Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 film from the USA, directed by Martin Scorsese, running 114 minutes. reelscum files it under vigilante.
- Year
- 1976 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 114 min
- Director
- Martin Scorsese
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (0/100)
Defined in the glossary: Vigilante
The same story told by people who knew the protagonist was unwell.
The vigilante film told by people who understood the vigilante is unwell. Travis Bickle drives nights through a New York he sees as filth, fixates on saving a child prostitute, and talks himself into violence as a form of meaning. Schrader wrote it, Scorsese directed it, and neither lets you off the hook.
De Niro's performance is definitive, Bernard Herrmann's final score is haunting, and the film's genius is that its bloody climax is received by the city as heroism, which is the most damning thing about it.
Not exploitation, but the film every vigilante picture is secretly measured against.
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Filed alongside
Dirty Harry
The vigilante with a badge. Pauline Kael called it fascist and was not wrong.
The Warriors
Barely exploitation, entirely brilliant. A subway ride as Greek epic.
Death Wish
Bronson as a liberal architect who buys a gun. A phenomenon, and reactionary.
Assault on Precinct 13
Carpenter remaking Rio Bravo for $100,000. The ice cream scene is still shocking.
Death Wish 3
Abandons realism entirely. Bronson defends a housing block with a machine gun.
I Saw the Devil
Revenge as a chew toy. Nobody in Korean cinema has been crueller for longer.
Maniac Cop
A dead cop stalks New York in uniform. Larry Cohen writes, Robert Z'Dar's jaw does the rest.
Class of 1984
Death Wish enrols at high school and the faculty loses.
The Exterminator
A flamethrower and a meat grinder. Death Wish with the restraint removed.
Walking Tall
One sheriff, one hickory club, and the blueprint for every Southern vigilante picture after it.
Ms. 45
Ferrara's best. Zoë Lund is extraordinary and the ending is a genuine image.
Coffy
Pam Grier's arrival. Jack Hill knows exactly what he has.