Taxi Driver 40th Anniversary Reunion Plans Announced

Yes, it’s been four whole decades since Robert De Niro first asked, “you talkin’ to me?”

Having originally opened in February 1976, ‘Taxi Driver’ remains one of the most acclaimed and controversial films that De Niro and director Martin Scorcese have ever made.

In honour of its 40th anniversary, New York’s Tribeca Film Festival (of which De Niro himself is one of the founders) will host a screening of the classic, followed by a talk with the principal cast and crew.

After the screening on 21 April, Scorcese, De Niro, writer Paul Schrader and co-stars Jodie Foster and Cybill Sheppard will all take the stage to discuss the film and its legacy.

In a statement, Scorcese reflects, “it’s odd to think that four decades have passed since we shot Taxi Driver on the streets of a very different New York City.

“It was made in a surge of energy, starting with Paul’s one-of-a-kind script, and I was working with an extraordinary group of artistic collaborators as anyone could ever hope for—Jodie, who was 13 years old at the time, and Bob gave the picture something precious, dangerous, and altogether remarkable.“

De Niro looks back with equal reverence, stating, “It’s a great honor for TFF to revisit ‘Taxi Driver.’ I’m very proud to have worked on this film with Marty, Jodie, Harvey, Cybill, Paul, Michael and Julia as well as the extraordinary cast and crew. I remain equally proud today,”

Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal describes ‘Taxi Driver’ as “one of the most brilliantly disturbing movies ever made, and why I chose to go into film. It’s had an indelible impact on pop culture, and its performances rank among the most memorable in cinema.”

‘Taxi Driver’ gave De Niro one of his most famous roles as Travis Bickle, a disenfranchised, mentally unstable Vietnam veteran who takes up work as a New York cabbie, but grows increasingly disgusted with the sleazy side of nightlife in the city.

Growing increasingly deranged and hateful, Bickle begins intensively working out, purchases guns, and famously shaves a mohawk as he prepares to wage war on the streets.

The film was a huge critical and commercial success, winning the Palmes D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and garnering four Oscar nominations (although no wins), and is often listed as one of the best films.

However, ‘Taxi Driver’ has also long been controversial for its violence, with Scorcese having been forced to de-saturate the colour in the bloodier scenes in order to be granted an R rating.

Most infamously, the film was implicated in the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, shooter John Hinckley Jr having been fixated on Jodie Foster, who (aged 13 at the time) portrayed a child prostitute in the film.

Picture Credit: Sony

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