50 Years Later, Martin Scorsese's First Masterpiece Is More Relevant Than Ever

50 years after its release, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Deniro's iconic noir thriller transcends its own legacy

Rocky makes it clear that without boxing, its title character would likely continue muscling around Philadelphia on behalf of loan sharks, despite his generally good nature. It’s harder to tell whether Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), the antihero at the center of Taxi Driver, is being kept from similar criminal activity by the cabbie job we see him attain early in the movie, or if that experience radicalizes him further, nudging him toward vigil…

50 Years Later, Martin Scorsese's First Masterpiece Is More Relevant Than Ever

Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock“Someday, a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.”The most haunting imagery in Taxi Driver — Martin Scorsese’s classic psychological drama — tends to involve firearms, whether real or imagined. In intimate moments and public confrontations, former U.S. Marine Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), now an insomniac cabbie, points real guns and L-shaped fingers at himself and others, perhaps most memorably…

‘Taxi Driver’ at 50: Paul Schrader on the controversial film’s enduring legacy: ‘You cannot plan to hit the zeitgeist’

Written during a dark period in Schrader's life, the Martin Scorsese–directed, Robert De Niro–starring classic earned four Oscar nominations.

50 Years Later, Martin Scorsese & Robert De Niro’s Greatest Masterpiece Has Aged Like Fine Wine

Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese have collaborated on 10 movies, but their greatest work is now more relevant than when it was first released.

Approaching Menace: The American Pathology of Martin Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver’—Revisiting a Masterpiece on Its 50th Anniversary

Taxi Driver poster art by Tony Stella https://www.tony-stella.com/ Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man. —Travis Bickle By Tim Pelan Many rightly attribute Taxi Driver’s success to screenwriter Paul Schrader, director Martin Scorsese, and method leading man