Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver features one of the most memorable scenes and lines in film history, and the inspiration behind it is actually quite surprising. Martin Scorsese’s big break arrived in 1973 with the crime movie Mean Streets, which set the tone and style for most of Scorsese’s career. Three years later, he surprised the audience with another crime movie: Taxi Driver, starring Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, who went on to become part of pop culture, in big part, thanks to one particular scene and its dialogue.
Taxi Driver follows Travis Bickle, an ex-marine and Vietnam veteran working as a taxi driver in New York City. Travis suffers from PTSD, lives alone, and struggles with chronic insomnia, and his mental state deteriorates throughout the movie. Travis becomes disgusted with the crime and decay that he witnesses in the city every night, and dreams of getting rid of “the scum” in the streets. In one scene, Travis is looking at himself in the mirror, imagining a confrontation in which he draws his gun, delivering the now classic line “are you talkin’ to me?”. This was improvised by De Niro, and the source of inspiration was none other than “The Boss” himself, Bruce Springsteen.
How Bruce Springsteen Inspired Taxi Driver’s Most Famous Line
According to Scorsese himself, he drew inspiration for the mirror scene in Taxi Driver from the 1967 movie Reflections in a Golden Eye, where Marlon Brando’s character is facing the mirror and talking to himself. Later, Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader confirmed De Niro improvised the dialogue but said he was inspired by the performance of an underground comedian from New York. However, in 2009, saxophonist Clarence Clemons claimed in his memoir that De Niro explained the origin of the “are you talkin’ to me?” line during the production of Scorsese’s New York, New York, revealing he got it from Bruce Springsteen, who used to say the line onstage at his concerts.
Still, there’s some uncertainty around the origin of Taxi Driver’s most famous line. According to Variety, Springsteen used the line during his “Quarter to Three” rap at the Bottom Line shows, which happened after Taxi Driver finished filming. It’s possible that The Boss used the line before at the Roxy, thus inspiring De Niro to use it in Taxi Driver, but not even Springsteen himself is sure. During a conversation with Scorsese at a private Netflix event in 2019, Springsteen said he believes it’s all an urban myth, with Scorsese replying that it might be true because they never knew where it came from – and, of course, De Niro was too busy at that moment to pick up the phone and clear this up.
Why Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle Became So Popular
Travis Bickle gave De Niro an Academy Award nomination for his performance, and his role as an anti-hero made him widely popular with the audience. The complexity of Travis’ character along with Scorsese’s visual narrative made the character and Taxi Driver a success and a classic, but the character has also been surrounded by controversy – which, ultimately, has also added to his popularity. In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan in order to impress Jodie Foster, inspired by Bickle’s actions in the movie. Bickle has also inspired various art installations, songs, and other characters in movies, most notably Arthur Fleck in Joker. Travis Bickle is seen as the quintessential antihero, and few characters can compare to him.
