A young taxi driver witnesses firsthand the nightlife New York City has to offer. Its busy streets don’t make a distinction between prostitutes and elegant women returning from work; all it demands is that you walk fast. He drives around Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. The city that never sleeps is his territory. “Taxi!” and a piercing whistle makes him stop; the client is wearing a black suit and black tie. He asks him to pull over to the curb and wait. The driver’s gut instincts tell him to doubt the intentions of this well dressed man, but he follows the instructions anyway because the meter keeps on running.
The client suddenly admits he is there to kill his wife.”I have a .44 Magnum pistol and I’m gonna kill her with a gun,” he confesses. The driver is not shocked, “this city is indeed full of surprises,” he says to himself.
Taxi Driver is one of the best movies of the twentieth century. This piece of art was directed by Martin Scorsese. It was relatively low budget, but the cast was first class, with Robert de Niro as the lead and a young Jodie Foster poised to become an A-List superstar.
De Niro portrays Travis, a young Vietnam veteran who suffers from insomnia and is forced to accept a job as a taxi driver in New York City in the seventies.
During his long hours behind the wheel, he meets prostitutes, pimps, and other quirky characters. However, his PTSD makes him despise NY’s decadent streets. He will meet a young prostitute and a campaign volunteer who will change his life forever.
These photos take us to the world of Travis and the production of Taxi Driver. Through these images we can see De Niro’s transformation and Scorsese’s directing abilities.
“Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our life time, we need to keep them alive.” ― Martin Scorsese
“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.”― Martin Scorsese
“I have a .44 Magnum pistol and I’m gonna kill her with a gun.” ― Martin Scorsese in a cameo for the movie.
“Part of making any endeavor is that each one has its own special problems. It’s the nature of the process.” ― Martin Scorsese
“You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here.”― Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver
“We can’t keep thinking in a limited way about what cinema is. We still don’t know what cinema is. Maybe cinema could only really apply to the past or the first 100 years, when people actually went to a theater to see a film, you see?”― Martin Scorsese
Some curious behind the scene facts:
The scene where De Niro says the famous line “You talkin’ to me?” was improvised. Robert used Bruce Springsteen’s same line after hearing it in a concert.
Jodie Foster needed to see a shrink before she was allowed to act in the movie.
The screenwriter rewrote Foster’s character after meeting a real underage prostitute.
Scorsese’s cameo in the movie was accidental; he was replacing an actor who had suffered an accident.
“I should get one of those signs that says, ‘One of these days I’m gonna get organized’.” ―Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver
