Steal This Movie! (2000) * * *

Directed by:  Robert Greenwald

Starring:  Vincent D'Onofrio, Janeane Garofalo, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Troy Garity, Donal Logue, Kevin Pollak

Abbie Hoffman organized and demonstrated against the Vietnam War because that was what he did well.    He referred to himself as "a political organizer", but during the Vietnam War he was viewed as a threat to the government.     He and his associates were kept under surveillance by the FBI, CIA, and just about every other agency.     This was part of a "misinformation" campaign hatched by J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon to target those who were considered dangerous subversives to the US Government.      Hoffman was the ringleader, mostly because of his ability to creatively use the media to get his message out.     He was the creator of the "Yippie" movement, which was the in-between stage of hippie and yuppie.    

Hoffman gained the most fame during the Chicago 8 trial, in which he and seven cohorts were charged with "crossing state lines in order to incite a riot".     He made a mockery of the proceedings and was found guilty, although the conviction was later overturned on appeal.      Following the trial, he became more famous and thus more hunted.     He went into hiding from the law following a drug charge, separating himself from his wife and son.      The film opens in 1977, as Hoffman is in his fifth year of hiding and he contacts a magazine writer to publish his story.    He is scared and possibly paranoid.    The writer doubts the government is even still interested in Hoffman, since Hoover was dead and Nixon resigned the Presidency three years earlier, but he agrees to interview Hoffman and his associates and write the story.  

Steal This Movie! is a play on the title of Hoffman's 1971 book Steal This Book!   It covers Hoffman's prime organizing years and then his descent into drugs and manic depression, which likely was the cause of his early fanaticism and then his later paranoia.       One can not view Steal This Movie! and not come to the conclusion early on that Hoffman suffered from mental illness.     It was what allowed him to fearlessly protest the Vietnam War in the face of government scrutiny.     It is also what compelled him to continue taking on the government long after his friends and associates settled down with families and left their Yippie days behind.     When asked what would happen if everything he fought for became a reality, he says, "I guess I would have to begin organizing closets."     He organized and protested because he knew nothing else.     Even while hiding under the name Barry Freed, he organized a campaign to save building on the St. Lawrence river.     It was an itch he could never finish scratching.

Vincent D'Onofrio fearlessly jumps headlong into Hoffman.    He alternates between anger, peace, rage, and mental instability- sometimes in the same scene.     D'Onofrio is careful not to overact, although with someone like Hoffman, how could you really tell?     He doesn't portray Hoffman as a misunderstood hero.    He's likable sometimes and unbearable at other times.     Garofalo and Tripplehorn play his wife and girlfriend, respectively, both of whom exhibit saintly patience and support in dealing with such a person.     They behave rationally under the circumstances, even if Hoffman doesn't.

Hoffman committed suicide in 1989 at age 52.    Did his inner demons finally get the best of him?   Or did he realize that he had little left to protest that anyone would even care about?    Yuppies were in full force and prosperity had come back.    The Vietnam War was long over, as was "Woodstock Nation", which Hoffman claimed to be from during the Chicago 8 trial.     It is not known for sure what caused Hoffman to ingest the 150 pills with liquor which led to his death.     My guess:   He ran out of things to rebel against.