***Celluloid Heroes is a blog column in which we’ll explore the effects of music (namely of the rock ‘n’ roll variety) on movies, and thus movies on music.***
Most of the soundtrack to Taxi Driver (1976), scored by Bernard Herrmann, is a series of brash saxophone blasts and sharp plucks of harp that sting rather than soothe, creating an abrasive aural marquee of the “scum” Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) obsessively finds so loathsome, increasingly, to the point of violent rage, while jazzy interludes give way to the urban drama of Manhattan.

However, there’s a particularly classic scene where Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky” plays as Bickle sits in a chair alone in his apartment, gun in hand, while watching American Bandstand, as he contemplates assassinating Senator Charles Palatine. Palatine, who promises drastic social change, is the same politician through which he met his crush, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who was a campaign volunteer for him and Bickle would admire from afar in his taxi. He eventually builds up the courage to volunteer for Palatine too, just so he could meet Betsy. Another musically  inspired quip from the movie comes from Betsy, who told Bickle that he reminds her of a line in a Kris Kristofferson song, “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33″: “He’s a prophet and a pusher, partly truth, partly fiction… a walking contradiction.”

The album Late for the Sky, released in 1974, hit #14 on the Billboard charts and is considered by many to be Browne’s best album.

Here’s the Clip from Taxi Driver: