Like a Metal Coffin
When he was in the hospital, Schrader came up with the idea for the movie. “So that’s when the metaphor of the taxi cab occurred to me — this metal coffin that moves through the city with this kid trapped in it who seems to be in the middle of society but is, in fact, all alone.”
Robert De Niro in ‘Taxi Driver,’ 1976. Photo by Moviestore Collection / Shutterstock
Schrader admitted that if he didn’t write about this character, he was going to become him. That is if he hadn’t already. After he got out of the hospital, he stayed with an ex-girlfriend and simply wrote – day in, day out. He said the first draft was 60 pages and started writing the next draft immediately after. It took him less than two weeks.