I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)

Based on the true story of Valerie Solanas who was a 60s radical preaching hatred toward men in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to ... See full summary »

Director:

Mary Harron

Writers:

Jeremiah Newton (book), Diane Tucker (research),

Stars:

Lili Taylor, Jared Harris, Martha Plimpton

6 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lili Taylor	...	Valerie Jean Solanas
Jared Harris	...	Andy Warhol
Martha Plimpton	...	Stevie
Lothaire Bluteau	...	Maurice Girodias
Anna Levine	...	Iris (as Anna Thomson)
Peter Friedman	...	Alan Burke
Tahnee Welch	...	Viva
Jamie Harrold	...	Jackie Curtis
Donovan Leitch Jr.	...	Gerard Malanga (as Donovan Leitch)
Michael Imperioli	...	Ondine
Reg Rogers	...	Paul Morrisey (as Reg Rodgers)
Bill Sage	...	Tom Baker
Jill Hennessy	...	Laura
Coco McPherson	...	Brigid Berlin
Myriam Cyr	...	Ultra Violet

Storyline

Based on the true story of Valerie Solanas who was a 60s radical preaching hatred toward men in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but he continued to ignore her. So she shot him. This is Valerie's story.

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Plot Keywords:

man hater | feminist | feminism | manifesto | hatred | 

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Taglines:

You only get one shot at fame.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content, language, drug use and brief violence

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 May 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

I Shot Andy Warhol

Box Office

Gross:

$1,814,290 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Playhouse International Pictures, Samuel Goldwyn Company, The, BBC Arena

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was originally planned as a documentary, but the filmmakers found almost no footage of Solanas or anyone to speak about her.

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Goofs

In a segment taking place just weeks before she shoots Andy Warhol in June 1968, Valerie Solanas and Candy Darling watch the Miss America pageant on TV, an event which is actually held in September.

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Quotes

TV Reporter: Why do you spend your time making underground films?
Andy Warhol: It's easier than painting.
TV Reporter: Which painters do you like best?
Andy Warhol: Oh, all of them.

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Connections

References Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

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Soundtracks

Red Telephone
Written by Arthur Lee
Performed by Love
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Intelligent Treatment Of True-Life Attempt On Warhol's Life

Lili Taylor is astonishingly good as the bright but highly-disturbed woman who tried to kill the celebrated non-artist. We see the story told in dislocated flashback as the would-be assassin Valerie Solanis is arrested and interviewed after the shooting. Home movie footage is poignantly interleaved with Valerie's matter-of-fact admissions.

Having been abused as a child, and sexually promiscuous before puberty, Solanis developed a strong antipathy towards men during her student years at the University of Maryland. She financed her degree course by means of prostitution. The film shows her living rough in New York City between 1966 and 1968, begging, soliciting for sex and performing radical street theatre.

She is drawn into the twilight world of Warhol's 'court' of phoneys and hangers-on, a disturbed New York wise-ass who demands recognition but who will never be taken seriously by these Beautiful People.

Jared Harris plays Warhol beautifully as the inarticulate, vacuous fraud at the head of a sham 'movement'. Significantly, Warhol does not get involved in whatever's going on. A Warhol film is being shot in The Factory, but we learn that Andy won't be around today. A drug-besotted 'happening' takes place under the Warhol aegis, but Andy stays on the margins, even of the sex - his purpose is to hit on the wealthy voyeurs who turn up at his parties.

As Warhol the cynical manipulator grows in media credibility, Solanis is reduced to peddling squalid sex and copies of her manifesto around Greenwich Village. It is clear that she has been 'dropped' by the court of Queen Drella. She becomes increasingly embittered, feeling that Warhol is exploiting her writings, and her behaviour deteriorates into violence and incoherence. When she shows up in the same old rags at the newly-gentrified Factory, we grasp what she can't - that the gulf between her and these parasites with savvy is unbridgeable.

Solanis beds a fellow weirdo, and acquires a gun from him. We see their drug-induced disorientation in a sequence of crash-edits, a knowing reference to the pop style of sixties film-making.

This is a very shrewd and very watchable film. It damns Warhol, but is none the worse for that.