'Taxi Driver' at 50: An Undisputed Masterpiece

Released in early February 1976, Taxi Driver united Martin Scorsese’s direction with Paul Schrader’s writing and a defining turn by Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, an insomniac who becomes a taxi driver, remodels his body and purchases firearms after romantic rejection and exposure to the city’s late-night underbelly.

The film stirred controversy over its child sex worker subplot and Jodie Foster being 13 during production, yet it was both a critical and commercial success, grossing $28.3 million on a $1.9 million budget, winning the Palme d'Or and earning four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.

Firmly rooted in the New Hollywood movement, Taxi Driver is widely regarded among Scorsese’s best. The film places viewers inside a protagonist’s warped logic—a technique Scorsese later revisited in Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street—while never endorsing his actions.

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