Martin Scorsese cemented himself as a legend when he made the psychological noir drama Taxi Driver. The film starring Robert De Niro saw him play Travis Bickle, a Vietnam War veteran who struggles to assimilate into society after he returns and starts working as a taxi driver in New York.
Scorsese, a major film buff, has often mentioned that his influences for the film were Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man and the documentary A Bigger Splash. Recently, Scorsese revealed on his Letterboxd account that the Irving Lerner film Murder By Contract was something he derived from while making his classic film.
What Is Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver About?
The legendary Martin Scorsese has many classic films to his name now, but it all started when he made the profound neo-noir drama Taxi Driver. The film starred Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, in his second collaboration with the director. The film was written by Paul Schrader, who reportedly based parts of it on his own experiences with loneliness in New York.
Scorsese mentioned that he wanted to make a film that felt like a dream and Taxi Driver was the perfect choice for the feeling. The film follows the internal monologue of a Vietnam War veteran turned taxi driver who cruises the streets of New York, struggling to find the good in the society he risked his life for.
The film was reportedly made on a shoestring budget of $1.9 million, with many taking pay cuts to ensure the film got made. While Scorsese initially approached actors like Dustin Hoffman and Jeff Bridges to play the role, he ultimately cast De Niro, who prepared intensively.
De Niro reportedly lost 35 pounds and also registered himself as a taxi driver to delve into the character. For his haunting performance, he was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. The film was nominated for Best Picture, and co-star Jodie Foster was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
Martin Scorsese’s Influences While Making Taxi Driver
More than anything, Martin Scorsese is a huge fan of cinema. He recently took the internet by storm when he joined the popular movie cataloging website Letterboxd, while promoting his film Killers of the Flower Moon. He has since been writing about all the yesteryear classics that he was exposed to as a child.
In an article titled ‘Companion Film’, Scorsese spoke about the various films that would act as companion pieces to his own, being influenced by them in some form. While he has often revealed that his influences for Taxi Driver have been the films The Wrong Man and A Bigger Splash, he revealed that a particularly haunting film came to his aid when making his neo-noir drama.
The filmmaker references the Irving Lerner film Murder By Contract as the companion piece to his Taxi Driver, saying,
“I saw this low-budget independent picture about a hired killer on a double bill with The Journey by Anatole Litvak…The spareness, the single-mindedness of the killer (played by Vince Edwards), the ritualized quality of his preparation and his actions… it haunted me and came directly to mind when I made Taxi Driver.”
He also mentioned that he was particularly enthralled by the score that had a guitar as its main instrument. Scorsese revealed that the musical score of Murder By Contract influenced Howard Shore’s score for his 2006 crime drama The Departed, for which the director finally won his Oscar.
