Patty Hearst (1988) User Reviews

very good performances from Richardson and Rhames

[triple8 · 7/10 · 23 May 2005]

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT:

The movie Patty Hurst was rather overlooked-more so then I thought judging From the very few comments on here. It was actually pretty well done as a movie. It's told from Hurst's perspective with Natasha Richardson playing Patty. This actress-Richardson- somehow always manages to give a flawless performance, here she is at her best. Ving Rhames whom I'm a major fan of Is also wonderful. Both of them give performances so absolutely academy award worthy, that alone is reason enough to see the movie.

This is a tough movie to sit through but I never found it a bit boring and the superb direction added to the movie I thought. The story itself really leaves one with as many questions as answers but how could it do anything else? This is a pretty dark, stark drama and I can't say I always found it enjoyable but it is tremendously absorbing to watch and features performers who crackle with intensity giving performances that are on par with many academy award winners. If one can handle the brutality of the movie, and is a fan of these performers, it is worth checking out.

patty hearst

[mossgrymk · 5/10 · 11 February 2022]

Quite possibly the dullest kidnapping movie since "The Ransom of Red Chief". I mean, it's almost comical. You have a bland, boring WASP abducted by noisome, even more boring revolutionaries. Any humorous or even ironic implications, however, are left grimly unexplored by scenarist Nick Kazan and director Paul Schrader, the stolidity of the later being especially egregious when you consider that this is the guy who was able to look on the pathologies of Bob Crane as well as Dutch Calvinists from Grand Rapids from a somewhat mordant point of view. Give it a generous C, mostly for Natasha Richardson whose good acting is the terxtbook definition of collateral damage.

She walked out with empty arms, machine gun in her hand

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 14 February 2007]

Based on a novel be Patty herself, this film is very suspect on the actual truth, but Director Paul Schrader does a pretty good job at making the film of Hearst's kidnapping by and subsequently joining with the moronic Symbionese Liberation Army compelling throughout the duration of the film. Opting for a seemingly objective approach despite the source material. Nothing new revolving the case will be gleamed for watching this though, and one will take from it the exact same view as what one goes into it with. Personally, I don't or can't sympathize with spoiled rich girl turned violent revolutionary turned praised celebrity Hearst, but I know that there are many that do. Natasha Richardson as Patty gives a serviceable, if nothing special, job. And Ving Rhames gives a good job himself as the cliché spewing leader of the pitifully sad SLA. This movie is also widely known to be the last of Paul Schrader's films to be any good at all, so there's always that.

My Grade: B-

Eye Candy: Natasha Richardson gets topless

Underrated

[VerhoHo · 22 September 2000]

I've watched this film quite a few times now, and frankly it just keeps getting better. Stylish and disturbing as only Paul Schrader can be, this film is also notable for its fantastic performances. Ving Rhames walks a paper-thin line between madness and parody. And of course there is the awesome William Forsythe who singlehandedly takes the film to another level. His performances are so astounding in general that they can even make Steven Segal (Out For Justice) watchable. This film served a respectable political purpose as well. Few people really understood what happened to Patty Hearst, especially if you were around to watch her be demonized by the media in the 70's. This film does a brilliant job of putting you in the shoes of a woman who lived through an unimaginable experience. (10/10)

Decent early Ving Rhames; film only of interest to certain audience

[smatysia · 6/10 · 3 August 2002]

Natasha Richardson, as Patty Hearst, does a decent job with the role. I suppose she is speaking so slowly all the time to keep her British accent under control, but it makes her sound stoned. (Richardson did an excellent job with an American (Southern) accent a few years later in "Nell". Ving Rhames did a bang-up (ha-ha) job as the SLA terrorist, and you really have to hand it to him for being able to spout off all that Marxist, revolutionary drivel and still keep a straight face. That rhetoric sounds so ludicrous in 2002, and frankly it was pretty absurd by 1974. This is really only worth catching on TV if you're interested in the subject matter, not worth a rental. Grade: C-

the full Natasha Richardson

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 23 January 2022]

College student Patricia Hearst (Natasha Richardson) is a well-meaning rich girl who gets kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Their leader Cinque (Ving Rhames) intends on ransoming the heiress for the release of their imprisoned comrades. Eventually, she joins them in their revolutionary activities.

This is director Paul Schrader and this is Natasha Richardson. She is giving a full performance of this complicated, debated, and conflicted character. It lands squarely on her assertion of innocence. That may be disputed but it's well within reason and the movie presents a reasonable case. She feared for her life and submitted to survive. There are also a few familiar faces and Ving Rhames is as powerful as ever. This is good and Natasha is great.

The kidnapping of Patty Hearst

[willians_franco · 6/10 · 25 August 2020]

AVERAGE. I found the film average, even though it was produced for TV and on a low budget. The purpose, as everyone knows, was to portray the girl's kidnapping and captivity in the most reliable way possible. And also to present the motives of the crime in the vision of the revolutionary Marxist group SLA. However, I believe that the events could have been better portrayed, especially highlighting the issue of Stockholm Syndrome suffered by the character. But it is a narrative of the facts for those who want to know the girl's story.

Solid piece of film making

[mim-8 · 8/10 · 6 October 2009]

Paul Schrader is one of the most talented directors of so called "New Hollywood", and it's really strange that almost all the films he directed are poorly rated on IMDb. That refers to his most productive phase from 1978 to 1988, when he made crafty social dramas such as "Blue collar" and "Hardcore", stylistic look on rotten high class devouring the individual, such as "American gigolo", art house remake, such as "Cat people", and a true masterpiece, such as "Mishima - Life in four chapters". At the end of this period comes "Patty Hearst", a biography, or to be exact a segment in life of America's most famous hostage turned terrorist of the 70's. This subject, as interesting as it is, has a lot of pitfalls, for a film maker. Filming such a story may turn into an emotional travel down the road of ridiculousness, cemented in victim's distorted point of view. Not with craftsmen like Paul Schrader. He did this film just exactly as it should have been done, terrors of capture, mixed with bewilderment of being a hostage, turned into confusion and daze with one's captors, which is everything Patty Hearst went through in her months of captivity. Late Natasha Richardson's performance is indeed low key, but that's probably the way real Patty Hearst felt and behaved, after all the movie is based on her own book. Scenes of the first two weeks after the abduction, when all abductors appear as silhouettes in a doorway, and constant images of being shot and dumped in a ditch, perfectly show what was going through Patty Hearst's mind at the time. She was just 19 and like the opening of the movie said "ofcourse there's a little one can do to prepare for the unknown".

This film marked the end of Paul Schrader's directorial peak, but it's well done, well acted, character development and symbolism are in full use of the story, and it deserves a much higher rating than it has. If you're a fan of Schraders work, don't miss it, if not, well decide for yourself. Recommended!

More Fanny Hurst in its absurdities.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 19 February 2023]

Even though the subject matter of the kidnapping of an innocent teenage girl is a disgusting issue, I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculous elements of Patty Hearst's brainwashing by the Symbionese Liberation Army who aren't exactly presented as highly intellectual or even literate, given the most ridiculous dialogue that must have been embarrassing for some of the theatrically trained actors spouting it.

The film opens with Patty (played with great care by the late Natasha Richardson) being kidnapped and put into a darkened room, eventually given a little bit of life even though her eyes remained covered. Members of the SLA continue to come in, first in threatening ways, then reciting the SLA mantra, and finally with sexual intentions, showing Richardson agreeing rather reluctantly to have sex with SLA leader Ving Rahms.

Hearst manages to survive this ordeal, and when given the options of being released and returning home with no consequences or joining the SLA battle, she makes the wrong choice. It is obvious that this is a very difficult subject matter to be done successfully, and it is so oddly filmed that the mood goes from one extreme to another, making a viewer alternatively angry at one moment and laughing at it the next period it's a shame that director Paul Schrader couldn't come up with a more intelligent way of telling an important story, because the film is so choppy in many ways that it easily could have been released directly for television had some of the more violent moments and excessive bad language been cut out.

a more interesting film than meets the eye

[tlon · 8/10 · 16 August 2000]

i don't agree with the comments of the other viewers. i think that the filmmakers purposefully created a detached style to inspire a more objective engagement in the story from the viewer. because the real interest of the patty hearst story, apart from being a totally unique and fascinating part of american mythology, is the mystery of "what really happened?" since the movie was based on patty hearst's side of things, it would have been very easy to create an emotionally engaging (or, read: manipulative) narrative that wholly supported her version of the story. officially the filmmakers had to present her version, but i think the way in which it was constructed purposefully makes you conscious, the whole time, of the various possibilities of reality that could have existed. and who is to say there is only one reality? certainly not these filmmakers.

Careful recreation of history...necessarily repugnant, and not at all entertaining

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 11 July 2010]

The 19-year-old daughter of a U.S. newspaper magnate is kidnapped in the early 1970s by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing urban militant group peopled with self-styled revolutionaries and guerrilla fighters; after 57 days in captivity, she is given her choice to be freed or join up with the SLA--she joins. Interesting adaptation of Patricia Hearst's memoir "Every Secret Thing" co-authored with Alvin Moscow, given artistic treatment by director Paul Schrader, who is alternately straightforward, historically reverential, and sometimes pretentious. The film has no entertainment value whatsoever (and moves at a mercilessly slow pace), but does have strong acting and is useful as a vivid recreation of this chapter in time. ** from ****

Shadow, light and gibberish

[manuel-pestalozzi · 9/10 · 15 February 2006]

California is drenched in sunshine. But Patty Hearst, member of one of the most famous and in the public opinion most wealthy families of the USA is brutally thrown into darkness. The California sun is still out there, you can almost feel it, some rays come through, but the light is most of the time shut out by walls or curtains. Once the nineteen-year-old woman reemerges, she is a revolutionary, called Tanya – like Che's lover, you dig?

This highly interesting, very stylish and well crafted movie tells about the ordeal, the disorientation, the reprogramming and the re-reprogramming of a young person who seems to be very much alone while trying to endure these transformations that are forced upon her. Any notion of society seems to dissolve into sheer madness. This retelling of actual facts, which is done exclusively and in straight chronological order from Patty's point of view, might or might not be a „doctored" account of events, it certainly is convincing and allows the viewers to commiserate with the main protagonist. She concludes at the end that society probably would have preferred her dead, and after seeing the movie one must say she has a point there (for this aspect it might be interesting to check out Robert Aldrich's The Grissom Gang).

The group dynamics and the insane pseudo revolutionary gibberish (sounds terribly dated!) has a real feel to it, all actors are believable in their roles. I thought that Ving Rhames was particularly effective as the group's leader, Cinque (and now I know that the name is not pronounced like the Italian word for the number five). Besides Natasha Richardson the performance of Jodi Long also caught my attention. Reminded me a little of Mercedes McCambridge. I hope I will be able to see her in other roles.

Just dull

[preppy-3 · 3/10 · 19 March 2009]

An (allegedly) accurate account of what happened when heiress Patricia Hearst (Natasha Richardson) was kidnapped by a terrorist group. They brainwashed her and she ended up helping them commit crimes.

Plenty of people have gone on and on and on (and on) about the politics of the movie. I can't really comment on that since I was only 12 when she was kidnapped and knew little about it. I saw this movie with no preconceived notions about whether it was true or false or if the politics were accurate. So (as a movie) this fails badly. It's flatly directed, badly acted (except for a few exceptions) and has a script that has some of the dumbest lines I've ever heard. All the "revolutionaires" ideals came across as extremely questionable and I actually started to laugh when Ving Rhames started spouting off about it. This is not to say that Rhames was bad (he was actually pretty good) but the lines he's given are just utter drivel. The only good thing about this is Richardson. Considering she has nothing to work with she's incredible. She convincingly fakes an American accent and Hearst's pain, confusion and terror come through. Still, her acting can't save this terrible movie. This bombed in 1988 and has since sunk without a trace. I heard that Hearst herself saw it and hated it. This really isn't worth your time. Skip it.

A Nice movie made from the victim's perspective

[betasam · 8/10 · 12 April 2006]

The movie, at first I thought was a typical late 1980 movie with fewer actors than newer films and a compact plot. But later I did quite a bit of reading on Patty Hearst following through Wikipedia. The first thing I noticed was that the movie had woven the facts together quite well. Yes, there are a few anachronisms as mentioned in an earlier comment, but I could catch just one of them. Things blend into the movie quite well as far as the victim is concerned. When the movie was made they had no way of knowing that 20-Jan-2001, the real Patty Hearst was given a full presidential pardon after analysis of the case which revealed that the defendant's lawyer was in most likelihood drunk on the day of trial. The movie doesn't concentrate on the trial, but more on the experiences making it a treat to watch.

It also scares us as to how fragile society might become with just one economic slide causing everyone to queue up at gas stations; that alone can re-start this guerrilla facade that, considering world politics today could turn out really ugly. The casting is impeccable, I just sat down comparing photographs of the real people with the cast; and there was an 80% resemblance. I like that part. I see this movie as a biopic though this term was not commonly employed when the movie was taken. The movie is relevant to recent times to show that no nation is any "less" vulnerable to insurgent work and possible insurgent fracture. Definitely worth the time to watch it, the movie is quite well made. For a fact the real Patty Hearst herself has acted in movies including a recent one, "A Dirty Shame."

SLA is SOL

[kirkendog · 4/10 · 9 February 2023]

The reason Hollywood loves this story is because the rich white girl joined the L terrorist group rather than go free. Yay, she chose terrorism over capitalism & this is a righteous cause.

When it's a L group that terrorizes people, like the Charles Manson murders, they are featured in movies all the time because they are looked upon as revolutionaries & should be celebrated (like Che Rivera & Fidel Castro). Hollywood loves Communists so much they've made multiple movies defending them & have inserted lines into other movies lamenting the fact that Communists are disappearing. It's comical that the R is always portrayed as buddies to the Russians, when it's the L that prefers a Russian system.

We will never Know?

[EmmeCHammer · 8/10 · 16 February 2020]

I remember just being a kid but I loved history and I was absolutely enamored with this stuff. I've seen this movie a few times and Ving and Natasha (God rest your soul) were brilliant. Ving was overpowering in one of his early roles and Richardson kept her foreign accent in check and was great as Patty Hearst. I'll never forget being a young teen watching the real Patty Hearst on the news and became a pop culture icon hated and loved and doubted and believed , always a mystery to this day. Though this movie is from Patty's perspective, she was found guilty then pardoned or sentence converted. She later became an actress and I always had to watch her not for her acting abilities but just thinking what this women went through and there she is. Regardless of what we think she did go through SOMETHING bad, though we'll never know the truth and she did get out of prison because she was from one of the richest families in the US at the time. This story is so intriguing and like they say u can't make this up. You think you know but we'll NEVER know.

Poor to say the least

[pietclausen · 3/10 · 13 June 2020]

I always found this event an interesting story and followed it in real life as it happened in the 70's. Watching this movie is not a good reflection of what really happened.

Patricia Hearst as she is called nowadays is an actress, writer and producer. She is no longer married to Bernard Lee Shaw as he passed away in 2013.

Patty Hearst MGM DVD on Demand Quality review

[pallmallguy · 10/10 · 2 May 2011]

PATTY HEARST MGM DVD on Demand Quality Review This DVD is not digitally remastered but taken from the best print available so says the the makers of this DVD.

The movie is presented in widescreen which makes it a step up from the VHS and region 2 DVD releases.

Picture quality is very good much better then VHS and the region 2 releases, but thats not to say it's perfect.

There is some grain and video spotting in parts of the film most notably in the court room scenes. The early part of the movie is very clear. With this part of the movie being mostly in shadow and darkness the picture quality is excellent. You can see the background in these scenes much clearer then in the VHS and region 2 copies of the movie.Over all the picture quality is very good, on a scale for 1 to 10, 1 being VHS tape quality

and 10 being digitally remaster DVD quality I would give this release an 8 for picture quality.

Sound quality is excellent. The sound is very well balanced with dialog being crisp and clear and the music score is clear without being over powering. There is no unwanted background noise (hiss,hum,or buzzing). I would give this release an 9 for sound quality on a scale from 1 to 10.

The only extra is the movie trailer. There is no chapter search screen, you can jump ahead in the movie every 10 minutes by using the |<< >>| buttons on your DVD players remote.

Could Have Been More Captivating

[qormi · 4/10 · 4 June 2011]

The film held your interest throughout. The storyline was true to the events and there was absolutely no "preaching". The movie did not have an agenda and that was good. The ordeal Patty Hearst went through should have been more graphic or more powerful. She ended up coming off as a ditz - a dimwit. The members of the SLA were laughable. Cinque's politically motivated tirades were comical:"Capitalist oppressor pigs of Amerikkka!!!" Funny stuff. William Forsythe, who usually puts forth a convincing performance as the heavy (see "Out for Justice"), seemed to be on comic relief mode. He seemed like a member of "Saturday Night Live" doing a satire of this character. The film was obviously low budget. It should have shown the shootout in detail and the SLA members burning inside their hideout. This was glossed over and just showed televised news coverage of the burning house. The end did show the letdown Patty Hearst received when the media turned on her and law enforcement officials treated her badly. I don't think Natasha Richardson was up to the task. She really didn't convey any emotions other than confusion.

comment on FAQ commentary

[matlock777 · 9/10 · 9 June 2007]

To the commentator of FAQ:

Did you know that it may not be an anachronism for a 1975 car to be in a movie made for 1974 because you did not know that when the companies make the vehicles they make them 6 months before they send it out, they put the date as of that year that they come out. In other words, a vehicle is 1st manufactured in 6/1974-12/1974, but the company always would call it a 1975 model. Then, they make it from 1/1975-6/1975, and also gets the year model of 1975. I found that out a long time ago, 15-20 years ago. They do that every year. Therefore, it would not be an anachronism for a 1975 model to be given to a movie company for a 1974 movie.

Vive la Revolution!

[buiger · 3/10 · 31 March 2012]

I totally agree with Hal Hinson's review here. His below phrase says it all, perfectly characterizing this movie: "What one hopes for in "Patty Hearst" is a movie that would straighten out the tangles of her life, and make sense of the woman and her story. But making sense has never been Paul Schrader's strength as a director, and not only does he refuse to sort out her tale, but he ties a few stubborn knots of his own." What a pity not to have dug deeper, tried to understand why she acted as she did and what she really believed. A great true story wasted...

P.S. Trust the French to nominate this film for an award (Cannes film Festival). I suppose the jury was sorry they weren't there in 1974 so that they too (together with Schrader) can all merrily join the Symbionese Liberation Army! Vive la Revolution!

Shrader and Richardson deserved Oscars

[hollywoodshack · 10/10 · 22 February 2021]

Director Paul Shrader and Natasha Richardson should have been shoe-ins to win on Academy Award night with her hard-hitting performance as Patty Hearst, kidnapped and brainwashed into performing a series of bank robberies. The absurdity of the state's case against Patty is shown when a District Attorney questions her at the trial as to whether she ever remembered to send her parents a birthday card after her kidnapping. Natasha will be missed, passing away at a ripe age when an Oscar-winning part just might have come her way.

a genuine Media icon

[jongordon · 26 January 2006]

Considering the film was made in 1988 I think it is now probably time for a remake, starring Karen 0 perhaps. It is quite cool that Patty herself was in 'Serial Mom', I remember seeing that in the cinema and Kathleen Turner made me laugh a lot. Anyway I wanna Patty with gun & SLA emblem tshirt does anyone make those? Much cooler than that jerk Guevara. Countercultural morale must've gone through the roof that weekend but Dog Day Afternoon is still the major squeeze 'hostage' film from that period. Get Jack White to play the SLA gangleader and Meg White to play Patty's mom. And how would a similar subject get handled today? Probably it wouldn't without the public chastisment of the bad girl from the good family.

Decent

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 27 August 2022]

Directed by Paul Schrader and written by Nicholas Kazan based on the book Every Secret Thing by Hearst with Alvin Moscow, this film tells how rich college student Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, how she became an active SLA member and her arrest after a series of armed robberies.

The performance of Natasha Richardson and the way that Schrader frames Patty being locked in a closet for weeks with her emergence into being part of her SLA cells' lives makes this movie more than a cash-in "torn from the headlines" exploitation movie. Plus, there's Ving Rhames as SLA leader Cinque Mtume, William Forsythe as Teko, Francis Fisher as his wife Yolanda and Dana Delaney as Gelinda.

I've always wondered whether Hearst's Stockholm Syndrome defense was true or if she wanted to escape the shadow of her rich family and live the life she'd only read about in college. Even with this movie and years of books and interviews, I don't think we'll ever know.

The film closes with this: "Patricia Hearst was granted a Presidential commutation of her sentence on February 1st, 1979 and now lives on the East Coast. She is married to Bernard Shaw, her former bodyguard. Efforts to overturn her conviction have been futile. Bill Harris (Teko) and Emily Harris (Yolanda) were found guilty of kidnapping, robbery and auto theft and served 8 years in prison. They are now separated. Bill works for a legal firm in Northern California. Emily lives in Los Angeles County. Wendy Yoshimura was convicted on unrelated weapons charges and served a short term in prison. She works at a restaurant in Northern California. None of the later SLA members were convicted of any crimes. Randolph and Katherine Hearst are divorced. He is now remarried. She lives in Southern California. Stephen Weed published a book, My Search for Patty Hearst. To this date, she is not spoken to him. F. Lee Bailey also wrote a book about the case, but to date it has not been published. District attorney Jim Browning is now a judge. The proprietor of Mel's Sporting Goods sued Patricia Hearst and the Harrises claiming the shooting at his store rendered him incapable of performing his duties as a spouse."

Patricia Hearst - A Fascinating Tale of Tragedy and Triumph

[arthur_tafero · 8/10 · 24 February 2022]

I once met Patricia Hearst while I was married to a content editor for Hearst Publications. She struck me as a savvy, confident, and meticulous individual. She appeared to me to be similar to her renowned grandfather. This film has two outstanding performances; Natasha Richardson as Hearst, and Ving Rhames, as the dynamic SLA leader. The other members of the cast were more than adequate for their roles. One must try to put one's self in Ms Hearst's shoes at the time of her abduction. How would you have survived? How would you have defended yourself after being apprehended by the authorities? It was a triumph of the will of Patty Hearst that she survived. And, of course, these events were a tragedy of the highest nature. How would you like to have your daughter kidnapped by a Marxist Revolutionary group? She survived because she was smarter and stronger than any of the people she was abducted by. Her psychic recovery from this ordeal was nothing short of a miracle. To make matters worse, the legal system added insult to injury, but Ms Hearst was able to eventually handle them as well. A film well worth viewing for several reasons.