Watch VoirFilms. In March 1981, inspired by a dangerous obsession with the film Taxi Driver and actress Jodie Foster, a man named John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. The attack shocked the world and forever changed American history. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, Hinckley spent thirty-five years in a psychiatric hospital. Nearly 40 years later, a judge granted him his unconditional release. HINCKLEY presents an unsparing profile of a man whose shocking act of political violence forever changed a nation and still resonates today. It examines Hinckley's troubled early life, his obsessions and other attempts at assassination, the leadup and aftermath of his attack on Reagan, and whether or not redemption is possible for one of America's most infamous men, especially in a nation deeply divided by politics and gripped by gun violence.