Bowery subculture

His films like 'Taxi Driver' and 'Mean Streets' capture the gritty street life, moral decay, and criminal underworld of New York's lower neighborhoods with unflinching authenticity.

His visceral works including 'Bad Lieutenant' and 'The Funeral' explore the violent, corrupt underbelly of urban New York with raw intensity and moral complexity.

His independent films like 'Shadows' and 'The Killing of a Chinese Bookie' authentically depict the lives of ordinary people struggling in New York's marginalized communities with improvisational realism.