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GUERRILLA: THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST
Directed & Produced by: Robert Stone.
Director of Photography: Howard Shack, Richard Neill & Robert Stone.
Edited by: Don Kleszy.
Music by: Gary Lionelli.
Released by: Magnolia Pictures.
Country of Origin: USA. 89 min. Not Rated.

A small group of mostly white, college-educated students in Northern California began their own revolutionary war in 1973. First, they provided shelter for an escaped black convict, who they saw as a political prisoner. Soon after, the group shot and killed the first black school superintendent of Oakland, CA. But it was the kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst that gave the Symbionese Liberation Army the high-profile notoriety it craved. Interviews with two former SLA members provide this recounting with much-needed depth. The now apologetic Russ Little, in prison at the time of the Hearst kidnapping, watched amazed from the sidelines as the kidnappers’ demands became more outrageous. The other, Mike Bortin, is still defiant, and candid, describing the SLA as a group of naďve radicals.

The SLA's crime spree is more the focus than the kidnapping’s aftermath. Perhaps one of the appeals of this case will always be the mystery surrounding Hearst’s conversion into an urban guerrilla, a “soldier of the people’s army.” The film cursorily attempts to examine the motivations of Hearst and the possible effects of Stockholm Syndrome, never delving into the matter of sexual abuse during her captivity. Her “trial of the century” is only touched upon as well. She explains her actions in a voice-over, which is almost drowned out by psychedelic music and visuals. Yet another question left unexamined is who really started the deadly blaze during the shootout between the SLA and the Los Angeles Police Department. Regardless, Guerrilla is a great crime story, with all of its bizarre twists and turns. Aided by revealing archival footage, director Robert Stone captures the tone of the times, much in the same way as last year’s political activist documentary, The Weather Underground. Kent Turner
November 25, 2004

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