The Casting Choices That Almost Changed Movies As We Know Them

A masterpiece does not always introduce itself politely. When Dustin Hoffman met with Martin Scorsese about Taxi Driver (1976), the project did not make the right impression, and the director was not yet the untouchable name he would later become. The role of Travis Bickle required an actor willing to sink into loneliness, obsession, and urban disconnection without softening the edges too much. Hoffman had intensity, of course, but his screen presence often carried intelligence and nervous humanity in a way that might have pulled the character toward a different kind of sympathy.