The creative team and stars behind Taxi Driver gathered at New York's Tribeca film festival to celebrate five decades since the film's release and reflect on its enduring cultural significance. Director Martin Scorsese, actor Robert De Niro, actress Jodie Foster, and screenwriter Paul Schrader participated in a screening at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center to examine the film's lasting impact.
Released in February 1976, Taxi Driver immediately became a cultural phenomenon. The film earned the Palme d'Or at Cannes and received four Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best actor for De Niro. Foster, who was just 12 when the film was shot, earned a nomination for best supporting actress.
Scorsese emphasized the film's universal appeal despite its age. "It's a sense of being isolated, it's about being lonely and not being able to communicate or connect," he said. "For me, that's universal. It's always going to speak to young people." Schrader noted the film's remarkable staying power. "If we marked the 50th anniversary of a film in 1976, we'd be talking about a 1926 movie," he said. "So it is very peculiar."
De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, is an insomniac cab driver navigating a grimy New York City while struggling with isolation and an inability to connect with others. The script, written by Schrader, meticulously details his descent into violence. "Each page was like a razor blade," Scorsese recalled of reading the screenplay.
De Niro reflected on the film's continued relevance. "Today, I do understand that people are still lonely, especially with the internet, and in light of the pandemic. People are getting more isolated and getting into worlds they shouldn't get into, becoming obsessed with something negative."
The film proved disturbingly prophetic. Though Columbine occurred decades later in 1999, Taxi Driver was shown during the trial of John Hinkley Jr., who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981 while allegedly attempting to impress Foster. The archetype of the alienated young man with violent tendencies has only intensified in modern times, paralleling the rise of extremist internet groups.
Foster discussed the character's complexity. "When I first read the script, there was something absolutely 100% true and authentic about the character's disaffection and loneliness that I didn't really understand at the time," she said. "That's the draw of the antihero."
Scorsese also contrasted the film's gritty 1970s New York setting with today's city. When they filmed in 1975, crime peaked and the city faced financial crisis. "There was something during the shoot where you could feel the temperature and a kind of violence all around you," he said. Schrader lamented the city's transformation. "It was alive," he said of New York in the 1960s and 1970s.