"(Kroll, 143) As a response, they turned to realistic, location settings. A film that took place in New York would be shot, at least partially, in New York. The notion that America perhaps was not worth the effort lurks beneath the surface of many films noir, but this disillusionment becomes even more apparent in "Taxi Driver," both thematically and stylistically.
Scorsese, in making "Taxi Driver," not only had access to the thirty year old tradition of noir, but also was immersed in the cultural context of the 1970's, an era not entirely different from that which produced the first-round of noir films. Schrader argues that World War Two helped to generate the kind of cynicism, which figures prominently in those films. Likewise, Schrader wrote and Scorsese directed Taxi Driver in the period immediately following the Vietnam War, which, along with Watergate, did much to inspire a national mood of pessimism and cynicism. "The forties may be to the seventies what the thirties were to the sixties, Schrader contends (Schrader, 60), indicating that the same downbeat feelings present thirty years earlier were operating again in post Vietnam America, and that given the shared mood between the two decades, the earlier acts as a source of artistic inspiration for the latter.
The America that served as the backdrop for "Taxi Driver" suspected not only that America's struggle in Vietnam was not worth the trouble, but also that those who fought there were not worthy of respect. The film's protagonist, Travis, returns from Vietnam and apparently is incapable of finding steady work, until he lands at a cab service. Travis rapidly becomes as angry with America as he feels America is at him. He does after all, attempt to assassinate Senator Palantine, who comes to represent all of America with his presidential campaign slogan, "We are the people " (Scorsese). .
In his move to kill Palantine, Travis tries to erase everything Palantine stands for, all that the American way represents.