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Reaction

Critical and box office reception

Filmed on a budget of $1.3 million, Taxi Driver was a financial success earning $28,262,574 in the United States,^[21] making it the 17th-highest-grossing film of 1976.

Roger Ebert instantly praised it as one of the greatest films he’d ever seen, claiming:

"Taxi Driver" is a hell, from the opening shot of a cab emerging from stygian clouds of steam to the climactic killing scene in which the camera finally looks straight down. Scorsese wanted to look away from Travis's rejection; we almost want to look away from his life. But he's there, all right, and he's suffering.^[22]

It was also nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (De Niro), and received the Palme d'Or, at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.^[23] It has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.^[24] The film was chosen by Time as one of the 100 best films of all time.^[25]

As of 2012, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 98% based on reviews from 60 critics.^[26]

The July/August 2009 issue of Film Comment polled several critics on the best films to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Taxi Driver placed first above films such as Il Gattopardo, Viridiana, Blowup, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, La Dolce Vita and Pulp Fiction.^[27]

In the American Film Institute's top 50 movie villains of all time, Bickle was named the 30th greatest film villain. Empire also ranked him 18th in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll.^[28]

Accolades

Legacy

Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, Light Sleeper, and The Walker make up a series referred to variously as the "Man in a Room" or "Night Worker" movies. Screenwriter Paul Schrader (who directed the other three films) has stated that he considers the central characters of the four films to be one character, who has changed as he has aged.^[29][30] The film also influenced the Charles Winkler film You Talkin' to Me?^[31]

You talkin' to me?

The catchphrase "You talkin' to me?" has become a pop culture icon. In 2005, it was chosen as #10 on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.^[32]

In the scene, Bickle is looking into a mirror at himself, imagining a confrontation which would give him a chance to draw his gun. He says the following line:

Roger Ebert called it "the truest line in the film... Travis Bickle's desperate need to make some kind of contact somehow—to share or mimic the effortless social interaction he sees all around him, but does not participate in."^[33]

Paul Schrader does not take credit for the line, saying that his script only read, "Travis speaks to himself in the mirror", and that De Niro improvised the dialogue. However, Schrader went on to say that De Niro's performance was inspired by a routine by "an underground New York comedian" whom he had once seen, possibly including his signature line.^[34]

In his 2009 memoir, saxophonist Clarence Clemons said De Niro explained the line's origins when Clemons coached De Niro to play the saxophone for the movie New York, New York.^[35] Clemons says De Niro had seen Bruce Springsteen say it onstage at a concert as fans were screaming his name, and decided to make the line his own.^[36]