Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Celebrating its fortieth anniversary this week is Taxi Driver: Martin Scorsese‘s perennial New York noir following Robert De Niro as mentally unstable veteran, Travis Bickle. Still reeling from his service in Vietnam, the slowly unraveling Bickle nurses his insomnia with late-night taxi-driving shifts, steering his yellow cab through the seedy, red-lit streets of 1970’s New York City. His slow-brewing hate — towards the war, towards the mayor elect, towards the city itself — is propelled when he meets a young prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster).
The film, albeit incredibly controversial at the time, solidified the seriousness of Scorsese’s contribution to the New Hollywood era of cinema, which is defined by the film school generation’s riskier, anti-studio system projects. Though New York City has cleaned up its act substantially since Bickle’s time, Taxi Driver remains one of Scorsese’s most celebrated works and, perhaps, De Niro’s most iconic role.
And while we all know the story of the actor’s ad-libbing his infamous, “You talkin’ to me?” below is some trivia you may not have come across over the last forty years. Without further ado, here are ten things you probably didn’t know about Taxi Driver.
1977 was the strangest awards season...
Taxi Driver was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. It was up against Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men, Hal Ashby’s Bound for Glory, and Sidney Lumet’s Network. They all lost, however, to John G. Avildsen and Rocky.
Jodie Foster's sister acted as her body double.
Jodie Foster was just twelve years old at the time of filming and therefore, couldn’t partake in the production’s more explicit scenes. A 19-year-old Connie Foster, however, was hired on as her younger sister’s body double so Martin Scorsese could stick to the authenticity of Paul Schrader’s script.
Scorsese begged for Bernard Herrmann to score his movie.
Being that Scorsese is somewhat of a perfectionist, he needed the perfect score to accompany his anti-hero’s journey. The director called the legendary Bernard Herrmann, who got his start on Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, and was promptly turned down. Herrmann, who claimed he, “Doesn’t write music for car movies” later accepted the job after reading Shcrader’s screenplay. Dying shortly thereafter, Taxi Driver was the last project on which Herrmann worked.
John Hinckley made history in 1981, the day before De Niro won the Oscar.
Assassin John Hinckley, who was obsessed with Taxi Driver and the relationship between Bickle and Iris, tried to gun down President Ronald Reagan on Monday, March 30, 1981. Though President Reagan made it out safe and sound, the attempt postponed the Academy Awards that year by one day, which is, coincidentally, the same ceremony that honored Robert De Niro as Best Actor for his role in Scorsese’s boxing drama Raging Bull.
Jodie Foster had some serious competition.
Before Jodie Foster was cast as Iris, over 250 young actresses auditioned for the complex role, including a young Carrie Fisher, Kim Cattrall, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rosanna Arquette, and Mariel Hemingway.
Keitel and Foster share an unlikely character history.
Scorsese’s longtime collaborator, Harvey Keitel, plays Taxi Driver‘s despicable villain, Sport. Keitel, who was just getting his career rolling at the time, was reportedly hesitant to play such a potentially damning role, but made his penance with a character of Foster’s years later in 2002’s Red Dragon. In the less-acclaimed prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Keitel plays Clarice’s future mentor, Jack Crawford.
Scorsese and Cybil Shepherd did not mesh well on set.
In producer Julie Phillips’ autobiography, she reports that Robert De Niro was consistently fed up with Cybil Shepherd, who allegedly had to have lines fed to her throughout crucial scenes. Phillips also writes that her and editor Marcia Lucas used to laugh at all of the useless footage they had to scrap because of the actress’s absentmindedness on set.
Apple pie with cheese, please.
When Travis Bickle and Betsy (Shepherd) sit down for coffee and pie at the diner near campaign headquarters, De Niro orders a slice of apple pie with melted cheese on top. The actor was allegedly inspired by mentally ill serial killer, Ed Gein, who upon getting arrested in 1957, asked for the same exact order.
Writer Paul Schrader kept a gun close by for inspiration.
Schrader, who suffered a nervous breakdown prior to writing the script, channeled a few autobiographical experiences — frequenting porn theaters, obsessively studying guns — into his screenplay. While working, he reportedly kept a loaded pistol next to his typewriter for inspiration about Bickle’s character.
We'll never know how truly bloody the brothel was in the end.
In order to tone down the hyper violence of the brothel shootout, Scorsese worked with cinematographer Michael Chapman to mute the blood red colors of the frames, resulting in somewhat of a pinkish hue. When preparing the DVD years later, the director wanted to reinstall the vivid red, but sadly, an original print of that particular scene was lost.
