"Steal this Movie" --
From: Michael Everett <ia728@primenet.com>
Even with its many flaws, which included terrible casting for the two
leads, I recommend this film as a sincere attempt at a biopic of Abbie
Hoffman -- an icon of the 60's and the embodiment of the American
revolutionary tradition.
"Steal this Movie" is of course a play on words of Abbie's 60's
handbook of revolution, "Steal this Book", but for jobless
filmworkers, the title has yet another meaning, because "Steal this
Movie" is indeed a stolen movie. It was stolen by NAFTA and is yet
another example of an American cultural product purporting to be made
in the US but in fact thrown together in the Canadian movie
maquiladoras where runaway productions are rewarded by fat subsidies.
Alert filmworkers will notice from the credits that "Steal this Movie"
was in fact made in Ontario with just enough second unit work done in
NY and LA to make it appear to be an American film.
And any film worker who's sat on the edge of their seat through
dailies to see whether their work was absolutely perfect will
recognize yet another telltale sign of the made in Canada stamp -- the
final shot of Abbie, as it moves into the key closeup of the film,
wanders totally out of focus. Maybe it was the mischevious ghost of
Abbie himself who threw that shot out of focus, or maybe it was just a
Canadian film industry so jammed with subsidized NAFTA production that
it can't find camera assistants who care enough or are experienced
enough to meet the exacting demands of a difficult craft.
No offense to our Canadian brothers and sisters who are just trying to
make a buck like the rest of us and who have no more control over the
corporate free trade agenda than do American workers, but shame on
Producer/Director Robert Greenwald who poses as a liberal, but makes
his living out of destroying the very industry that created him.
Greenwald's Hollywood credits go back to the 1970's, but he's long
since abandoned the Hollywood workers who toiled on his earlier
projects for the greener subsidized pastures of Canada. Of
Greenwald's last seven projects, six were fake made in USA films
actually produced in Canada. In addition to 'Steal this Movie", they
include:
"Deadlocked" (Vancouver), a TV movie about the American justice system
"Audrey Hepburn" (Montreal), biopic
"Outrage at Glen Ridge" (Toronto), a TV movie about a gang rape set in
Glen Ridge, New Jersey
"Secret Path" (Toronto), a TV movie about family abuse and race
relations set in the rural South
"Zelda" (Montreal), a TV biopic about Zelda Fitzgerald
Isn't it time we call fake Hollywood liberals like Robert Greenwald to
account for their complicity in destroying an industry that took
eighty years of sweat and toil to build and for the suffering they've
caused to working families?
Michael Everett
IATSE Local 728, Hollywood
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