10 Controversial Movies Everyone Misunderstood

5. Taxi Driver

Unlike most films on this list, the controversy surrounding Martin Scorsese's 1978 classic Taxi Driver only really intensified in the years following its release.

Taxi Driver of course revolves around disillusioned war vet Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), whose insanity drives him to attempt to assassinate a Presidential candidate.

Five years after the movie's release, John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, with his motive being a desire to impress Jodie Foster, who he had become obsessed with after watching her in Scorsese's film.

In the decades that followed, Taxi Driver struggled to shake the label that it was the film that motivated a man to try and kill the "Leader of the Free World."

Scorsese himself was so shaken that one of his films could have this effect on someone that he briefly considered quitting the film industry altogether.

The comparisons with Joker extend not only to Joker effectively being an extended homage to Scorsese's movie, but also their shared controversies.

Just as Joker isn't a rallying cry to incels as many have interpreted it, Taxi Driver isn't an attempt to embolden those who wish to tear down the government one figurehead at a time.

Taxi Driver is instead a portrait of an alienated voice lashing out at society, just as Joker is. The film is brilliant enough to survive the controversy, but it continues to be linked to Hinckley Jr. and Reagan, and surely always will be.