But at the ceremony on March 28, 1977, the Academy overlooked sophisticated New Hollywood fare like All the President’s Men, the Watergate thriller; Bound for Glory, a visually luscious biopic of Woody Guthrie featuring depictions of American poverty as searing as any ever committed to the screen; and Taxi Driver, a sepulchral masterpiece of urban alienation, about a Vietnam veteran named Travis Bickle, driven insane by the “open sewer” that New York City had become, who tries to assassinate a presidential candidate to impress a child prostitute played by a thirteen-year-old.
