Martin Scorsese Says Every Page of “Taxi Driver ”Script Was 'Like a Razor Blade'

Meredith Wilshere, Desiree AnelloSat, June 20, 2026 at 9:58 PM UTC

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Robert DeNiro in 'Taxi Driver'Credit: FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty -

Martin Scorsese was drawn to the Taxi Driver script for its tight writing and deeply relatable main character

Scorsese shared how Fyodor Dostoevsky's works, especially Notes from Underground, influenced his understanding of Travis Bickle

Robert De Niro also said he connected with Bickle's struggles and praised the script's unique portrayal of the disaffected taxi driver

When Martin Scorsese first read the Taxi Driver script, it was hard for him to put it down.

To celebrate the film's 50th anniversary, the 83-year-old director was joined by screenwriter Paul Schrader and actors Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster in a conversation moderated by W. Kamau Bell at the Tribeca Festival in New York City.

When asked what drew Scorsese to the project, the Oscar winner replied, "Purely the character and the writing of it. The script is so tight and so strong, and turning the pages ... each page is like a razor blade, you had to be very careful."

When he read the script, he found himself thinking, "I could do this."

"I said, I know this. I know who he is," the director added.

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Scorsese explained that he had always wanted to make Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler into a movie after being inspired by a few Russian novels as a kid, one of which was Notes from Underground, the same work that Schrader had in mind when writing the Taxi Driver script.

Scorsese told the audience that he was intrigued by Travis Bickle's "resentment, the anger, the grinding up of his insides, his humiliation, being insulted and humiliated, all of that came to me as I read Travis."

Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese on the set of the film 'Taxi Driver', 1976Credit: Columbia Pictures/Getty

De Niro, for his part, noted that he saw the same things in Bickle — the disaffected taxi driver whose mental health is crumbling as he works the night shift — and "identified with [him] in ways."

"There was something special about the way Paul had written it and the character," the 82-year-old said. "But I had no idea what impact the film would have."

In addition to De Niro, the film starred Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris and Albert Brooks.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”