Taxi Driver is a film about frustrated masculinity. Although Scorsese's films are usually being associated with male power and gangster world, it may often relate to a frustrated and fragile male rather than a truly masculine and powerful one.

Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is widely regarded by film scholars as a profound exploration of alienated masculinity and the crisis of identity in post-Vietnam America. The protagonist, Travis Bickle, embodies a distorted version of the "traditional" male protector role, struggling with a deep sense of social impotence and a lack of purpose. His obsession with "cleaning up" the city and his subsequent descent into violence are often interpreted as a desperate attempt to reclaim a sense of masculine agency in a world he perceives as degenerate. The film deconstructs the myth of the lone hero, showing how isolation and a rigid, fragile ego can transform a desire for chivalry into dangerous radicalization. By examining Travis’s inability to form healthy relationships with women and his reliance on physical transformation and weaponry, the movie serves as a dark mirror to the toxic expectations placed upon men to be stoic, aggressive, and redemptive through force, making it a cornerstone of cinematic discussions regarding the male psyche.