem to be the most alienating of movie heroes. We have all felt as alone as Travis. Most of us are better at dealing with it. [20th Anniversary Release] Read full review

100

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Taxi Driver was a powerfully summarizing work. It synthesized noir, neorealist, and New Wave stylistics; it assimilated Hollywood’s recent vigilante cycle, drafting then-déclassé blaxploitation in the service of a presumed tell-it-like-it-is naturalism that, predicated on a frank, unrelenting representation of racism, violence, and misogyny, was even more racist, violent, and misogynist than it allowed. [35th Anniversary Release] Read full review

Richard Schickel

The movie has an air of recent discovery, of shocked innocence about the tawdry quality of city life that is gratingly naive. The film goes most disastrously wrong when it tries to turn slice-of-life realism into full-scale melodrama. Read full review

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User Reviews

TheWalrus2000

Mar 9, 2013

On my list for one of the best films ever, Taxi Driver is by far Scorsese's best direction ever.

7 of 9 users found this helpful72

daviddelnorte23

Apr 1, 2017

Rememorando 'Taxi driver'. El otro diá no podía dormir y repasando mis películas volví a encontrar la cinta de Martin Scorsese y Robert De niro. Me lanzé a verla de nuevo.

Y sí esto me parece una obra maestra del cine. Una de mis películas favoritas. Y es que refleja la sociedad de NY de laRememorando 'Taxi driver'. El otro diá no podía dormir y repasando mis películas volví a encontrar la cinta de Martin Scorsese y Robert De niro. Me lanzé a verla de nuevo.

Y sí esto me parece una obra maestra del cine. Una de mis películas favoritas. Y es que refleja la sociedad de NY de la época... No también la de HOY en día.

Los diálogos y el guión en general no pueden ser mejores ni estar mejor escritos. Así como la bso está completamente acorde a lo que transmite la película. "¿Sabes lo que puede hacer una .44 en el coño de una mujer?". De niro logra crear un personaje con el que empatizarás, un inadaptado a la sociedad. Un transtornado de la guerra que vuelve a "casa" y alguién que sigue teniendo una mente bastante perversa.

De entre todas las escanas rescato la mítica escena del asalto a la casa como una de las mejores de la historia del cine, seguida de una de las imágenes más icónicas del mismo. Sabéis cual es...

En definitiva, lo dicho Obra maestra del cine que todos deberían ver al menos una vez. En la comparación con 'Toro salvaje' me quedo un pelín antes con 'Toro Salvaje'. Un 9.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Justinavery7074

Oct 7, 2011

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. I have to take a few breaths and appluad like mad at the brilliance that this film unravels. It's captivating as **** the acting is completely magnificent, the directing and editing have nearly reached the height of their capabilites.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

rollingstone82

Aug 20, 2010

One of the most timeless and brilliant psychological dramas of all time.

Thrillers movies have nowadays become overly overdone, formulaic, half-baked, and worst of all, predictable. Thrillers like The Fugitive are great entertainment because although serving no purpose, it never fails toOne of the most timeless and brilliant psychological dramas of all time.

Thrillers movies have nowadays become overly overdone, formulaic, half-baked, and worst of all, predictable. Thrillers like The Fugitive are great entertainment because although serving no purpose, it never fails to keep its audience gripped and guessing. The best psychological thriller movies are those that make fiction look real rather than fiction look...well, fictional. That type really creeps you in 3D and you don't need any special specs. It is an entertainment that works on the mind. And that is scary because it is believable and relatable as well. And the greatest film of this genre is Taxi Driver, one of my favorite films of all time.

Taxi Driver starts with Travis Bickle getting his license as a nighttime taxi driver. He claims to be an honorably discharged war veteran dealing with insomnia. During his shifts, he nastily comments on the dirty conditions of New York, namely the crimes that occur at night. He sets eyes on a beautiful woman (Cybill Shepherd) who is helping with a campaign that Senator Palpatine is running. He impresses her once but later disgusts her after taking her to an adult movie. Travis then discovers a 12-year-old whore named Easy who is controlled by her pimp, Sport. Travis, having had enough with the filth he has seen happening in New York, takes up a violent mission to "save" his girlfriend and rescue Easy.

This album is not really about plot. The plot is the character itself. In other words, Taxi Driver is a character study. Here Martin Scorsese takes us into the world seen through Travis. Travis becomes our eyes and guide throughout the movie. He is the perspective that we find creepy yet pitiable. He is a lonely chump. He has no friends and can only contact his family through letters. He even lies to his parents that he is a government agent who cannot disclose his address to anyone as it would affect his secrecy. Why? He doesn't want his parents to find out about his poor-paying job and miserable life. And he himself isn't too nice. Often he looks with cold stares at blacks showing a racist attitude.

Yet his character is the core of the film that keeps drawing us further in. He tells us that he hates what goes on in New York: the drug trafficking, murders, robberies, and prostitution. Yet despite that, at day he watches porno movies in the theater. Out of a lack of importance. He doesn't know anything worthy enough for him to do. He doesn't know what to achieve. He is not exactly a hypocrite but a person who longs for meaning in a life that seems hopeless and aimless.

He sights Cybill and is drawn to her beauty and wants to have a relationship with her. But he doesn't know the workings of society. When she leaves the porno theater in disgust, we feel appalled yet sympathetic towards Travis. There is a scene in the film where Travis is shown trying to phone Cybill and the camera slowly goes away from Travis. Scorsese did this to make the audience feel as if they did not want to bear seeing Travis' pain because we have connected so tightly with him even though it is only almost halfway into the film. And later on, Travis tries to tell Easy to quit prostitution and go back to her family. While to us, Easy seems disinterested and quite content with her life with Sport, Travis insists because he has nothing better to do. He just wants to make his life worth something by doing a good deed. Similarly, when he talks with a secret service agent and Palpatine, he takes it as a regular conversation whereas we and the other characters smell something wrong. That is the mystery of his character that keeps us gripped, wanting to find out more. I won't say further. I have already given too much. Please, if you haven't, go see this film.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

AlvaradoKTA

Jun 7, 2012

Taxi Driver has the best scrip I have ever seen be directed in film.De Niro portrays a taxi driver who's out to clean the dirty streets of New York. It is very well directed , I mean c'mon it was done freaking Scorsese. The supporting actors do an amazing job especially young Jodie FosterTaxi Driver has the best scrip I have ever seen be directed in film.De Niro portrays a taxi driver who's out to clean the dirty streets of New York. It is very well directed , I mean c'mon it was done freaking Scorsese. The supporting actors do an amazing job especially young Jodie Foster who plays a 12-year-old prostitute.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

ReubenIsAGod

Oct 19, 2013

I love the work of Martian Scorsese and taxi driver is truly one of his finest achievements, The film is so creepy and disturbing from the first moment you see and meet the character Travis you can tell something is very wrong with him, that something is about to click unleashing thisI love the work of Martian Scorsese and taxi driver is truly one of his finest achievements, The film is so creepy and disturbing from the first moment you see and meet the character Travis you can tell something is very wrong with him, that something is about to click unleashing this horrible vulgar beast, and damn when the conflict hits, it goddamn hits, ohh and its probably good to mention that hes not a bad crazy serial killer who preys on the innocent killing give a simple taxi driver who is driving to insanity due to the disgusting crime, violence, sex and loss of innocents that consumes our disturbed protagonist, only reason why i would not rate this movie a 10 is the fact that i was truly disturbed by the film, i couldn't sleep i was so mesmerized by the film, it made me feel dirty… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

dimaclay

Jan 1, 2018

I am starting to see a trend in movie reviews that mimic's restaurant reviews. I would call that trend "by the industry and for the industry". I am sure this movie broke a lot of new ground, but the story was disjointed and didn't really flow at all. Restaurant's seem to do the same thing.I am starting to see a trend in movie reviews that mimic's restaurant reviews. I would call that trend "by the industry and for the industry". I am sure this movie broke a lot of new ground, but the story was disjointed and didn't really flow at all. Restaurant's seem to do the same thing. Food might be inventive with a bunch of flower petals artfully arranged on it will get stunning reviews by critics when everyday eaters might not see the advantage. This movie just had a feel of a collection of 'What would a functional psycho do?' stories. I have seen a lot of classic movies that I do like, so it isn't just that I hate older movies. This movie suffers from a severe case of overrated just like Citizen Kane.… Expand

1 of 9 users found this helpful18

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