The Significant Impact of Taxi Driver on Film and Society

By Brandon Treacy

When Taxi Driver hit US cinemas on the 8th February 1976 it shocked audiences it was just another one of the many movies that had been released that took shocked American audiences with it's harsh and revealing take on New York city. The script was written by Paul Schrader who almost wrote it as a sort of therapy to deal with the struggles his was facing in his life. Schrader was going through a tough divorce he was also heavily in debt and had just left the company he was apart of the pressure of all of this took a massive toll on Schrader who found himself gripped by the claws of depression he was staying out late drinking until early hours of the morning this ravenous cycle continued until Schrader eventually ended up in hospital with a stomach ulcer this eventually snapped him out of the destructive lifestyle he had been living and put him on the path of writing Taxi Driver.

The film Taxi Driver depicts a very real adaptation of New York in the 1970s. Prostitution and drugs were a big part of the New York nightlife the actual streets of New York City were filthy and piled high with rubbish due to the sanitation workers strike this added to the authentic disgust that the main character Travis Bickle felt when arriving back in New York. Soldiers coming back from the Vietnam war struggled to readjust to life back after the atrocities witnessed in Vietnam there was still a stigma around mental health so veterans had to find other ways to deal with their problems the movie also heavily follows themes of politics and the troubles new of New York was facing it was thrown into further trouble when President Ford refused the city federal aid, in turn, the decline of the city mirrors the ultimate demise of Taxi Driver’s main character Travis Bickle as a man who couldn’t adjust to average life after the thrills and chaos of war. The film relates to real-world problems at a time where America was in a seriously chaotic state and the presidential candidates were delivering fake promises such as cleaning up the streets and trying to stop crime but not seeing the real issue.

Overall the impact Taxi Driver had on cinematic culture and the changes it aimed to make can not be underestimated and it truly is a masterpiece