Steal This Movie (2000)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Robert Greenwald

Writers (WGA):

Anita Hoffman (book) and
Abbie Hoffman (book) ...

Release Date:

28 June 2002 (Spain)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Five years after Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman goes underground to avoid a drug-related prison sentence...

Plot Keywords:

1970s | 1960s | Fugitive | Undercover Cop | Radical

Awards:

2 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Fri. July 24

4:10 AM

MAX

Cast

Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Abbie Hoffman
Janeane Garofalo	...	Anita Hoffman
Jeanne Tripplehorn	...	Johanna Lawrenson
Kevin Pollak	...	Gerry Lefcourt
Donal Logue	...	Stew Albert
Kevin Corrigan	...	Jerry Rubin
Alan Van Sprang	...	David Glenn
Troy Garity	...	Tom Hayden
Ingrid Veninger	...	Judy Albert
Stephen Marshall	...	Louis Wertzel
Joyce Gordon	...	Florence Hoffman
Bernard Kay	...	John Hoffman
Jean Daigle	...	Sheriff
Johnie Chase	...	Josh
Joshua Dov	...	Hippie Kid

Also Known As:

Abbie! (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

107 min | Spain:106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Australia:M | Spain:13 | USA:R | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Ardent Films

Trivia:

Michael Cera's feature film debut.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The sign behind Abbie Hoffman for the "Chicago 7 Legal Defense Fund" is misspelled "Defence".

Movie Connections:

Features "The Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Show" (1962)

Soundtrack:

My back pages

Biased but Should be

I feel compelled to comment about both the movie and the bias in the movie. As someone who studies Abbie Hoffman I thought that the movie stayed pretty true to what Hoffman wrote in his autobiography, the letters that he and Anita shared that were eventually published, and the transcripts of the court testimony of the Chicago Trial. I think that knowing the movie is based on documents written by Abbie himself makes any bias in the movie seem appropriate or at least more acceptable. Also, I would argue that it is helpful to have a portrait of Abbie that is mostly positive, considering all of the trouble the government went to in order to paint him in a bad light to the public. I think Hoffman was an extremely interesting, albeit troubled character, and I think that D'Onofrio portrayed him well.