Guide Note

Directed by Martin Scorcese, Taxi Driver stars Robert De Niro as an insomniac Vietnam War veteran turned New York City cab driver Travis Bickle. Disillusioned and alienated, Bickle obsessively reflects on the corruption of life around him and struggles to find his purpose within it.

Bickle's character was based on Arthur Bremer, who attempted to assassinate Democratic Presidential candidate George Wallace in 1972.

Fast Facts

1. Writer: Paul Schrader
2. Co-starring: Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd
3. Released: February 8, 1976
4. Run Time: 113 minutes
5. Budget: $1.3 million
6. Won 1976 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival
7. Dedicated to composer Bernard Herrmann, who died prior to the film's release
8. De Niro worked as a cab driver and studied mental illness to research his role

1. "The days go on and on... they don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people."
2. "Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."
3. "The idea had been growing in my brain for some time: TRUE force. All the king's men cannot put it back together again."