The "Taxi Driver" Movie Poster and the Wall Art of Scorsese's Films

Across six decades, Martin Scorsese’s movie posters have expressed the evolving elements of his cinema.

Rendering themes of guilt, violence, ambition, masculinity, alienation, and faith, his visual language tells the modern history of American film. The trajectory spans the illustrated grit of New Hollywood to the conceptual minimalism of contemporary prestige cinema.

Let’s explore how over half a century of iconic poster art captures both Scorsese's cinematic vision and graphic design's evolution.

How Scorsese’s Beginnings in Little Italy Influenced His Films

Before becoming an iconic director, Martin Scorsese was a quiet, asthmatic kid watching the world from a third-floor window in Manhattan's Little Italy. He grew up in a Catholic household, surrounded by working-class immigrant realities.

His initial ambition was the priesthood. Though he went on to trade the seminary for the film program at New York University, those early years permanently influenced the visual identity of his entire career, which includes:

• Sacred imagery

• Secular sin

• Urban isolation

When Scorsese transitioned from student shorts to feature films in the late 1960s, he brought his personal mythology with him. The art in his films would continually reflect spiritual yearning and street-level realism.

The Gritty Realism of Scorsese’s 1970s Film Posters

The early Scorsese posters belong to the visual world of 1970s New Hollywood. They convey fragments of street photography, pulp illustration, tabloid typography, and downtown grime.

“Mean Streets” (1973)

The film, “Mean Streets,” follows Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a small-time mobster torn between his Catholic guilt and his loyalty to his reckless friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro). The story explores their struggle to survive in the lower ranks of Little Italy's criminal underworld.

The original U.S. one-sheet poster art features a striking minimalist design of a smoking gun pointing upward, morphing into the silhouette of the Manhattan skyline.

Harsh contrasts of black, white, and blood red frame the characters in graphic shadows instead of polished photographs. Designed by Joe Caroff, it leaned into the distinctive style that iconic graphic designer and filmmaker Saul Bass pioneered and popularized through his work with Hitchcock.

Saul Bass would, 15 years later, go on to collaborate closely with Scorsese.

“Taxi Driver” (1976)

In “Taxi Driver,” Robert De Niro stars as Travis Bickle, a lonely, mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran working the night shift as a New York City cab driver. As his disgust with urban decay grows deeper, he becomes obsessed with rescuing an exploited young girl, played by Jodie Foster.

Illustrated by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert, the iconic taxi driver movie poster main sheet sets Travis against a bleak Manhattan backdrop alongside his yellow taxicab. The poster contains yellow hues, deep blues, and red typography.

It portrays the city as a dark, lonely nightmare.

The Stripped-Back Minimalism of Scorsese’s 1980s Film Posters

By 1980, Scorsese's visual style narrowed down significantly. Hollywood marketing studios realized that leaving things out, rather than piling on lots of details, was the best way to make a film look prestigious.

“Raging Bull” (1980)

The biographical black-and-white “Raging Bull” stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a middleweight boxing champion whose violent rage drives him to the top of the ring while destroying his personal life and his relationship with his brother Joey (Joe Pesci).

The classic poster features a monochrome close-up photo of De Niro, sweating and bruised behind the ropes. There is no traditional sports promo clutter, no screaming red splash graphics, and no colorful crowd shots.

Elegance, Psychology, and Decadence in Scorsese’s 1990s Film Posters

Ten years later, Scorsese’s poster art marked another major change in aesthetics, with clean photographic arrangements, high-gloss studio visuals, and legendary title design collaborations.

“Goodfellas” (1990)

“Goodfellas” chronicles the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) alongside his ruthless partners Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). The film traces thirty years of life inside the Italian-American mafia.

The “Goodfellas” movie poster is split into two halves. First, there’s a dark top third featuring half-shadowed studio portraits of De Niro, Liotta, and Pesci looking directly down at the viewer. Then, there’s a bottom section featuring a dead body sprawled under a bridge.

With deep black space, white typography, and subtle accents, it highlights status and power.

The poster sells criminality as an exclusive lifestyle while also framing its violent collapse.

“Cape Fear” (1991)

“Cape Fear” is a psychological thriller starring Robert De Niro as Max Cady, a convict who seeks revenge against his former defense attorney, Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), and Bowden's wife (Jessica Lange) and daughter (Juliette Lewis).

The theatrical movie poster features a torn portrait effect, with De Niro's menacing eyes looking straight ahead. Below him, a rip in a family photo of Nolte and Lange.

The legendary design duo of Saul Bass and Elaine Bass created title sequences for “Goodfellas,” “Cape Fear,” “The Age of Innocence,” and “Casino.” For “Cape Fear,” their title design used distorted water reflections and negative silhouettes, converting psychological threat into modernist graphic art.

“Casino” (1995)

In “Casino,” Robert De Niro plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a mob-sanctioned gambling expert sent to run a casino in Las Vegas and whose empire crumbles due to his volatile friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his troubled wife Ginger (Sharon Stone).

The original poster displays high-contrast studio portraits of De Niro and Stone bathed in a golden glow, stacked above Las Vegas.

Where the “Raging Bull” poster removes color, the “Casino” poster uses saturated primary colors, neon, and metallic sheen to project decadence.

Saul and Elaine Bass's final sequence for Scorsese depicts a silhouette of De Niro flying through a literal inferno of flames and neon red.

Star Power and Corporate Satire in Scorsese’s 2000s & 2010s Film Posters

By the 2000s, Hollywood poster design had become dependent on photographic star power, and Scorsese's movie posters absorbed the trend but also turned it on its head.

“The Departed” (2006)

Set in Boston, “The Departed” is about an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) who attempts to expose an Irish mob boss (Jack Nicholson). At the same time, a mole inside the police department (Matt Damon) tries to identify the undercover officer.

The film’s one-sheet features large, horizontal photographic crops of DiCaprio, Damon, and Nicholson layered vertically like building blocks. The imagery cuts the actors' faces across shadows and red accents, matching a storyline centered around infiltrators and disloyalty.

It uses muted greys, jet black, and striking blood-red typography that fit twenty-first-century prestige thriller conventions.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013)

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), a wealthy stockbroker who founded a fraudulent brokerage firm. Throughout the film, he engages in rampant corporate greed, drug abuse, and corruption alongside his partner Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill).

Instead of dark criminal corridors, the main theatrical poster uses a bright corporate space, vibrant yellow branding text, and luxury lighting. DiCaprio stands front and center in a luxury suit with a smirking face, backed by a wild crowd of office workers.

The poster reads like a high-end corporate advertisement having a nervous breakdown, suggesting that glass-and-steel trading floors have replaced street corners as Scorsese's newest criminal turf.

Historical Tragedy and Prestige Art in Scorsese’s 2020s Film Posters

As cinema moved into the streaming era, with a more global reach and socially conscious audiences, movie poster design for Scorsese's late-career work returned to solemn compositions.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023)

Set in 1920s Oklahoma, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is an epic historical drama based on the real-life Osage Nation murders. The film follows Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a manipulative war veteran influenced by his powerful uncle, William King Hale (Robert De Niro), as he marries Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), an Osage woman inheriting vast oil wealth.

The main movie poster for “Killers of the Flower Moon” departs from traditional blockbuster star assembly. Rather than floating head compositions, the main one-sheet frames Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in intimate, mournful portraiture, rendered with earthy tones and subtle Osage artistic motifs.

Heavy typography and a rustic palette anchor the film as a thoughtful historical epic.

Explore Martin Scorsese’s Filmography in Graphic Form

A versatile focus on character flaws, spiritual conflict, and the dark aspects of human ambition drives Scorsese’s cinematic universe.

But his movie posters, like his films, don’t share a single aesthetic. The urban unease of “Taxi Driver,” the monochrome look of “Raging Bull,” the tailored elegance of “Goodfellas,” the feverish neon of “Casino,” the fractured photographs of “The Departed,” the corporate irony of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and the cultural reverence of “Killers of the Flower Moon” all belong to their respective periods while remaining faithful to the films they represent.

From raw obsession to moral reckoning, Film/Art Gallery’s Martin Scorsese collection lets you acquire a piece of this master director's visual legacy. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Martin Scorsese Films

Who designed the Taxi Driver movie poster? 

The original 1976 “Taxi Driver” main theatrical poster was illustrated by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert.

What are the most valuable Martin Scorsese movie posters? 

The Martin Scorsese movie posters that command the highest prices are original vintage posters from his 1970s and 1980s classics, particularly foreign variants and high-grade U.S. one-sheets for “Taxi Driver,” “Mean Streets,” and “Raging Bull.”  

Rare international posters for “Goodfellas” and limited art prints also hold high value among collectors.

Did Saul Bass design any Scorsese posters? 

No. While Saul Bass designed iconic title sequences for Scorsese films such as “Goodfellas,” “Cape Fear,” “The Age of Innocence,” and Casino, he did not design the theatrical posters. 

His contributions focused on motion design for the screen.

Why are Scorsese posters popular with collectors? 

Martin Scorsese posters are popular with collectors because they document the evolution of a visual auteur whose gritty and high-stakes themes have defined modern American cinema. 

How many films has Martin Scorsese directed? 

Scorsese has directed 26 feature-length narrative films and 17 feature-length documentaries.