Taxi Driver Monologue Script
Finally, the Taxi Driver script is here for all you fans of the Martin Scorsese movie starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, yadda yadda. This script is a transcript that was painstakingly transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of Taxi Driver. I know, I know, I still need to get the cast names in there and I'll be eternally tweaking it, so if you. A great memorable quote from the Taxi Driver movie on Quotes.net - Travis Bickle: You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who do the f. do you think you're talking to? Travis Bickle: Huh?
Forty years ago, Taxi Driver was released to critical and popular acclaim and its most famous line, “You talkin’ to me?” instantly became one of the most memorable lines in film history. The film was the second of eight feature film collaborations (so far) between Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese and established Paul Schrader as one of Hollywood’s most important screenwriters.
Robert De Niro’s copy of the Taxi Driver script includes his handwritten notes and provides insight into how he constructed his performance and how improvisation is incorporated into the filmmaking process. This page shows Travis Bickle, the film’s main character, alone in his apartment, rehearsing for an impending violent confrontation. “You talkin’ to me?” is recorded only as a note— “Mirror thing here?”—at the bottom of the page.
Scenes 134 to 144
Labeled “Travis gives us a lesson in Gunmanship” on the shooting schedule, these scenes were filmed on the 30th day of a short 36-day shoot. The climactic gunfight had just been completed, so the production moved to Travis’s apartment for three days of filming. These scenes of Travis alone in his apartment are essentially unchanged from the April 29, 1975, script, the earliest in the Paul Schrader archive. De Niro has marked all references to his character in red.
…dry firing…
…here’s where I practice with 30-07 too…
…this is where I fold arm and whip out gun…
…with combat knife…
De Niro is identifying physical actions that align with what Stanislavski called “the super-objective,” or spine, of the story. The actor merges these external actions with the character’s motivations and objectives to create the performance.
…found stuff of own that can use…
…maybe out of this till last scene. Come here to cut shirt…
Taxi Driver was filmed on a small budget, so De Niro and others would sometimes make use of their own personal items for props or costumes. De Niro also notes the need to wait until all other scenes are filmed before he cuts open his shirt as indicated in scene 137.
…at mirror…
…Mirror thing here?…
De Niro has underlined “His eyes are glazed with introspection,” but the next phrase, “he sees nothing but himself,” seems to be what inspired Scorsese and De Niro to stage the scene in front of a mirror. De Niro’s famous line, “You talkin’ to me?”, ostensibly directed at an imagined antagonist, reaches another level of meaning when directed at himself. His note, “Mirror thing here?”, confirms that De Niro improvised this “bit” during rehearsal and placed it here for his performance.
…with real Hostility like you “motherfuckers”…
This note, as well as De Niro’s first note on the next page, refers to Travis’s voice over narration. Flagged as “Very Imp[ortant]”, De Niro changes “…who wouldn’t take it anymore” to “…who would not take it anymore” and adds “…very formal when writing to self but in conversation informal using improper Eng[lish].” The difference in his modes of expression emphasizes Travis’s struggle to organize his thoughts.
This page is characteristic of De Niro’s scripts. Extensive background research and meticulous script interpretation are important parts of his process and are evident throughout his collection. Since the construction of a film performance is an understudied area in cinema studies, the De Niro archive is particularly rich with opportunities for research.
Monologue Scripts Free
Sample Monologue Script
The Ransom Center holds the archives of both Robert De Niro and Paul Schrader. Both include rich materials related to their collaborations with each other and with Martin Scorsese.
I knew I had to write a scene analysis on films I enjoy, and I am glad I now have a second chance on writing a second blog on a different film. Taxi Driver is definitely on my top 3 list of favorite films to watch over and over again. And now that I have ventured into cinema, its gets better every time. Having done some research on Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, there was more than a brilliant script, more like an interesting story about the writer, Paul Schrader. But I’ll get back to the good bit later on!
This is one of the most famous and often imitated soliloquies in film history, according to Roger Ebert. It occurs shortly after Travis has bought his guns and has decided to discipline his body, and directly after the scene where Travis gets himself tagged by one of Palatine’s Secret Service agents. Travis says “these” macho lines to a mirror, while drawing his gun as quickly as he can to threaten the imaginary person talking to him. There is a sense of loneliness that can be felt through this scene. De Niro’s character, Travis, seems to be in somewhat isolated in his own world. The imaginary image of a macho man is well portrayed by Travis. Travis is so lonely that he is the only one there, forced to speak to his reflection. In the scene, Travis acts as if people commonly talk to him in a manner that merits an aggressive response. However, we clearly see how Travis looks at himself in the mirror and asks: “Are you talking to me?” But is that what’s happening? If we start to dissect the scene more closely, we find that it is not so. Travis wears the sliding pistol on his right arm, but when he delivers the speech, the pistol is on his left arm . Therefore, it’s Travis’ reflection that we are watching, it’s his reflection which makes it seem like Travis listens to himself, he talks to himself, he talks to us, he talks to his mirror
When he first conceived the idea for Taxi Driver back in 1973, Paul Schrader was in a bad way. “At the time I wrote it, I was very enamoured of guns, I was very suicidal, I was drinking heavily, I was obsessed with pornography in the way a lonely person is, and all those elements are up front in the script”. Schrader adds: “One day, I went to the emergency room in serious pain, and it turned out I had an ulcer. While I was in the hospital talking to the nurse, I realised I hadn’t spoken to anyone in two or three weeks. It really hit me, an image that I was like a taxi driver, floating around in this metal coffin in the city, seemingly in the middle of people but absolutely, totally alone.“
Schrader famously wrote only “Travis talks to himself in the mirror” in the script, and De Niro even more famously improvised the “You talkin’ to me?” sequence that followed, borrowing the routine from local stand-up comic’s act. It seemed like Scorsese shot the scene with heavy symbolism, evoking how Travis has indeed split between the image he has of himself in the mirror—what Scorsese calls, an “avenging angel”—and his real Self that has lost touch.