David Smith in The Guardian: ‘“We call them incels now,” reflects Paul Schrader, who wrote the screenplay for Taxi Driver, released 50 years ago on Sunday. “‘Incels’ wasn’t a word at that time but it is these guys who are lonely, who see themselves unable to make contact with women, have a repressed backlog of anger and resentment and imagine some kind of glorious transcendent transformation through violence.”’

Schrader tells Smith about the autobiographical background of the screenplay: “I lost my job, left my wife, left the girl I left my wife for, didn’t have a place to live, was drinking considerably, was living in my car and had a gun in the car.”

Smith: ‘De Niro came up with a line for the ages: “You talkin’ to me?”’

As long as societies exist, the underground man will walk the streets, dreaming of violence, longing to be seen.

(a sf 2051)