The Making Of Taxi Driver

In Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), the Vietnam vet turned New York taxi driver, Scorsese created a character who summed up perfectly the seething discontents of an American still traumatised by Vietnam and Watergate. In the context of director Martin Scorsese’s many influences that led to “Taxi Driver”, from Dostoevsky novels to John Ford westerns and film noir thrillers, and the film’s subsequent impact on the work of countless later directors, “The Making Of Taxi Driver” explores how this modern classic came together. And, looking at some of the myths surrounding the movie, asks why, 30 years on it still has such resonance with contemporary audiences.