Steal This Movie
Lions Gate Films
Release Date: August 18, 2000
MPAA rating: 'R' for language, drug content and some nudity
Running Time: 108 minutes
Steal This Movie is a cosmic safari through one man's odyssey of devotion, struggle and emotional tenderness. The film charts the rise and fall of
Abbie Hoffman -
activist,
radical,
fugitive,
lover - and leads us through the maze of music, politics, and personal struggle of the
late Sixties and
Seventies.
Abbie's story reflects a culture that abandoned comfort for freedom, money for passion, complacency for instinct. He recognized an enlightened breed of renegade soldiers in this hippie generation. They were young, bold, defiant, reactive. They had invaded his home - the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan - and they stood for resistance, reaction and change.
And Abbie would lead them through love, sex, and revolutionary joy to raise their consciousness and help end the war in
Vietnam. Like a psychological
Robin Hood, he "liberated" from the materialistic, narrow-minded rich and gave to the spiritually enhanced. He burned money and "levitated"
the Pentagon. With the love of his life, Anita, by his side, Abbie outraged the establishment and seduced "his" passion generation into action.
In 1968, Abbie, Anita, and a small circle of friends founded
Yippies! - a band of revolutionaries created to protest the war at the
Democratic National Convention. The police riots that followed made headlines around the world over and exposed the repression at the heart of our free society. Abbie stood trial with seven others for "inciting" the riot and became known as the "court jester" and conscience of the proceedings. The group became known as the
Chicago Seven, forever a symbol of the litigious battle for political expression in our country.
Abbie's chutzpah and brilliant theatrics earned him his status as counter-cultural hero and led to their release on appeal. Few know the price he paid. Abbie and Anita lived under constant
FBI surveillance and endured a
J. Edgar Hoover-led
smear campaign that cost them work, friends and, finally, their marriage. Hoffman went underground in 1974, after being set up as the middleman in a
cocaine deal, leaving behind Anita and young son,
america. They were desperately in love but no longer able to stay together.
For seven lonely years Abbie lived on the run, far from his politics and family, finally meeting the woman he referred to as "
Angel", Johanna Lawrenson, who loved and protected him until the end.
Abbie never abandoned his passion for social justice. If he couldn't be Abbie Hoffman he couldn't resist acting as if he still was. In 1978, he surfaced as "
Barry Freed," an environmental activist in
upstate New York. "Freed" won huge environmental campaigns and even testified before
Congress - before surrendering to the government in 1980.
"Steal This Movie!" is a unique insight into a passionate man living in a special time in our country. The legacy of Abbie Hoffman lives in all who question the status quo, in all who rise to fight the battle for personal expression and in all those who love.
Based on Abbie's autobiography
To America with Love (cowritten by Anita Hoffman)
and Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel by
Marty Jezer
The Main Cast
Abbie Hoffman...........................
VINCENT D'ONOFRIO
Anita Hoffman...........................
JANEANE GAROFALO
Johanna Lawrenson.......................
JEANNE TRIPPLEHORN
Gerry Lefcourt..........................
KEVIN POLLAK
Stew Albert.............................
DONAL LOGUE
Jerry Rubin.............................
KEVIN CORRIGAN
David Glenn.............................
ALAN VAN SPRANG
Tom Hayden..............................
TROY GARITY
Directed by.............................
ROBERT GREENWALD