What You Probably Didn't Know About Taxi Driver (1976)

Hello everybody and welcome to another installment of What You Probably Didn't Know About. This time around I tell you things you might know have known about 1976's Taxi Driver. Let's begin.








1. Martin Scorsese has said that he offered the role of Travis Bickle to Dustin Hoffman. According to Hoffman, the reason why he turned down the role was because he thought Scorsese was crazy. He has since regretted this.







2. When the movie was being made there was a garbage strike going on. So much of the trash you see in the movie is real.








3. When Scorsese was filming his cameo he had to sit on a blanket in order to see over the front seat.








4. Robert De Niro studied Midwest dialects in order for Travis Bickle to have a flat voice.








5. Jodie Foster was only twelve years old when the movie was being made. Which means she couldn't do any explicited scenes, so her older sister (Connie. Who was ninteen at the time the movie was being filmed) acted as her body double for those scenes.








6. Some of the illegal things Easy Andy was listing was improved by Steven Prince.

7. Taxi Driver's shooting schedule was set for forty-five days but would later go five days over schedule.








8. Martin Scorsese was very reclutant to edit the climactic shoot-out to a avoid an X rating. However he was shocked by the MPAA's changes because they made the scene even more shocking than what he originally intended.

9. Steven Spielberg once visited the music recording session and told the composer (Bernard Hermann) how much he admired his work. Hermann responded with "Oh yeah? Then why do you always use John Williams for your films?"

10. Robert De Niro claims the "You talkin' to me?" scene was inspired by Bruce Springsteen's banter with his audience in the mid 1970s.

11. Speaking of the "You talkin' to me?" line, it was voted the number 10 quote by the American Film Institute and number 8 of "The Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.

12. While filming near Time Square, Scorsese shot footage of protesters throwing smoke bombs at the theater showing of Coonskin (1975). He would later send the footage to Ralph Bakshi (the director of Coonskin) to which Bakshi would say "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

13. The restaurant where Travis and the other taxi drivers eat at was a real-life hangout for cabbies, it was called Belmore Cafeteria. It has since been demolished and turned into an apartment building but it still keeps the Belmore name.

14. It was the last movie to feature Columbia Pictures' "Torch Lady" logo in her classic appearance.

15. While only a few changes were made to Paul Schrader's script from the first draft to the final one, Martin Scorsese allowed a lot of improvisation in the final cut.

Okay everyone that's going to do it for me. Do come back on Saturday, Jun 6th for my review of the newest Netflix movie, The Last Days of American Crime. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.