Computer Animation Arts

To round off the series of ‘Tunes’ featuring Bernard Hermann, I’m featuring his final ever score. The soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s 1976 New Hollywood masterpiece. Taxi Driver. Recording apparently finished hours before Hermann’s death in 1975 and Scorsese’s film was released to incredible critical acclaim. It became the seminal film of a generation. Hermann’s score meanwhile becoming something of a revered cult classic amongst soundtrack-lovers, traded amongst collectors like the guns and drugs of the film. Not his most famous or recognisable, but for me at least, easily one of his best. Like all great film soundtracks, the music in Taxi Driver becomes the landscape of film as much as the imagery. The palpable tensions and inner madness of the main character Travis Bickle ripple across the eardrums like some sort of sleaze filled tsunami. Slate.com has a great article about the soundtrack. “What resulted from their collaboration is an astonishing piece of film music ...