Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is so pleased with the quality of its digital restoration of the 1976 Oscar-nominated Taxi Driver, for the upcoming Blu-ray debut, that it’s putting the film back in theaters before the disc release.
The film, which stars Robert De Niro (Little Fockers) and Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs) and was directed by Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island), will be screened at 145 AMC theaters in 41 markets across the U.S. and Canada on March 19 and March 22. A web page has been setup listing the participating theaters.
Taxi Driver will arrive on Blu-ray on April 5 packed with special features as well as sporting this newly restored version of the film.
According to Sony, the movie has undergone an “extensive” digital restoration, with color correction of the original camera negative and removal of embedded emulsion dirt and repaired torn frames and scratches. A new multi-channel stereo soundtrack also has been created from the original stereo recordings, all approved by Scorsese.
In the film, De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran who drives a cab in New York City at night and watches porn movies at seedy cinemas during the day. Convinced that New York has become a cesspool, Bickle is determined to save a 12-year-old runaway and prostititute (Foster) but gets increasingly violent. Cybill Shepherd (Barry Munday), Albert Brooks (Broadcast News) and the late Peter Boyle (TV’s Everybody Loves Raymond) also star in the film.
Although Taxi Driver won the Golden Palm at the Cannes International Film Festival and three BAFTA awards, it didn’t win any of the major statues in U.S. honors. It was nominated, though, for best actor (De Niro), best actress (Foster), best score and best picture Academy Awards and best drama movie actor (De Niro) and best screenplay (Paul Schrader) Golden Globes.
“Taxi Driver is a classic that should be experienced again in a movie theater,” Jim Amos, president of Sony Pictures Releasing, said in a statement.
Is this one you want on Blu-ray? Do you want to see it again in theaters?
Here’s the classic trailer, released by AMC for these screenings:
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