In writing the script, Schrader drew inspiration from the diaries of Arthur Bremer, who shot presidential candidate George Wallace in 1972, as well as from the Harry Chapin song "Taxi", which is about an old girlfriend getting into a cab.
Ironically, Bickle's character was inspired by Arthur Bremer, who attempted to assassinate presidential candidate George Wallace on May 15, 1972. Upon hearing of Hinckley's assassination attempt, Taxi Driver director Martin Scorsese considered quitting the film industry.
Most infamously, Bickle and Taxi Driver were cited as the primary inspiration for attempted Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinkley Jr., who was harboring delusions that such a violent act could attract the attention of Jodie Foster, the actress who portrays the 12-year-old sex worker Iris, who Travis violently “rescues” ...
Inspired by Ford's The Searchers, Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest, the diaries of real-life gunman Arthur Bremer, and an especially tormented period in Schrader's own life, Taxi Driver remains a devastating portrait of a man in urban purgatory.
Taxi Driver A Study of Masculinity & Existentialism
Is Taxi Driver based on a real story?
A Taxi Driver (dir. Jang Hoon) is based loosely on the true story of a taxi driver who drove the West German reporter, Jürgen Hinzpeter, from Seoul, South Korea's capital, to the southern city of Gwangju in May of 1980.
After being diagnosed with a stomach ulcer, everything suddenly shifted into place. Schrader had a clear vision of what he wanted to write about, and he wanted to translate the feelings of loneliness, cynicism and decay that he had experienced while hopped up on drugs.
Martin Scorsese's violent 1976 classic, about a cab-driving insomniac on a killing spree, was a key influence on Todd Phillips's Joker, for better or worse—but mostly for worse. Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver; Joaquin Phoenix in Joker.
One of the most striking aspects of “A Taxi Driver” is its cinematography which plays a pivotal role in immersing the audience in the past period. Cinematographer Go Nak-seon masterfully captures the contrast between the bustling streets of Seoul in 1980 and the harrowing realities of the Gwangju Uprising.
Taxi Driver (1976) A lonely depressed mental Vietnam vet, Travis Bickles is stable but mentally unstable man. It is unclear of what he is suffering off, he could suffer from a mild form of autism, maybe PTSD from going through nam, or even possibly being a psychopath. It was never stated.
The film was theatrically released by Columbia Pictures on February 8, 1976, and was a critical and commercial success despite generating controversy for its graphic violence in the climactic ending and the casting of then 12-year-old Foster in the role of a child prostitute.
As the story unfolds, we learn that there is something seriously off with Travis's social radar. He takes Betsy to a dirty movie under the apparently sincere impression that it's a perfectly normal thing to do on a first date (he is always earnest, never teasing or lascivious).
Although, the most contradictory trait of Travis, is his various violent thoughts. Even though Travis wants to be looked at as a brave crime fighter, he mostly does the things he does, due to his lust for violence and his extremely cynical perspective of the world.
Those with schizotypal personality disorder tend to feel uncomfortable and have a difficult time in social circumstances, although they may still be friendly towards others. In the film Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro's character Travis Bickle seems to be suffering from this disorder.
The lonely and violent Travis is a Vietnam War veteran who befriends a child prostitute as his mental health deteriorates. Some film writers have described Travis as an incel-like character.
Both Arthur & Travis Are Celebrated For Their Slow Descent Into Murder And Madness. Both Joker and Taxi Driver feature psychologically disturbed individuals who, as a result of the circumstances around them as well as their inner turmoil, fall deeper into their own psychoses.
The real Kim Sa-bok had a long term working relationship as a driver for Jürgen Hinzpeter, since at least 1975, and had died of liver cancer on 19 December 1984, at the age of 54. According to his son, Kim Sa-bok was traumatized by the terrible events at Gwangju and became a heavy drinker afterwards.
Thanks to the setting, some eerie, dreamlike visuals, and the fact it's a character study of a dangerous individual, Taxi Driver shares some common ground with American Psycho, though it is admittedly without comedy (even dark humor, really).
Robert De Niro improvised his famous “You talkin' to me?” line from Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, the director shared this week. In the film, De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, imagines a confrontation in a mirror when he asks, “You talkin' to me?
In a cinematic apartheid of heroes and villains, Travis' positive/negative duality is something most movie characters are never allowed to possess. This makes Bickle come even closer to the definition of a real human being — capable of good and evil depending on the circumstances.
A similar situation happens in Taxi Driver. Travis, suffering from schizotypal personality, uses his journal as an escape to not write down his thoughts, but to rather write a fantasized letter about Iris, a prostitute that Travis saves to her father.
In the 1976 film, Foster played the challenging role of a child sex worker named Iris alongside De Niro, who starred as a lonely Vietnam veteran with declining mental health. “I was 12. And they had to say things like, you know, Can you pull his fly down? ' And it was a little awkward,” Foster recalled.
Harvey Keitel gave an inspired performance as the devious pimp in "Taxi Driver," but the actor almost had a different part entirely. Keitel was originally cast in a larger role but insisted on playing the pimp. His dedication motivated director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader to expand the part.
