To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Martin Scorsese’s classic 1976 film Taxi Driver returned to theatres for a limited run in the US last year. Starting this week, the restored film screens in Dublin, with several showings at the Light House Cinema and the IFI.
The newly restored Taxi Driver received a Blu-Ray release late last year, commemorating 40 years since the original release of the iconic and influential vigilante story. Inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground and the diaries of George Wallace shooter Arthur Bremer, Taxi Driver sees the isolated ex-Marine Travis Bickle struggle to accept society as a civilian after the Vietnam War. Working as a taxi driver, Bickle comes to resent the world and the people around him, seeing everything as sleazy, hostile and corrupt. Bickle’s failed attempt at connecting with the political campaign volunteer Betsy and his growing obsession with protecting the child prostitute Iris from this ugly world lead Bickle down a dark path, as he begins to prepare for a vigilante assault on the evils of society. The provocative film is one of the highest regarded collaborations between Scorsese and DeNiro and its portrayal of American paranoia and hostility in the 1970s still resonates today. Taxi Driver also stars Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks and a young Jodie Foster.
The film will be in Dublin cinemas for a brief run from Friday, February 10. Both the IFI and the Light House Cinema have tickets available now.