Release Date: February 8, 1976

The nightmarish, endlessly compelling Taxi Driver confirmed Scorsese's reputation as one of the foremost figures of the "Movie Brat" generation and provided Robert DeNiro with perhaps his most iconic movie role: Travis Bickle, a lonely, socially awkward, and dangerously volatile Vietnam vet turned late-night cabbie. DeNiro ad-libbed the movie's most famous line ("You talkin' to me?"), and Paul Schrader wrote the script (ominously, the Bickle character was partially based upon himself), but Scorsese pulled it all together, and the result is a haunted, unforgettable portrait of troubled masculinity and, by proxy, the urban malaise that plagued New York in the mid-1970s.

Bickle is an insomniac, and takes the graveyard shift driving a taxi around the city, frequently returning to Times Square. However, the more he sees during his nocturnal excursions, the more he seethes: he's disgusted by the pimps, prostitutes, and junkies that regularly line the sidewalks of his route. One ray of light comes in the form of Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a presidential campaign worker who's intrigued by Travis. But after an ill-fated date to a porno flick, Travis begins to stalk Betsy -- and the candidate as well. He also takes it upon himself to save Iris (Jodie Foster), a teenage prostitute, from her life on the streets -- a life she seems unwilling to abandon. The movie builds to a feverish, brutal climax that finds Travis exploding with the violent rage that's been simmering throughout the film, before ending with an oddly elliptical, dreamlike coda.

Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar; it also inspired John Hinckley, Jr. to attempt to assassinate President Reagan. In other words, it's cinema at its most primal and provocative, a masterwork that continues to leave audiences both profoundly moved and deeply unsettled.