History Trivia / TaxiDriver

** Creator/MartinScorsese has said he offered the role of Travis Bickle to Creator/DustinHoffman. According to Hoffman, he turned the role down because he "thought [Scorsese] was crazy!" He has since regretted his decision. Other candidates included Creator/AlanAlda, Creator/WarrenBeatty, Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/JamesCaan, Creator/DavidCarradine, Creator/AlainDelon, Creator/RichardDreyfuss, Creator/PeterFonda, Creator/ElliottGould, Creator/GeorgeHamilton, Creator/PaulNewman, Creator/JackNicholson, Creator/RyanONeal, Creator/AlPacino, Creator/BurtReynolds, Creator/RoyScheider, Creator/MartinSheen, Creator/JonVoight Creator/ChristopherWalken, and Creator/MichaelYork.

* ReferencedBy: [[ReferencedBy/TaxiDriver has its own page]].

* DoingItForTheArt: Due to winning an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'' between signing on and filming, Creator/{{Columbia}} was briefly worried that they wouldn't be able to afford Creator/RobertDeNiro but he agreed to do the film for the same amount he'd signed on for despite the fact that he could have asked for much more.

** Creator/MartinScorsese has said he offered the role of Travis Bickle to Creator/DustinHoffman. According to Hoffman, he turned the role down because he "thought [Scorsese] was crazy!" He has since regretted his decision. Other candidates included Creator/AlanAlda, Creator/WarrenBeatty, Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/JamesCaan, Creator/DavidCarradine, Creator/AlainDelon, Creator/RichardDreyfuss, Creator/PeterFonda, Creator/ElliottGould, Creator/GeorgeHamilton, Creator/PaulNewman, Creator/JackNicholson, Creator/RyanONeal, Creator/AlPacino, Creator/BurtReynolds, Creator/RoyScheider, Creator/MartinSheen, Creator/JonVoight and Creator/ChristopherWalken.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/PaulSchrader wrote the role of Betsy with Creator/CybillShepherd in mind after he saw her breakout role in ''Film/TheLastPictureShow''.
** 1999's ''Bringing Out the Dead'', which once again had Creator/MartinScorsese directing a dark Creator/PaulSchrader screenplay about a lonely New Yorker whose job is to drive around at night and deal with the scummier side of the city (in this case, as an ambulance driver), can be considered one.

* CreatorBreakdown: The story was partially autobiographical for Creator/PaulSchrader, who suffered a nervous breakdown while living in Los Angeles. He was fired from the AFI, basically friendless, in the midst of a divorce and was rejected by a girlfriend. Squatting in his ex-girlfriend's apartment while she was away for a couple of months, Schrader literally didn't talk to anyone for many weeks, went to porno theaters and developed an obsession with guns. Schrader was working at the time as delivery man for a chain of chicken restaurants. Spending long days alone in his car, he felt--I might as well be a taxi driver. He also shared with Bickle the sense of isolation from being a mid-Westerner in an urban center.

* DoingItForTheArt: Due to winning an Oscar for ''The Godfather Part II'' between signing on and filming, Columbia was briefly worried that they wouldn't be able to afford Robert De Niro but he agreed to do the film for the same amount he'd signed on for despite the fact that he could have asked for much more.

** Creator/MelanieGriffith was the first choice for Iris, but her mother, Creator/TippiHedren, wouldn't let her do it. Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/LindaBlair, Creator/KimCattrall, Creator/BoDerek, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/MarielHemingway, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Creator/KirstyMcNichol, Creator/TatumONeal, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/BrookeShields and Creator/DebraWinger were also considered.

** Creator/MelanieGriffith was the first choice for Iris, but her mother, Creator/TippiHedren, wouldn't let her do it. Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/LindaBlair, Creator/KimCattrall, Creator/BoDerek, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/MarielHemingway, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Creator/KirstyMcNihol, Creator/TatumONeal, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/BrookeShields and Creator/DebraWinger were also considered.

** Creator/MelanieGriffith was the first choice for Iris, but her mother, Creator/TippiHedren, wouldn't let her do it. Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/LindaBlair, Creator/KimCattrall, Creator/BoDerek, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/MarielHemingway, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/BrookeShields and Creator/DebraWinger were also considered.
** Creator/MiaFarrow reportedly wanted the role of Betsy but Creator/MartinScorsese turned her down. Creator/GlennClose, Creator/FayeDunaway, Creator/FarrahFawcett, Creator/GoldieHawn, Creator/AnjelicaHuston, Creator/LizaMinnelli, Creator/SusanSarandon, Creator/JaneSeymourActress, Creator/MerylStreep and Creator/SigourneyWeaver also turned it down.

** The story was originally set in L.A. It was changed to New York because there are more taxis there.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: Creator/PaulSchrader used himself as inspiration; in a 1981 interview with Tom Snyder on the "Tomorrow" show, Schrader related his experience living in New York City while battling chronic insomnia, which led him to frequent pornographic bookstores and theaters because they remained open all night. Following a divorce and a breakup with a live-in girlfriend, he spent a few weeks living in his car. After visiting a hospital for a stomach ulcer, Schrader wrote the screenplay for Taxi Driver in "under a fortnight", recalling that "When I was talking to the nurse, I realised I hadn't spoken to anyone in weeks ... that was when the metaphor of the taxi occurred to me. That is what I was: this person in an iron box, a coffin, floating round the city, but seemingly alone".

* DoingItForTheArt: Due to winning an Oscar between signing on and filming, Columbia was briefly worried that they wouldn't be able to afford Robert De Niro but he agreed to do the film for the same amount he'd signed on for despite the fact that he could have asked for much more.

** Creator/MelanieGriffith was the first choice for Iris, but her mother, Creator/TippiHendren, wouldn't let her do it. Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/LindaBlair, Creator/KimCattrall, Creator/BoDerek, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/MarielHemingway, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/BrookeShields and Creator/DebraWinger were also considered.

** Creator/MelanieGriffith was the first choice for Iris, but her mother, Tippi Hendren, wouldn't let her do it. Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/LindaBlair, Creator/KimCattrall, Creator/BoDerek, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/MarielHemingway, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/BrookeShields and Creator/DebraWinger were also considered.

* AFIS100Years100HeroesAndVillains:
** #30 Villain, Travis Bickle
* AFIS100Years100MovieQuotes:
** #10, "You talkin' to me?"
* AFIS100Years100Movies: #47
** AFIS100Years100Movies10THAnniversaryEdition: #52
* AFIS100Years100Thrills: #22

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: And not just because of the fashions. At the time it was filmed, New York City was America's crime capital, the city was effectively bankrupt, and Watergate was still fresh on the public mind. Not to mention there's a brief scene in a porno cinema.

* ReferencedBy:
** Music/TheClash {{Sampl|ing}}ed Travis' "wash the scum off the streets" speech for their song "Red Angel Dragnet" on their 1982 album ''Combat Rock''.
** [[Music/HenryRollins Rollins Band]]'s "Disconnect" video is modeled on the film, with Henry Rollins in the Travis Bickle role.
** ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013'' has a cutscene where Lo Wang shaves his head while lampshading he is giving himself an ImportantHaircut, like in ''Taxi Driver''.
** The "You talkin' to me?" scene has been referenced to oblivion, examples including ''Film/BackToTheFuture3'', ''Film/LaHaine'', and ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle''.
** ''Film/{{Joker}}'' copies a number of elements from the film, such as the handgun gesture and the diary-keeping (to say nothing of the setting and ending).
** Sheev Palpatine, the most important villain in the entire Franchise/StarWars franchise, was named after Senator Palantine.

* AFIS100Years100Movies: #47.