Editing Taxi Driver (section)

===Development===
[[Martin Scorsese]] has stated that it was [[Brian De Palma]] who introduced him to [[Paul Schrader]],{{sfn|Wilson|2011|p=51}} and ''Taxi Driver'' arose from Scorsese's feeling that movies are like dreams or drug-induced reveries. He attempted to evoke within the viewer the feeling of being in a limbo state between sleeping and waking.

Scorsese cites [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[The Wrong Man]]'' (1956) and Jack Hazan's ''[[A Bigger Splash (1973 film)|A Bigger Splash]]'' (1973) as inspirations for his camerawork in the movie.<ref name="Ian Christie 1989">{{cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=David|author-link1=David M. Thompson|last2=Christie|first2=Ian|author-link2=Ian Christie (film scholar)|url=https://archive.org/details/scorseseonscorse0000scor|title=Scorsese on Scorsese|publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]|location=[[New York City]]|isbn=0571220029|date=1989|page=63}}</ref>

Scorsese also noted that Jef Costello (a solitary hitman), portrayed by [[Alain Delon]] in ''[[Le Samouraï]]'', inspired the creation of Travis Bickle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le Samouraï (1967) - Ritz Cinemas |url=https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/movies/le-samoura-1967 |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=www.ritzcinemas.com.au |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bhuiya |first=Hannah |date=2024-04-23 |title=Sympathy for the Assassin |url=https://www.artforum.com/columns/film-sympathy-for-the-assassin-552703/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Furzan |first=Federico |date=2024-08-18 |title=Legendary French Actor Alain Delon Dies Aged 88 |url=https://movieweb.com/alain-delon-death/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=MovieWeb |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kreps |first=Daniel |date=2024-08-18 |title=Alain Delon, French Actor Who Starred in 'Le Samourai,' Dead at 88 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/alain-delon-french-actor-le-samourai-dead-obituary-1235082472/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=LE SAMOURAÏ – ABCD Film Society |url=https://abfilms.org.uk/screenings/special-event-le-samourai-jan-12th/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-06 |title=How a French film 'Le Samourai' has been an inspiration to many films |url=https://www.theindianwire.com/entertainment/how-a-french-film-le-samourai-has-been-an-inspiration-to-many-films-276544/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=The Indian Wire |language=en-GB}}</ref> The role was, in fact, offered to Alain Delon, among many others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le Samourai: Alain Delon and Jean-Pierre Melville's Masterpiece |url=https://usa.tv5monde.com/en/blog/le-samourai-alain-delon-and-jean-pierre-melville-s-masterpiece-1186384 |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=TV5MONDE États-Unis |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Taxi Driver |url=https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/TaxiDriver |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=TV Tropes}}</ref>

Before Scorsese was hired, [[John Milius]] and [[Irvin Kershner]] were considered to helm the project.<ref name="The Untold Truth of Taxi Driver">{{cite web |url=https://www.looper.com/1016894/the-untold-truth-of-taxi-driver/ |title=The Untold Truth of Taxi Driver |date=September 20, 2022 |access-date=June 30, 2023 |archive-date=June 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630234622/https://www.looper.com/1016894/the-untold-truth-of-taxi-driver/ |url-status=live}}</ref> When writing the script, Schrader drew inspiration from the diaries of [[Arthur Bremer]] (who shot presidential candidate [[George Wallace]] in 1972<ref name="Rausch" />), as well as the [[Harry Chapin]] song "[[Taxi (Harry Chapin song)|Taxi]]", which is about an old girlfriend getting into a taxi.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Richard |date=March–April 1976 |title=Interview: Paul Schrader |url=https://www.filmcomment.com/article/paul-schrader-richard-thompson-interview/ |journal=[[Film Comment]] |pages=6–19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614222918/https://www.filmcomment.com/article/paul-schrader-richard-thompson-interview/ |archive-date=June 14, 2021 |access-date=March 18, 2022}}</ref> For the ending of the story, in which Bickle becomes a media hero, Schrader was inspired by [[Sara Jane Moore]]'s [[Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in San Francisco|attempted assassination]] of President [[Gerald Ford]], which resulted in her being on the cover of ''[[Newsweek]]''.<ref>{{Citation|title=Taxi Driver (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)|type=DVD, Audio Commentary|publisher=Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|date=August 14, 2007}}</ref>

Schrader also used himself as inspiration. In a 1981 interview with [[Tom Snyder]] on ''[[The Tomorrow Show]]'', he related his experience of living in New York City while battling chronic insomnia, which led him to frequent pornographic bookstores and theaters because they remained open all night. Following a divorce and a breakup with a live-in girlfriend, he spent a few weeks living in his car.

After visiting a hospital for a [[Peptic ulcer disease|stomach ulcer]], Schrader wrote the screenplay for ''Taxi Driver'' in "under a fortnight". He stated, "The first draft was maybe 60 pages, and I started the next draft immediately, and it took less than two weeks." Schrader recalled, "I realized I hadn't spoken to anyone in weeks [...] that was when the metaphor of the taxi occurred to me. That is what I was: this person in an iron box, a coffin, floating around the city, but seemingly alone."

Schrader decided to make Bickle a Vietnam vet because the [[national trauma]] of the war seemed to blend perfectly with Bickle's paranoid [[psychosis]], making his experiences after the war more intense and threatening.<ref>"Travis gave punks a hair of aggression." ''Toronto Star'' February 12, 2005: H02</ref> Two drafts were written in ten days.{{sfn|Wilson|2011|p=50}} ''[[Pickpocket (film)|Pickpocket]]'', a film by the French director [[Robert Bresson]], was also cited as an influence.<ref>{{cite web |last=Thurman |first=John |url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/37/taxi_driver/ |title=Citizen Bickle, or the Allusive Taxi Driver: Uses of Intertextuality |publisher=Sensesofcinema.com |date=April 5, 1976 |access-date=May 14, 2024 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128221305/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/37/taxi_driver/ |archive-date=January 28, 2012}}</ref>

In ''Scorsese on Scorsese'', Scorsese mentions the religious [[Iconography|symbolism]] in the story, comparing Bickle to a saint who wants to cleanse or purge both his mind and his body of weakness. Bickle attempts to kill himself near the end of the movie as a tribute to the [[samurai]]'s "[[Seppuku|death with honor]]" principle.<ref name="Ian Christie 1989" />

[[Dustin Hoffman]] was offered the role of Travis Bickle but turned it down because he thought that Scorsese was "crazy".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a81436/hoffman-turned-down-crazy-scorsese/ |title=Hoffman turned down 'crazy' Scorsese |work=Digital Spy |last=Dadds |first=Kimberley |date=December 10, 2017 |access-date=July 29, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=July 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722025603/https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a81436/hoffman-turned-down-crazy-scorsese/ }}</ref> [[Al Pacino]] and [[Jeff Bridges]] were also considered for Travis Bickle.<ref name="The Untold Truth of Taxi Driver" />