Steal This Movie

"Steal This Movie" was not only an educational film in the sense that shed some light on the activist movement of the 1960s, but also a pleasant surprise regarding the quality of the performances in it. Vince D'Onofrio is amazing as Abbie Hoffman and his acting ability is in full display. Steal this video right away!

STEAL THIS MOVIE (2000) **1/2 Vincent D'Onofrio, Janeane Garofalo, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kevin Pollak, Donal Logue, Kevin Corrigan, Alan Van Sprang, Troy Garity, Ingrid Veninger, Stephen Marshall, Joyce Gordon, Bernard Kay. The life and times of 1960s radical Yippie political rabble rouser Abbie Hoffman (D'Onofrio, although physically miscast, gives a decent turn) is depicted in this melange in his turbulent life with his wife Anita (Garofalo seemingly too low-keyed) which intersperses real-life newsreel archival footage with at times jarring restaged moments that don't juxtopose neatly. Based on the couples' book 'To America With Love: Letters From the Underground' and Marty Jezer's biography, 'Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel', the results are sketchy and one doesn't get a full realization of the secondary characters except for the infamous Chicago 7 trial in 1968 at The Democratic Convention. One wonders what Oliver Stone would have done with such meaty subject matter. (Dir: Robert Greenwald)

I feel compelled to comment about both the movie and the bias in the movie. As someone who studies Abbie Hoffman I thought that the movie stayed pretty true to what Hoffman wrote in his autobiography, the letters that he and Anita shared that were eventually published, and the transcripts of the court testimony of the Chicago Trial. I think that knowing the movie is based on documents written by Abbie himself makes any bias in the movie seem appropriate or at least more acceptable. Also, I would argue that it is helpful to have a portrait of Abbie that is mostly positive, considering all of the trouble the government went to in order to paint him in a bad light to the public. I think Hoffman was an extremely interesting, albeit troubled character, and I think that D'Onofrio portrayed him well.

The film is an interesting look, at what appears to be an interesting man. The style of film is distracting at first - it's all a little too busy, but once you get get by that the film is an interesting ride. The performances are great - Janeane Garolfalo and Jeanne Tripplehorn play the women Abbie loved and do it very effectivly. And D'Onofio is great as Hoffman himself - fiery, passionate and very effective. If there's a problem with the movie, it's that it seems too in love with Hoffman to give a truly accuarate picture. It romaticizes his struggle and seems to think that Hoffman did nothing wrong when he sold what appears to be a lot of cocaine to an FBI agent. True, he was set up, but he still sold it. The film breezes past Hoffman's suicide and paints a man like a golden boy, a truly great man. I would have appreciated a more honest look.

This film is about the activist years of Yippie Abbie Hoffman and the time after. People expecting to see a biopic about his activism, antics, or books will be dissapointed. The film is about Abbie Hoffman. Not about his efforts, but about him.

The editing is not that great, and the dialogue could have been better, but the scenes are entertaining even without good pacing. D'Onofrio also did his best to portray Hoffman, even though he's 9 inches taller and doesn't look like him. He seems to capture that charisma, that "mojo" that other people seem to like. He' also very good in the second half, when you can tell Abbie is pondering his life - if he's doomed to run forever, is he running from nothing, did he waste his life. He seemed very tortured.

A lot of people may be dissapointed, but this is still a good film. Such a shame it didn't get wide release.