When Martin Scorsese contemplated shooting the editors of ‘Taxi Driver’

Posted On March 25, 2025March 25, 2025

Many artists form extreme emotional attachments to their work, comparing each film or screenplay to a baby as they devote their flesh and blood to bringing the project to life. From Francis Ford Coppola and his relentless quest for perfection with Apocalypse Now to Coralie Fargeat and her unwavering vision for The Substance, turning down multiple projects that might derail her focus. Filmmaking can be an all-consuming process, with many directors discussing the highs and lows of being wrapped up in the creative process, detailing sleepless nights, nightmares leading up to the shoot and an endless list of worries about everything that could go wrong.  

However, for filmmakers at the beginning of their career, perhaps the most troubling prospect is that of making your film and then being asked to compromise on your vision by studio heads, with producers asking you to ‘kill your darlings’ and change the film after it’s been shot. For Martin Scorsese, this became his living nightmare after completing what is considered to be his magnum opus. 

Taxi Driver is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, with Scorsese being one of the key directors within the New Hollywood movement, revolutionising the industry by sparking a new wave of independent filmmaking and an era in which the artists had control over the studios. His 1976 film was groundbreaking in its story of Travis Bickle, a desperately lonely taxi driver who drifts around New York in his search for connection. 

Scorsese was meticulous about his vision, carefully planning every element of the film to the last detail. He wanted to immerse us in Bickle’s gritty world and encapsulate the city’s suffocating darkness.

While Scorsese succeeded in capturing his vision on camera, he later struggled to maintain this in the edit, with the producers and studio executives complaining about the violence in the film, suggesting extensive cuts to reduce the R-rating and make it more accessible to wider audiences. Naturally, this is something that infuriated Scorsese, with many rumours circulating about his slightly extreme response to these proposed edits that feel more reflective of how his titular character would react to conflict.  

The legend goes that Scorsese threatened to kill the producers if they edited Taxi Driver, staying up all night with a gun and contemplating shooting them for making suggestions that would obliterate his creative intentions and ruin the project.

While this hasn’t been confirmed by Scorsese himself, other sources close to the director have alluded to the truth of the story, with Tarantino introducing a screening of the film and saying, “The legend goes that Scorsese stayed up all night drinking, getting drunk with a loaded gun. And his purpose was, in the morning, he was going to shoot the executive at Columbia for making him cut his masterpiece. And it turned out to be a vigil all night as Scorsese sat there with a loaded gun in his lap, and some of his fellow filmmakers and friends came and talked to him and commiserated with him and tried to talk him out of it. And apparently, this lasted all night long. I’ve heard stories that literally all of them grew up that night because they realised how serious Scorsese was at the prospect of what he was going to do.” 

Despite how extreme this may sound, it isn’t uncommon for artists to become maddened by the intensity of their love for a project and commitment to bringing it into the world. As such, anyone who threatens the integrity and meaning of your work is an instant enemy, and in an alternate world, perhaps Scorsese would have been driven to more extreme lengths to protect his beloved masterpiece.

Related Topics