Taxi Driver

Travis Bickle, a 26-year-old honorably discharged U.S. Marine, is a lonely, depressed young man living in isolation in New York City. He takes a job as a taxi driver to cope with his chronic insomnia, driving passengers every night around the city's boroughs. He also frequents the porn theaters on 42nd Street and keeps a diary in which he consciously attempts to include aphorisms, such as "You're only as healthy as you feel."

Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for Senator and presidential candidate Charles Palantine. After watching her interact with fellow worker Tom through her window, Travis enters to volunteer, as a pretext to talk to her, and takes her out for coffee. On a later date, he naively takes her to see a pornographic film, which offends her, and she goes home alone. His attempts at reconciliation by sending flowers are rebuffed, so he berates her at the campaign office, before being kicked out by Tom.