Filmmaker Martin Scorsese's and screenwriter Paul Schrader's gritty, disturbing, nightmarish modern film classic, that examines alienation in urban society. Scorsese's fourth film, combining elements of film noir, the western, horror and urban melodrama film genres, the film appeared after a decade of war in Vietnam, and after the Watergate crisis and President Nixon's resignation.

It explores the psychological madness within an obsessed, twisted, inarticulate, lonely anti-hero cab driver and Vietnam war veteran, who misdirectedly lashes out with frustrated anger and power like an exploding time bomb at the world that has alienated him.