Steal This Movie (2000)

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Admittedly, I didn't know who Abbie Hoffman was or what the Youth International Party was until I was in my very late teens – early 20s.I saw him in different programs I watched but I never truly knew his impact. I was a bit worried about watching anyone portray him in a film. Vincent D'Onofrio is a fantastic actor but I stayed away from this movie for a long time because I'm always weary about reenactments for dramatic effect. I never want to confuse fiction for reality. So many do that on both sides of the political spectrum that I like to know the facts. It is for that reason, biopics always make me a bit uneasy.It was the cast that influenced my decision to watch it. The film includes Janeane Garofalo, Kevin Corrigan, Donal Logue, Kevin Pollack,and Jeanne Tripplehorn. It doesn't get better than that.The film opens as Hoffman (D'Onofrio) while in hiding is talking to a reporter recounting his involvement with the movement. It starts when he's helping African Americans register to vote and is beaten by a cop.Fast forward to him meeting his wife Anita (Garofalo) on a bus where he and his friend Stew Albert (Donal Logue) hold the passengers up with water pistols.Anita is also interviewed by the reporter who believes that the government has better things to do than track down Hoffman. She then recounts their run-ins with the law, COINTELPRO and how deep the resentment of Hoffman is.The entire movie was done in a realistic and careful manner that I appreciated. I loved the real footage that was shown while Hoffman states "Do you remember 1968? They killed the good guys as they were about to elect the bad guys…." It's such a powerful and honest statement. This is nearly 50 years later and I can taste how close the revolution actually felt for the protesters.I hate when people look at the counterculture movement as some drug-induced idiocy to disregard. It was well thought out, the risks were very real and when the Vietnam Conflict ended and the mindset of people didn't change is it any wonder why revolutionaries like Phil Ochs and Hoffman are no longer with us? Call it bi-polar or any other mental illness you want to, at the end of the day – I believe they died of rightful disappointment. What they gave their life for was dead. How do you live after that? Why would you want to?Kevin Corrigan portrays Jerry Rubin, founding member of YIP and good friend of Hoffman. Though the two disagree on methods at times, the love and shared beliefs the two have is always apparent. In one scene,Rubin is being carried by protesters as he speaks against the war and starvation with such emotion and genuine heart. The next scene is a short black-and-white scene of military tanks and a "welcome to Chicago" sign on fire. In that quick transition the momentum and feeling of the film changes. That happens throughout. It's a roller-coaster ride of wanting the change, believing in the change,feeling the beauty and connection between all of those in agreement, but on the flip – still seeing people die, the war going on,sabotage by government officials, denial of permits to protest without reason –the list goes on and on.This movie does everything right and I'm glad that I watched it. It's the kind of film that people who have a conscience need to watch. People are still being prosecuted for protesting. People are still being listened in on by the government, framed and detained without reason and when you bring it up there are still people saying "You're paranoid."Where is the outrage that was so prevalent in the 60s? My guess is silenced by big pharmacy and brainwashing. When people care more about who wins a show like The Voice than who is elected in office, the disillusionment of the government is so high that we are basically admitting to being helpless and not wanting to fight to change it. Where is the fight?Where are the Abbie Hoffmans and the Jerry Rubins? Where did they go? And why am I a hypocrite who sits watching this movie rather than risking any personal harm to fight? If I protest I could get arrested, if I get arrested I'll lose my insurance license, if I lose my license I can't afford the house I'm buying. It's the game and I lost, for now.That said, movies like this need to be made. We need to remember the 60s and we need to learn from it. This film brought me to that place.The acting as can be expected is great all around. There are moments that are absolutely hilarious like when Hoffman and Rubin are in court wearing judicial robes and are ordered to take them off only to reveal police uniforms. Then there are moments that anger and frustrate. There are gut-wrenching scenes of real violence and re- enacted violence that at 5 AM are making me scream at my TV. It's pretty easy to get angry when you see rights being trampled on.Just watch this movie.

The trouble with this film, like so many other films that fail, is the script.The script is so unfocused it flounders around all over the place. What IS the story here? OK, it's a biopic but I think everyone will agree there is no way that an entire life can be condensed into 100 or so minutes. Some selection and editing is required but this script just didn't select or edit enough. It didn't render Hoffman's life down to one or two definable pivotal moments or themes that the audience could identify with and, through them, 'get' the bigger picture of the whole man.The movie wanders from being a straight plodding 'troubled genius' biopic, to semi-docu/mocu-mentary (using new shots faked up to match archive footage), to sub True Life Sob Stories Movie of the Week (the whole "I'm bringing up a son who doesn't know I'm his Dad" shtick), to political conspiracy theory movie etc. etc. It just never makes its mind up what it wants to be, and the half-hearted Citizen Kane like narrative structure (reporter interviewing people from Hoffman's past) is soon abandoned which leaves the film even more unstructured and flabby than it starts out.The movie is full of moments and incidents that contribute nothing to the story and could well have been cut to leave room to expand something more important. The whole scene in the psychiatrist's office after Vincent D'Onofrio pounds the window screaming "I'm Abbie Hoffman! I'm Abbie Hoffman! I'm Abbie Hoffman!" ("I'm acting! I'm acting! I'm acting!") could have easily been cut. All that happens is the psychiatrist says "You have bipolar disorder here's some lithium.", and the two women in his life say "We could see you weekends more often." and bang! That's it. No more mental health problems. It is such a laughably pointless tokenistic scene it could easily, and should, have been dumped before it was shot. The scene where they all get high and watch newsreel footage from Viet Nam and Hoffman phones GOD? Pointless. Tells us nothing about anything. Yet, when it comes to a pivotally important moment like the drugs bust, the film making is so hurried the situation just comes out of leftfield and doesn't make any sense to the audience. Suddenly he's dealing in heroin? Where did this come from? Why? What is going on here? I, being a middle-aged leftie, would guess I am sitting well within the target audience for this movie but even I got fed up with the portrayal of 'The Man', 'The Pigs', 'The Fuzz' etc. as brutal, be-suited, unthinking, hippie-hating androids. It may have been like that in 60's America, I don't know, I wasn't there, but in film terms it was cheap clumsy polemic.Having said all that Vincent D'Onofrio was convincingly charismatic as the younger Hoffman and I could watch Janeane Garofalo in anything, even reading a bus timetable, though she just wasn't right for this part.

This was an overall good release but there were numerous flaws. The worst of which was the dumbing down of the characters, especially Abbie Hoffman. It made for good cinema and fit the mainstream's mental picture of Abbie, but was quite misleading. Abbie's last wife, Johanna Lawrenson, was grossly misrepresented as apolitical and little more than a bubble-headed groupie. Both were excellent organizers and people. Talking to both was inspiring. It's sad that a film from a better source misrepresented them. However, that said, the film has value for providing a visual picture of the times and occurrences of Abbie's life. Abbie was one of the most significant of the 60s cast of characters and this film contributes to keeping his legacy alive.

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.