Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is a 1976 American motion picture drama directed by Martin Scorsese.

Influence

John Hinckley, Jr.

Taxi Driver was reportedly part of a delusional fantasy on the part of John Hinckley, Jr. which triggered his attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, an act for which he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. His stated reason was that the act was an attempt to impress Jodie Foster by mimicking Travis' mohawked appearance at the Palantine rally.

Related Topics:
John Hinckley, Jr. - Ronald Reagan - 1981 - Not guilty by reason of insanity - Jodie Foster

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Travis in pop culture

• The Clash song "Red Angel Dragnet" from their album, Combat Rock, refers to Bickle, and quotes dialogue from the film.
• Rancid's 2003 album Indestructible includes the song "Travis Bickle."
• The Scientists' song "If It's The Last Thing I Do" (a.k.a. "Travis") starts "Sometimes I feel like Travis Bickle/ Just wanna shoot up all the bad lurking in this town".
• The Narrator from the 1999 film Fight Club names himself "Travis" at one of his group meetings. Edward Norton decided to name himself in all the scenes after a classic Robert DeNiro character, but ended up adding other names as to make it less obvious.
• Millencolin's song "Botanic Mistress", from their album Home from Home, begins with the line "I felt like Travis Bickle, tyrannical, lonely and blue", and later in the song has "And I'll feel like Bickle once more, And maybe I will lose it, Go insane and start a gun war?!".
• The Beastie Boys reference Travis Bickle in the song "High Plains Drifter"
• Pantera use sounds and dialogue from movie in their song "The Badge" from The Crow soundtrack.
• The Simpsons's bartender, Moe Szyslak, practices his De Niro impressions on a mirror at night.
• In 2005, World Wrestling Entertainment parodied De Niro's "You talkin' to me?" scene in a advertisement for their event WrestleMania 21.
• Xzibit's album At The Speed Of Life includes sounds and dialogue from the movie in his song "The Foundation".
• Lou Reed's song "Doin' the things that we want to" off his New Sensations album includes the line, "Here's to Travis Bickle and here's to Johnny Boy growin' up on the mean streets of New York." This is a reference to Robert DeNiro's earlier performance in Scorsese's film Mean Streets.
• The introduction to NON's 3 July 1989 concert in Osaka, Japan (released on the In the Shadow of the Sword album and the Total War video), samples the "Listen, you fuckers..." monologue.
• Chris Farley's hotel scene in Beverly Hills Ninja portrays him practicing his De Niro impression on a mirror, with some improvisation.
• In British comedy That Peter Kay Thing, the episode featuring embittered ice cream salesman Mr Softy features a scene where Softy (played by Peter Kay) laments the detirioration of ice-cream salesmanship in Bolton, in terms similar, though more subdued, to Travis' laments upon New York. Throughout his speech, the actual incidental music from the film Taxi Driver plays in the background.
• Apollo 440's song 'Krupa' samples the street drummer's patter as he plays - "Now back to Gene Krupa's syncopated style" - the reference is to jazz drummer Gene Krupa.
• In Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film "La Haine" (Hate), one of the chief protagonists, Vinz, re-enacts Bickle's monologue in front of his mirror with a policeman's gun.