The movie is set in early post–Vietnam Era New York City and stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a lonely unstable veteran taxi driver, Cybill Shepherd as the woman he attempts to pursue romantically, Jodie Foster as the 12-year-old girl he liberates from prostitution, and Harvey Keitel as Sport, a pimp. The story was inspired by the 1972 assassination attempt on George Wallace by Arthur Bremer, on whom the protagonist Bickle is based. The film is widely considered a masterpiece, and many regard it as Scorsese’s best film, as well as De Niro’s.