History Film / TaxiDriver

* ConsummateLiar: Travis. Even his diary entries are at odds with what you see happening onscreen (e.g. he claims to be clean, but we see him popping pills and drinking). See UnreliableNarrator, below.

* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: Famously, the "You talkin' to me?" scene was only scripted as Travis looking at himself in the mirror and perhaps talking to himself; it was De Niro's idea to have invoked the famous line.

* Spiritual Successor:
** 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.
** The film itself is one to ''Film/TheSearchers''. Both films centering around returning soldiers from war whose violent tendencies and disdain for much of the world around them causes them much isolation. The climax with Travis attempting to rescue Iris from Sport, someone he perceives to be subhuman, is a transplanting of the basic premise of the ''The Searchers'' from 1870s Texas to 1970s New York City.

* TheBigRottenApple:
** Travis, as a night cab driver sees the worst side of New York. "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."

** Travis has a large scar on his back. Obviously, there are many ways to be injured in civilian life, but a likely interpretation given the rest of his sstory is that it's due to a combat injury.
** The PTSD also backs up this claim; many war vets come back with major trauma.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: Screenwriter Paul Schrader and director Scorsese's interpretation is that Travis, for all his hatred of New York's low-life environment, actually likes it and wants to be a part of it but is too full of self-hatred to actually let go. Specifically he hates child-trafficking pimps while he himself fights his attraction to Iris, strongly disapproving when [[spoiler:she tries to initiate oral sex on him]].

* AssholeVictim: We're not supposed to cheer the carnage, but Travis' victims (Robbers and pimps) do fall under this category.

* PaedoHunt: Implied, according to screenwriter Paul Schrader and director Scorsese's interpretation of Travis, Travis is attracted to Iris but is too self-righteous and self-loathing to act on it.

** Travis Bickle is named after Mick Travis, Creator/MalcolmMcDowell's character in Lindsay Anderson's films ''Film/{{If}}'' and ''O Lucky Man'' (and later ''Britannia Hospital''). Also, in one scene in ''O Lucky Man'', [=McDowell=] wears suspenders with no shirt, as [=DeNiro=] does in one scene here.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.]]''[[note]]Original poster by Guy Peellaert.[[/note]]]]

See also ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'', another Scorsese-directed film about a mentally-ill loner, now in BlackComedy flavor.

!!''Are you troping to me?'':

* AntiHero: Travis Bickle practically ''invented'' the modern anti-hero. Travis is a NominalHero. The guy's a nut, but hardly a malicious one.

* AntiVillain: Travis is a [[WellIntentionedExtremist Type III]].

* MoralDissonance: Thanks for shooting up that den of prostitutes, you heroic rogue. Screenwriter Schrader said on DVD commentary that the fact that Bickle was worshipped as a hero was meant to be ironic, and that he would ''not'' be a hero when he snapped again (the cymbal crash and the look in his eyes in the rearview mirror at the end implied that he was as unstable as ever).

* NeverMyFault: He blames society for the constant headaches from opening his window but he never addresses the possibility that his bad diet is what's causing his headaches.

* AmbiguousDisorder: There's something really off about Travis. He has immense difficulty speaking to others and socializing, tends to see people in black and white terms, suffers from insomnia and mentions taking pills in addition to drinking a lot, tries to be charming but often comes across as vaguely creepy instead, has a frightening capacity for violence simmering just below the surface and he is heavily implied to be suicidal. It's been stated by psychologists that Travis likely suffers from [[http://www.disorders.org/personality-disorders/paranoid-schizoid-schizotypal/ Schizotypal personality disorder]]. That's in addition to the fact that he likely has some level of PTSD from his [[ShellShockedVeteran military service]]. The fact that he lies to his parents about his life also opens up the possibility of some issues there.

** Movie billboards are seen for ''[[Creator/ClintEastwood The Eiger Sanction]]'', ''Film/DrNo'', and possibly ''Film/TheWindAndTheLion'' (The billboard advertised Creator/SeanConnery).
** Looking closely at one of the newspaper clippings at end of the film mentions Harry Kilmer as President of the Manhattan Cab Company. Harry Kilmer was the name of Robert Mitchum's private detective character in ''Film/TheYakuza'', which was writer Paul Schrader's first screenplay.

** Travis himself makes more than a few misogynistic and homophobic remarks when describing his disgust with New York City, and given the film is presented from his point-of-view, that most of the criminals shown in the film are black probably says quite a bit about his views in that department as well. At one point he even describes black people as "spooks", a racial slur.

* SpiritualSuccessor:

* DyingDream: A common theory about the ending, since [[spoiler:Travis is let off for brutally murdering multiple people in front of a 12-year old girl, reunites said 12-year-old girl with her parents, gets his brief girlfriend back, and ''keeps his job with the cab company''.]] WordOfGod says no, however.

* BaldOfAwesome: Travis is perhaps the only man in cinematic history to pull off a mohawk.

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Sport puts on a record while slow dancing with Irish that has the principal soundtrack themee.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guy_peellaert_taxi_driver.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:''[[{{Tagline}} On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.]]''[[note]]Original poster by Guy Peellaert.[[/note]]]]

* ChekhovsGun: Travis uses every single weapon he buys.

* 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.
* The film itself is one to ''Film/TheSearchers''. Both films centering around returning soldiers from war whose violent tendencies and disdain for much of the world around them causes them much isolation. The climax with Travis attempting to rescue Iris from Sport, someone he perceives to be subhuman, is a transplanting of the basic premise of the ''The Searchers'' from 1870s Texas to 1970s New York City.

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Travis does try to do the right thing but it never sticks; he tries to get help but the only person he can talk to is Wizard but doesn't get the answer he needs to hear, he quits some bad habits (i.e. drinking drugs, and trying exercise) but he does this so he is better prepared for his violent responses to what he sees as injustice, and [[spoiler: while he did save Iris (and the other children) from child prostitution by killing the pimp and anyone who tries to stop him, his methods deeply traumatized her and there was nothing stopping Travis from simply going to the police to report them instead of using vigilante justice.]]

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Travis does try to do the right thing but it never sticks; he tries to get help but the only person he can talk to is Wizard but doesn't get the answer he needs to hear, he quits some bad habits (i.e. drinking drugs, and trying exercise) but he does this so he is better prepared for his violent responses to what he sees as injustice. [[spoiler: While he did save Iris (and the other children) from child prostitution by killing the pimp and pedophiles, his methods deeply traumatized her and there was nothing stopping Travis from simply going to the police to report them instead of using vigilante justice.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Tom and Betsy.

* SpiritualSuccessor: 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.