The directory «Plots»

«Taxi Driver»

Taxi Driver is a 1976 film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The movie is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle, Cybill Shepherd, and a young Jodie Foster. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.

The film gained notoriety once John Hinckley, Jr. confessed that it was his obsession with Foster's role that made him attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Travis Bickle (De Niro) is a lonely and depressed young man and former-Marine living in Manhattan. He occasionally corresponds with his parents by mail, deceiving them into believing that he's living a healthy and successful life as a government employee. He refuses to send them his home address by telling them that it would interfere with the secrecy of his fabricated job. He becomes a night time taxi driver in order to cope with his chronic insomnia, working 12-hour shifts nearly every night, carrying passengers around all five boroughs of New York City. His restless days, meanwhile, are spent in seedy porn theaters. He keeps a diary, excerpts from which are occasionally narrated via voice-over during the film. Bickle is an honorably discharged Marine, and it is implied that he is a Vietnam veteran; he keeps a charred Viet Cong flag in his squalid apartment and has a large scar on his back.

Bickle develops a romantic attachment towards Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a campaign volunteer for fictional New York Senator Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris). Palantine is running for the presidential nomination on a platform of dramatic social change. After watching her from his taxi through the windows of Palantine's campaign office, Bickle enters the campaign office asking to volunteer as a pretext to talk with Betsy. Bickle convinces her to join him for coffee, and she later agrees to let him take her to a movie. She says he reminds her of a line in a Kris Kristofferson song "The Pilgrim, Chapter 33": "He's a prophet and a pusher, partly truth, partly fiction — a walking contradiction." On their date, Bickle takes her to see Language of Love, a Swedish sex education film. Offended, Betsy leaves the movie theater and takes a taxi home without Bickle. The next day he tries to reconcile with Betsy, phoning her and sending her flowers, but he does not succeed.

Bickle's thoughts begin to turn violent. The only person in whom he vaguely confides his new views and desires is his fellow taxi driver "Wizard" (Peter Boyle), who tells Travis that he's seen all kinds in his time driving cabs, and he believes Travis will be fine. Disgusted by the petty street crime (especially prostitution) that he witnesses while driving through the city, he now finds a focus for his frustration and begins a program of intense physical training. He buys four pistols, which were a .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver, a .38 Smith & Wesson Model 36 revolver, a .22 Smith & Wesson Escort pistol, & a .380 Astra Constable pistol, from an illegal dealer, Easy Andy (Steven Prince). (Before the purchase, a passenger turned Bickle on to a .44 Magnum handgun). When Bickle fires his guns on the range, his Model 36 becomes a .38 Smith & Wesson Model 10 snubnose revolver, his Smith & Wesson Escort becomes a .25 Sterling Arms pistol, & his Astra Constable becomes a Walther PPK pistol. Bickle then constructs a sliding action holster for his right arm and practices concealing and drawing his weapons. Bickle begins talking to himself as he looks in the mirror and draws his gun (asking repeatedly, "you talkin' to me?"). He develops an interest in Senator Palantine's public appearances. One night, Bickle enters a run-down grocery just moments before a man (Nat Grant) attempts to rob the store. Bickle shoots the man in the neck with the Astra Constable. The grocery owner (Victor Argo) encourages Bickle to flee after Bickle expresses worry for shooting the man with an unlicensed gun. As Bickle leaves, the store owner repeatedly clubs the near-dead man with a steel pole.

During another night, Iris (Jodie Foster), a 12-year-old child prostitute, enters Bickle's cab, attempting to escape her pimp, "Sport" (Harvey Keitel). When Bickle fails to drive away, Sport drags Iris from the cab and throws Bickle a crumpled twenty-dollar bill. Bickle later meets Iris in the street and pays her for her time, not to have sex with her but to try and convince her to quit prostitution. They meet again the next day for breakfast and Bickle becomes obsessed with helping Iris leave Sport and return to a typical childhood life at her parents' home.

Bickle sends Iris several hundred dollars attached to a letter telling her he will soon be dead. After shaving his head into a Mohawk haircut, he attends a public rally where he attempts to assassinate Senator Palantine with the Smith & Wesson Escort. Secret Service agents notice him approaching and Bickle flees. He returns to his apartment before driving to Alphabet City, where he confronts Sport. The two get into a confrontation in which both Bickle and Sport insult each other and Bickle shoots Sport in the gut with the Model 36 and storms into the brothel and kills the bouncer with the Model 29. After the wounded Sport shoots Bickle in the neck slightly wounding him with a nickel Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver, Bickle shoots him dead with the Model 29 as well as Iris's mafioso customer with the Smith & Wesson Escort. Bickle receives several shots himself. Kneeling on the floor of Iris's room, he attempts several times to fire a bullet into his own head from under his chin, but all his weapons are out of ammunition, so he resigns himself to resting on a sofa until police arrive on the scene.

The film's dénouement reveals Bickle recuperating from the incident. He has received a handwritten letter from Iris's parents who thank him for saving their daughter, and the media hail him as a hero. Bickle returns to his job, and encounters Betsy as a fare. She discusses Bickle's newfound fame, but he denies being a hero. He drops her off without charging her. As he drives away, he hears a small, piercing noise which prompts him to stare at an unseen object in his taxi's rearview mirror.

Guinea, 2008, «Kagemusha», «Taxi Driver»