Released on this day in 1976, the neo-noir drama by Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader set in a decaying New York City stars Robert De Niro as Marine veteran and taxi driver Travis Bickle and follows the decline of his mental health working nights in the metropolis with the supporting cast of Cybil Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks and Jodie Foster. 
Documenting his deterioration in a diary to combat his loneliness, chronic insomnia and intrusive violent thoughts, disgusted by the crime and exploitation he witnesses, punctuated with aphorism and affirmation, Bickle eventually channels his rage and frustration into an intense regimen of physical conditioning, and armed, embarks on a mission of vigilantism, first in a foiled assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, after having his overtures for one of the politician’s campaign staff, Betsy (Shepherd) rebuffed and then killing the pimp (Keitel) of child prostitute Iris (Foster) and freeing her—an act for which Bickle is hailed as a hero. Despite being blamed for inspiring the shooting of Ronald Reagan by John Hickley Jr (the elevation of the anti-hero—the role offered to Dustin Hoffman originally with Al Pacino and Jeff Bridges also in consideration) itself inspired by the media treatment of Sara Jane Moore’s assassination attempt on Gerald Ford), the film’s acclaim has been a constant over the ensuing decades.
