Taxi Driver (1976) - Best Psychological Thrillers | Filmiway

Taxi Driver banner
Trailer in 4s
Taxi Driver poster

Why This Thriller Gets Under Your Skin

An isolated veteran’s violent descent into obsession and vigilantism in the grim streets of 1970s New York.

Taxi Driver

1976•Martin Scorsese•120 min•R

The Experience

Travis Bickle is God's lonely man—a Vietnam vet driving a cab through the neon-soaked squalor of 1970s New York. Disgusted by the 'filth' he sees on the streets at night, his isolation festers into a dangerous obsession. He buys a gun, shaves his head into a Mohawk, and prepares for a self-appointed mission to wash the scum off the streets. It is a terrifying portrait of a man slowly becoming a loaded gun.

Cast & Crew

Director: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel

Production Details

Budget: $12 million

Box Office: $28.6 million

Age Rating:R
Loading streaming options...

PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY SCORE

0
PSYCHOLOGICAL INDEX
8.3
IMDB RATING
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTORTION LEVELHIGH

Accessible complexity with subtle mind-bending elements rewarding careful viewing.

Clean Content Record

Taxi Driver: No sexual content or graphic scenes present in this film.

📊
INTENSITY GRAPH

Narrative Analysis
Night Driving(40%)
Violent Version(65%)
Rampage(80%)
Final Shootout(95%)
Ending(98%)
Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Drama: 50%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Crime: 30%Thriller: 20%Thriller: 20%Thriller: 20%Thriller: 20%Thriller: 20%Thriller: 20%

🧬
CINEMATIC DNA

Genre Analysis
Drama
50%
Crime
30%
Thriller
20%

Genre DNA Distribution

  • Drama: 50%
  • Crime: 30%
  • Thriller: 20%

Movie Intensity Arc

  • Minute 15: Night Driving (40/100 Intensity)
  • Minute 48: Violent Version (65/100 Intensity)
  • Minute 90: Rampage (80/100 Intensity)
  • Minute 110: Final Shootout (95/100 Intensity)
  • Minute 113: Ending (98/100 Intensity)

Community Reviews

Initializing reviews...

FAQs: Understanding Taxi Driver

Dive deeper into the psyche, the production secrets, and the mind-bending twists of Taxi Driver. Warning: Some answers may contain spoilers.

No, the script simply said: 'Travis talks to himself in the mirror.' Robert De Niro improvised the entire monologue. He took a common tough-guy attitude and repeated it until it became unhinged and rhythmic. It is one of the most famous improvised scenes in cinema history, perfectly showing Travis's isolation and his fantasy of confrontation.
The Mohawk marks Travis's final transition from a depressed loner into a soldier on a suicide mission. De Niro suggested the haircut based on what US special forces soldiers would do before going on dangerous commando raids in Vietnam. It signifies that he has declared war on the 'filth' of the city and expects to die in the process.
The final shootout is shockingly violent and messy. Scorsese desaturated the colors in post-production (making the blood look brownish) to avoid an X-rating, but the impact remains visceral. It shows the ugliness of violence, contrasting with Travis's romanticized view of being a 'hero.' He isn't a clean action star; he is a clumsy, injured man stumbling through a slaughter.
The film deliberately leaves this ambiguous. He saves a child prostitute (Iris), which is heroic, but he also plotted to assassinate a presidential candidate. The media at the end hails him as a hero, which is Scorsese's satirical jab at society: we celebrate violent men if they target the 'right' people. Deep down, Travis is a ticking time bomb who just got lucky with his target.
Shot during a garbage strike and heatwave in the 70s, the New York of *Taxi Driver* is a hellscape of steam, neon, trash, and sleaze. The cinematography emphasizes the 'night animals'—pimps, pushers, and junkies. The environment reflects Travis's internal rot; he sees the city as a sewer that needs to be flushed, projecting his own self-hatred onto the streets.

Movie data and posters powered by

The Movie DatabaseThe Movie Database (TMDB)

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Curated by Filmiway Editorial Team

Expert analysis of psychological thrillers

Share: