I waited a long time to see this movie. I only knew that it was the film that John Hinckley watched before he tried to murder Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster. Hinckley pretty much tries to do a De Niro in real life, but it's here that De Niro really makes a name for himself. After a few years of low budget films, and slowly working up the chain with "Bang The Drum Slowly", and "The Godfather 2" He tackles the character of Travis Bickle with reckless abandon. Bickle is a Veitnam vet who after serving over there is lost in America, and he drifts into a taxi-cab company one day to drive a cab. This is 70's America put on film masterfully by Scorsese as I like the clouds of smoke coming from the cab which reminds me of dream sequence. The dream is dead as no one wants to be the hero anymore. Veitnam has hardened America's hearts and minds. However, the same people that "Turned On, Tuned In, and Dropped Out" are still doing it in the 70's, but this time they do it from behind a desk as they are now no longer dirty hippies, but clean-cut businessmen, and women. They have now taken the stance that it just doesn't matter anymore. I see this as Bickle sees the drek that NYC has become, and how people just don't want to deal with you, or know your pain unless you do something for them, and this is evident when Bickle sees Betsy played by Cybill Shepphard. Betsy is a campaign manager for the canadate for the President of the United States, and Bickle wants to volunteer, but to get close to Betsy. Well anyway it's 1976, and Veitnam has been over for a year, and the Christian revival that went down in Dallas in 1972 has waned out, and this is what we're left with as Bickle has 1,001 nightmares in the backseat of his cab, but the one that touches him the most is a 12 year old prostitute played by Foster who had only done Disney movies before this. Bickle decides to help her out, and gives her money, and then does the next big thing which is to kill her pimp which gives him 15 minutes of fame, and he is labelled as a hero for doing this. I feel that this is what was going on in Hinckley's mind when he went to D.C. to murder Reagan as Reagan in his first months as President would make alot of changes that are still rippling through America today, and some aren't for the better. I guess this is why "Rocky" beat out "Taxi Driver" for best picture of 1976 because with "Rocky" it's about a person who came out of nowhere, and took on the champ in the boxing ring. This is what America had come up with to heal the wounds that Veitnam left on her as with "Rocky" it gave America something to cheer about again where "Taxi Driver" was about an Anti-Hero that killed bad to bring about good?, or did it? I mean it was bad enough that the main character served in Vietnam, but to make him a hero because he killed a pimp to save a 12 year old prostitute was not America's cup of tea back then. I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact that it showed the negatives, or what, but those who did go to Vietnam they deserve the honor and respect that all our servicemen deserve. Perhaps the final scene is rather memorable as Bickle picks up Betsy in his cab, and drives her home as she's going that way, and all of a sudden because he killed the pimp she's looking at him in a different light now as someone she may want to date. However, Bickle isn't buying it now as yes he made a mistake by taking her to porno movie, but after he tries to apologize to her, and make things right it takes him killing a pimp to get her to think differently about him well that's too much. This is a movie not for the kids definitely, and probably not for some adults either. It's a taste of how Americans, and humans in general have been pretty much isolating themselves from each other for one reason, or another, and it's a sad thing to see happen, and over 30 years later it's still happening, and in some ways it's worse today than it was in 1976.