Taxi Driver was the film that brought director Martin Scorsese to prominence, and gave Robert De Niro one of his finest roles. Nominated for four Oscars, this tense, disturbing and brutally violent psychological drama is now seen as a landmark of modern American cinema. Mesmerising on its release in 1976, it still has unbridled power to shock today.
De Niro steals the show as the lonely, isolated, mentally unhinged ex-Marine Travis Bickle, who becomes a night-time New York taxi driver, prepared to take on any job, anywhere, any time of night.
The supporting cast are on the button too, especially Jodie Foster in her breakout role as teenage prostitute Iris, Harvey Keitel as Iris's pimp "Sport" Matthew and Cybill Shepherd as the unobtainable senatorial aide Betsy. Look out too for a disturbing cameo from Scorsese himself as one of Bickle's passengers. Nasty.
And adding the icing on the cake is Bernard Herrmann's original score, especially effective early on during the film, where Bickle describes the New York that he drives around: "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
Quite. One of the all-time great movies, it's a must-see.
Taxi Driver is a Film programme that first aired in 1976 and has been classified a 18 certificate.
