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Paul Schrader wrote Taxi Driver in an attempt to create his own Nausea (a book by Sartre). The influence of Scorsese and De Niro added a Dostoevskian element, and the result is one of the greatest cinematic portrayals of loneliness. Travis Bickle returns from Vietnam unable to sleep, friendless and so out of touch that he drives the streets at night to pass the time. He thus becomes a taxi driver so that he can be paid for his roaming. His first attempt at human contact, with the beautiful Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), fails when he takes her to a porno movie. His second attempt, with a pre-teen prostitute (Jodie Foster), ends with his determination to cleanse New York of its human vermin in a fantastically gory finale.
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