Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst

This wasn't the greatest doc in the world, but it's hampered by not having an up-to-date interview with Patricia Hearst, the subject being examined by filmmaker Robert Stone.

As someone who was active in this period (the 'tumultuous' 1960s and '70s), I think the film offers an accurate depiction of the unrest that spread throughout the world as young and old took to the streets and denounced the powerful who brokered in human oppression.

After almost two years of living with the 'enemy,' the precious Patty Hearst was released. She recanted and told the world how much she had been 'brainwashed' by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Through powerful political influences, she served less than two years in jail, then went back to the protective bosom of the very system that the SLA, and Hearst herself, were fighting against.

The people shown to be the REAL buffoons in this film are the FBI, CIA, the army, and various police forces. Although only a ragtag outfit with barely seven members at its zenith, the SLA went all but undetected, with Hearst in tow, for almost two years.

This was a depressing film for me personally. I look around me now and see nothing but mindless, conformist kids and adult children who think happiness can't be achieved unless they get ever-newer versions of i-Pods, i-Phones, or a multitude of other gadgets every two weeks. Resistance has left and gone away. Not many people stand up to be counted any more. And no, returning something to the Gap is not an act of rebellion.

If this is the same movie directed by Robert Stone and which I saw at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival today then I would have to say it was quite dull in places and in need of some editing. While it got across the interesting spectacle Patty Hearst made at the time - rich girl turned radical rebel ostensibly for the people - I would have liked to have seen more in-depth profiles of all involved prior to hearing them talk - of Patty, her parents, their relationship, the backgrounds of the other members of the party, etc. Too much of this film's information was just a dry re-telling of the news, and a dry outline of how the event affected the evolution of reporting and FBI investigative reporting. It's a fascinating and timely topic - in that today again we are faced with a conservative government and a growing rebellion against it complete with terrorist activity, only on a global instead of just domestic scale, but this documentary falls sadly short of portraying the events that unfolded in any particularly interesting or involving way. There's got to be a better documentary out there on this subject. Can anyone recommend any?

I guess enough time has passed that the strange and fascinating case of Patricia Hearst can be looked at from a safe distance; although the recent post 9/11 interest in terrorism puts the Symbionese Liberation Army and their actions into a whole different context.

This documentary mixes news footage, photographs, tapes recordings and interviews with figures associated with the SLA and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst - yet it has to be said that most of these are marginal figures. Given that most SLA members are now dead, this is unavoidable. The real coup would have been scoring interviews with surviving members Bill and Emily Harris or Hearst herself - although her lack of participation is quite understandable given that her version of the case is already well documented.

The film comes ready-made with the gripping narrative of a thriller - and proves the cliché correct that truth is much stranger than fiction. It must have been quite an odd case to watch unravel in the media and could only have happened in the 70's. I can't quite see Paris Hilton robbing banks for the poor, somehow....

The only criticism I would have with the documentary is that plays on the ambiguity of Hearst - the good girl/bad girl, did she or didn't she mythology while conveniently neglecting facts that may have painted her is a more sympathetic light. It's one thing to play tapes of her calling her parents 'pigs' but quite another to fail to mention that all of her communique's were written for her, that she was kept blindfolded for over a month and expected to have sex with SLA members (all within her closet that she was rarely allowed out of). When arrested her IQ had dropped to a near comatose level, she was seriously malnourished and had ceased menstruating. Hardly a cutting revolutionary figure.

Altogether, it is a gripping and often darkly funny insight into one of the strangest cases in pop culture as well as the annuls of crime. It is thorough and impeccably researched. Highly recommended.

There are so many excellent documentaries being made these days. This another example.

What is so striking about this story is how far people were willing to go to complain about racism and poverty. What's more, many people were willing to support them. One Berkley student, Popeye, makes the most telling statement when he says how sad it is that the likes of the SLA are required to make people act to stop poverty in the US.

Even more disturbing is that no-one would dare even think like this now. They would be branded unpatriotic terrorists. What this doco and see how freedom of speech and thought has been eroded and how the popular media is now just a puppet of the government and big business interests.

It is also incredibly ironic. Patty Hearst joined the SLA in their fight against racism and poverty. As soon as she was captured she was let out within months and Clinton gave her a full pardon. Compare that to those people without money and a powerful family - they went to jail for years. When push comes to shove, money and power will keep you out of jail whilst others involved in EXACTLY the same event go down for 8 years! Where are the SLA when you need them ... ;)

I saw this at the Florida Film Festival and was quite blown away. Taken with the Oscar-nominated doc The Weather Underground, both movies present a jaw-dropping look at just how tumultuous those times were, especially for someone who didn't live through them, like myself. It's amazing to see how far young, well-educated, mostly white kids were willing to go to prove their points about race, money and war. Archival footage, especially that of the harrowing shootout in Los Angeles that was broadcast live on the air, shows you an America that is almost unrecognizable to us. The ending, which juxtaposes images of media-darling Patty with the rest of the SLA either in jail or long-since dead, is truly stunning.