10 Best Anti-Valentine's Day Movies

Few films showcase a would-be romance that goes so wildly wrong, and leads to such horrific consequences as Martin Scorcese's massively acclaimed but always controversial 1976 film.

Before he buys a load of guns and shaves down to a mohawk, Robert De Niro's Vietnam veteran turned New York cab driver Travis Bickle seems troubled and slightly scary, but ultimately a well-meaning, good-hearted kind of guy. As such, when he is lovestruck with Cybill Shepherd's Betsy, viewers can be forgiven for hoping things work out between the two of them.

Of course, that's not quite how things pan out, and following a first date from hell when Bickle takes Betsy to see a Swedish sex education film, she unsurprisingly hightails it out of there; yet Bickle, unable to take the hint, repeatedly attempts to patch things up.

His inability to handle this rejection, in conjunction with his myriad frustrations with post-war life in New York, sets Bickle down the path that leads to his self-styling as some sort of urban warrior, initially with designs on assassinating Senator Pallatine, the presidential candidate on whose campaign Betsy has been working.

To this day, Taxi Driver inspires mixed readings, with some holding up Travis Bickle as a bona fide hero, and others acknowledging his obvious mental problems. Either way, few films are better at demonstrating how badly men tend to react when women don't reciprocate their feelings