Steal This Review
by Stew Albert
Steal This Movie, a bio-pic of Abbie Hoffman's life and times is scheduled
for release during the first seven days of May. The movie's distributor is
Lions Gate, who also distributed Gods and Monsters.
Dailies of the film looked promising but that was when Greenwald
Productions was shooting the flick. How would it all be edited? And would
its amazingly progressive political perspective be sacrificed to action and
excitement? Or might the film wind up dreary and polemical? And how much
imagination and skill would go into persuasively blending stock footage
newsreels with the rest of the movie?
We knew that the actors had a done a splendid job with a fine script but
would it all be lost on the cutting room floor?
Good news. We've seen the film. And it all works. Robert Greenwald does a
great job as director and overseer -- even with the stock footage. Steal
This Movie has great politics and it does make you laugh a lot and cry a
little. It's the first work out of Hollywood that accurately and
sympathetically catches the spirit of 60's rebellion.
Yippie is being called back for an encore. And its all here, friends. The
wild surrealism of throwing money at millionaire stock brokers, running a
pig for President, levitating the Pentagon, the free store, two Chicago 8
defendants dressing up in judge's robes and so much more. The eccentric
Yippie disputes and divisions also appear. Our battles over ugly vs pretty
pigs, and small politically motivated performance art pieces against
massive militant demonstrations are accurately presented.
And then there is Vincent D'Onofrio's many-sided portrayal of Abbie
Hoffman. It's such a difficult task. Vincent's isn't the first screen
Abbie. The Yippie has been done several times, and not always with his real
name. Remember Howie Eppis? or Dennis Hopper in Flashback? or the silly
Abbie in Forrest Gump? They all caught aspects of the Yippie magician and
stirred some memories among his old friends and at least one former wife.
But they were all superficial, if pleasant journeys through a
one-dimensional looking glass.
D'Onfrio does Abbie in three -dimensions plus. He evokes the original
Abbie, as a trickster socialist and psychedelic outlaw, the sadly
transformed Hoffman as busted coke dealer, fugitive and manic-depressive,
the redeemed Abbie as ecology activist and mature teacher of a new
generation. Vincent changes physically through his different incarnations
of the Yippie leader; he ages, his handsome face hardens and then mellows
with knowing kindness.
And Janeane Garafolo offers an understanding of Anita as smart, shy, kind
and beautiful. A person who could fall head over heels for Abbie and still
step back into the world of objective judgments and assess his faults and
weaknesses.
Donal Logue and Ingrid Venninger make me and Judy likable, fun-loving
characters who finally have to set some limits n what they can and cannot
do for a dangerously over-reaching Abbie.
It's impossible to be objective in assessing an actor when he's playing
you! But old friend David Peel (the creator of punk rock) was present at
the same Steal This Movie showing that we were and after it ended he came
over and said: Hey Stew that guy was just like you used to be. Nuff said.
The film has a great cast, Kevin Corrigan gives speeches that catch Jerry
Rubin's fiery passion and anger. Kevin Pollock gets Gerry Leftcourt's irony
and commitment. And Troy Garrity, son of Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, plays a
passionate young Tom with distinction.
Of course many of us have our own private 60's. And so fault with this film
will surely be found. It is accurate in essence and spirit and takes much
artistic license with details. I would urge the viewer to remember this is
a Hollywood movie and not a work of scholarship. It is a film about myth
makers and quite naturally portrays them with imaginative and generous
vision. It is the first feature film to portray our times with unbridled
sympathy and do it in a manner true to its hero.
Steal This Movie is a very entertaining and inspiringly directed creation.
It's Abbie, and its Yippies are larger than life, and that's just the way
Abbie Hoffman would have wanted it.
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