Nicholas Caruso
Major Research Paper
Taxi Driver
The year is 1976. The music is at the top of it's game. The movies that we all adore and love are being born. The city of New York, refuses to sleep. The Yankees are in the World Series, The Son of Sam is roaming the streets, and the streets are on fire. The 1970's were a big time for New Yorkers, we were undergoing some serious changes and to be honest, most of them weren't very good. People tried to make it out of their neighborhoods, some tried to escape depression, some engulfed themselves in it. It was a tough time, and the people that lived through it will never forget it. But during this time, a movie was produced for the people, by a person that really understood the depression, that really understood what was going on: Paul Schrader.
Schrader was going through a tough time during the late 1970's, he had no job, no where to live, no family to go back to. He started writing, and he wrote about something that he thought people could really identify with. A taxi cab. The loneliness of the cab intrigued Schrader so much so that he decided he would write a full story about a taxi driver that can't take it anymore. So in essence, Tax Driver was made for the people of New York that were sick of the streets, that were sick of the people that were polluting their environment. It was made for the people that were depressed, that had jobs that paid nothing, that got you no recognition. Taxi Driver, is the way New Yorkers saw the city they lived in during the 1970's.
New York during the 1970's was a gritty, hard working, dark place to live in. There weren't any of these hipsters and modern day hippies we see today. There was just hard working people, living their hard working lives day in and day out. They did everything hardcore, to the fullest. There was no doing anything half way, it was either you did it with passion, or you didn't. People had to get their families out of rough neighborhoods somehow, and they did it by working multiple jobs and trying to do anything just to make ends meet. People in New York City during the 1970's were completely different then how they are today. They were relentless and didn't care if you were from out of town. If you didn't know where you were going, you didn't know, and no one would help you. It was every man for themselves.
The economy during the 1970's for New Yorkers set the standards of how they felt. How they lives was how they felt, really. If you lived in the projects, you weren't happy about that. If you were middle class, you were content, but still wanted to leave because you were right next to the projects. And the higher class is the only thing that pretty much hasn't changed since the 70's. The city was in a crisis, they had no money. It literally tumbled into a confused state and was declared bankrupt in 1976. With that happening, the welfare spending continued. So with no money left to spend on the economy, the city just spiraled out of control and the crime rate rose. Prostitution, drugs, rape, murder all went up significantly and by the end of the 1970's, which led to nearly a million people leaving the city. Here's a small chart, to show you how bad the crime rate was in the year 1976:
Forcible Aggravated Larceny- Vehicle
Year Population Index Violent Property Murder Rape Robbery assault Burglary Theft Theft
1976 18,084,000 1,125,739 156,988 968,751 1,969 4,663 95,718 54,638 318,919 516,328 133,504
This is where Taxi Driver comes in. In 1976 the movie was filmed during a heat wave and garbage strike, which really to me makes the movie so realistic. It just jumps right into the times and really throws you into the setting, and I'm sure the smell of the city helped the actors climb right into their rolls. Taxi Driver is a film about Travis Bickle, a 26 year old Vietnam war veteran who is now a taxi driver. He's socially inept, is tired of life, but most of all, he's tired of the people he sees on a day to day basis. Travis works the graveyard shift as a taxi driver and sees the worst of the worst. The junkies, pimps, criminals, the “scum of the Earth” as he says in the film. He becomes determined to clean the streets and rid the world of the slime that it produces on a day to day basis in the city that he lives in.
Over time, he becomes more and more paranoid and decides to act upon his dream of becoming a vigilante. He buys guns and begins to work out every day, he has become fully determined at this point and there's really not much that can stop him. He practices intimidating his foes in front of the mirror alongside his gun slinging skills. Travis goes so crazy that he decides he's going to assassinate a local presidential candidate. Now, not all New Yorkers would go this far to prove a point, but Travis Bickle spoke for the people. He was uninterested in the stupid things most people are interested in, he was much more interested in trying to prove a point, he went out there and got things done. He wasn't a hero, and he wasn't a villain, I'd classify him as an anti-hero. Probably, the best anti-hero ever created. Not only did Travis represent what New York secretly wanted, but he represented the Vietnam veterans, and how tough it was for them to return home and make an honest living with out going crazy in the streets that reminded them so much about the hell they had been through.
In the movie, you see many different examples of the scenery and culture around Travis, as he travels around New York City. At night, the pimps and thieves come out and hang around the same strip in Times Square. As he travels more up town towards Harlem and African-American neighborhoods, he is actually abused by the young black youth in the area as they throw garbage and sticks at his taxi. Also, the youth are constantly letting the water out of the fire hydrant, something children used to do predominantly back in the 1970's. These little key moments in the movie really set you back and definitely have a direct relationship with the time period it takes place in.
Another important aspect of the film that correlates with the time is the wardrobe. The way the people are dressed definitely shows you what kind of person they are. For example, the other taxi drivers along with Travis are very relaxed with the way they present themselves, just regular Joe's working a regular job. As you continue watching however, you see that the pimps and illegal lifers dress more upper class, flashy, and very distinct. There is definitely a way to spot them through out the movie, you just need to keep your eyes peeled.
The financial state of the city is also portrayed very, very realistically. The buildings are very decrepit, the people look depressed, and the money is short. In one specific scene, Travis goes to an adult movie theater and tries to start a conversation with the pretty woman behind the front concession stand. First thing that you notice represents the times are how anyone will work anywhere. This pretty woman is working behind the concession stand an adult film theater, no one would do that now, but at the time, money was tight, and you'd work anywhere you could. Now, here's the most important part of the scene. Travis decides he's going to buy the following items:
1)Chuckles(candy)
2)Jujus(candy)
3)A large box of popcorn
4)A chocolate bar
5)A fountain soda
How much would that cost in the year 2010? Probably about 11-15 dollars right? Guess how much Travis spends? $1.85. All on that. When I first saw this scene, I was shocked. I didn't know that things were THAT cheap back in the late 1970's. All of that food for that much is an absurd concept to me, and Taxi Driver to me, portrays how the economic times were during the 1970's. Another thing that is very accurate about the film and the time is the actual amount of money Travis makes. Through out the movie, it's not certain how much Travis makes, but from time to time, you see his little tin box of fares filled up with single's and five's. This is quiet accurate, and to prove it, I'll show you a piece of a graph:
Charge per
Initial Charge
Mileage Charge
Wait Time
Mile
Minute
Avg-fare
March 1977
$0.75 first 1/7 mi.
$0.10 per 1/7 mi.
$0.10 per 60 sec.
$0.70
$0.10
$3.09
July 1979
$.90 first 1/7 mi.
$0.10 per 1/7 mi.
$0.10 per 60 sec.
$0.70
$0.10
$3.24
Martin Scorsese wanted to make a statement with this movie. We understand what you're going through. He decided, let's not lie to the people of my city, let's go ahead and create a film in which they can see and say “Hey, I know that place, they didn't change it up at all!”. Because let's face it, people notice when you change the neighborhood they grew up in, or pass by every day. So to me, Taxi Driver is one of the most realistic movies in the way that Scorsese really kept the elements of New York at the time intact and definitely showed the world how bad it was. To this day, Taxi Driver is known for it's portrayal of New York City in the 1970's and it's portrayal of it's citizens at the time.
Works Cited
Browne, Jackson. "Taxi Driver (1976) - IMDb." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
"Taxi Driver: Information from Answers.com." Answers.com: Wiki Q&A combined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedias. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
"Taxi Driver: Its Influence on John Hinckley, Jr.." UMKC School of Law. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
"The New York City Taxicab Fact Book." The New York City Taxicab Fact Book. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
