Steal This Movie Review
by Dennis Schwartz (ozus AT sover DOT net)March 9th, 2001
STEAL THIS MOVIE! (director: Robert Greenwald; screenwriter: Bruce Graham/based on "To America With Love: Letters From the Underground" by Abbie and Anita Hoffman and "Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel" by Marty Jezer; cinematographer: Denis Lenoir; editor: Kimberly Ray; cast: Vincent D'Onofrio (Abbie Hoffman), Janeane Garofalo (Anita Hoffman), Jeanne Tripplehorn (Johanna Lawrenson), Kevin Pollak ( Lefcourt), Donal Logue (Stew Albert), Ingrid Veninger (Judy Albert), Kevin Corrigan (Jerry Rubin), Alan Van Sprang (David Glenn), Stephen Marshall (Louis Wertzel, Agent Green), Troy Garity (Tom Hayden); Runtime: 108; Lions Gate Films; 2000)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A look back at the 1960s Yippie radical-leader Abby Hoffman, tracing his involvement in the protest issues of the time, his marriage, and life underground. It meant well, showing the charismatic Abby in the best possible light as the '60s prankster symbol of anarchistic, ecstatic, anti-establishment revolution, but this cliché biopic failed to be emotionally involving, it had no craziness to it... and...its false sense of piety to its subject ruined the whole point of the film.
I read Hoffman's Steal This Book! when it first came out, swiping it off an establishment bookstore, and found it to be childish, self-promotional drivel, telling of such things as how you can get a free meal in a restaurant by putting hairs and insects on your dish just before you finish your meal.
The film, adapted from two books -- Abbie and Anita Hoffman's "To America With Love: Letters From the Underground" and Marty Jezer's "Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel," was two goody-goody in its approach to capture either the mood of the changing times or the manic-depressive mood swings of the unabashed publicity hound, who thought of himself as a hippie organizer. Admittedly, making a film about the '60s (in this film Abbie's starry-eyed days were between 1967-70) is not easy to do because of the problem of making a satire about what was a satire to begin with, but this film was so poorly scripted, directed and acted, that it is worst than most films about that era. It succeeds only as a muddled attempt to bring to light some of the illegal practices the FBI and CIA imposed in trying to eliminate the leftist movement in this country.
Abbie tells his story to an alternate press reporter of no reputation (Alan Van Sprang), in 1977, who works for an unnamed publication, as Abbie, always working the media, wants to get out his side of the story while on the run. The story awkwardly unfolds via flashbacks and voice-over, which our reminders of what happened, how he was forced to live as a fugitive, taking menial jobs, living a lonely existence, becoming increasingly depressed, and frequently changing locations as paranoia set in.
Hoffman (Vincent D'Onofrio) met his future wife Anita (Janeane Garofalo) when as a prank he held up a NYC bus dressed in cowboy garb and robbed only articles of clothes to give to his Free Store. He performed guerrilla theater throughout his heyday of protests for civil rights and antiwar: He held a rally at the Pentagon to exorcise its evil spirits and placed flowers inside the soldiers' rifle barrels while calling for them to join him; he got married in Central Park, sending out invitations to strangers with marijuana cigarettes enclosed; he threw dollar bills onto the New York Stock Exchange floor, upsetting the trading activities; he nominated a pig for president on the streets of the 1968 Democratic Convention; he made a mockery of the Chicago Seven trial—by dressing up in judicial robes and asking the jurors if they ever heard of Janis Joplin, and comically making fun of the witless judge throughout the trial; he upset many people by dressing up in the American flag and desecrating it during demonstrations. As a result of all the publicity he got, he became the most recognizable person in the counter-culture movement, yet he still couldn't make a living.
After the film runs through a laundry list of all his radical accomplishments and tells of his relationship with Jerry Rubin, which turned sour after Chicago. The film shows him getting busted in a cocaine raid because of his naiveté, not believing he could be so hated, that the government will not cease in its efforts to ruin him. He chooses to go underground in 1974 rather than face a possible long prison term. He lived on the run under various disguises for the next seven years as "Barry Freed." He even became an environmental activist in his upstate New York community, honored by Senator Moynihan for his efforts to save the St. Lawrence. After being separated from his wife and child, and living with a mistress (Jeanne Tripplehorn), he was glad to accept in 1980 -- what his lawyer Gerald Lefcourt (Kevin Pollak), who defended him for no fee throughout all his troubles, was able to get for him -- a deal with the government, whereby he surrendered to them and spent a short stint in prison. Nine years later, he died, as a probable suicide.
D'Onofrio who is a big man does not physically resemble the much smaller Hoffman and his odd Boston accent sounded artificial. He does bring an energy to the role, but it seems misplaced as he seems to have made the one thing Abbie had going for him, a real sense for comedy and wit, seem nonexistent, as the script is so self-serving to him and his lawyer, that it made the whole project stink. The only thing D'Onofrio does well, is try and steal this movie for himself. All the other roles were flatly played and had no impact on the film.
REVIEWED ON 3/6/2001 GRADE: C-
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