The beginning, in which Patty is kidnapped and Schrader films her captors from her perspective as harsh backlight washes out figures and overwhelms eyes accustomed to darkness, is so stunningly unnerving and even reminded me of Pedro Costa in its static but charged framing. (Schrader, it now occurs to me, is perhaps the definitive American filmmaker of enclosed, claustrophobic spaces.) Once Patty becomes welcomed into the fold of her kidnappers' army, the film literally and figuratively opens up, becoming a kind of parodic midpoint between a Carpenter thriller and La Chinoise. It's obvious that Schrader's sympathies lie with Patty and that his opinion of the SLA ranges from amused contempt to bemused contempt, and he wrings something surprisingly funny from…

This movie is pretty dated in many aspects, but atop all of that it captures everything that made the Patty Hearst case so fascinating to begin with.

If there's anything that strikes oneself upon first glimpse from watching Paul Schrader's Patty Hearst, it can already be felt from the way he observes how she is brainwashed into doing exactly what she does, but also how her actions affected the world around her.

At the center, Natasha Richardson's portrayal of Hearst is a heart-stealer all around, it's more than just a shame that we lost her so tragically too. You can already feel Hearst's own belief system being continually warped the more she spends time with her own captors in Schrader's…

A month or so I wrote about how Light Of Day was a strange follow up to the highly stylized Mishima for Paul Schrader. And with Patty Hearst it’s a half continuation of that physically boxed-in style; a much more fitting follow-up, indeed. Where Mishima thoughtfully engaged with another culture, Hearst is full blown American paranoia. The first 30 minutes are a tour-de-force of claustrophobia; a Stockholm Syndrome of high society played out through open doors into darkness. Ving Rhames’ voice encasing doorways that are otherwise shrouded in darkness and blinding white light. Though it’s all dark for the captive with the blindfold and for the viewer with the lighting, Schrader has previously established that the other room, where the revolutionaries hang…

Paul Schrader's take on the Patty Hearst story, based on her own autobiography concerning the events, is a truly distinctive movie, blessed by both Schrader's passionate and perverse style and a fantastic central performance from Natasha Richardson.

Patty Hearst, the 19 year old heiress of America's most famous newspaper family, was kidnapped in 1974 by a group calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army; a revolutionary group of urban guerrillas led by a verbose intimidating black man, Cinque (played here by Ving Rhames). During her captivity, Hearst would become the world's most infamous victim of the 'Stockholm Syndrome', a condition in which the victim is brainwashed to be sympathetic to, and ultimately active in, their kidnappers beliefs and actions. Following her…

Definitely more about Patty Hearst then the political circumstances surrounding what happened to her, which is a natural consequence of being based on her autobiography. I don’t know if it would be possible to tell Patty Hearst’s story from her perspective - the story of a woman who was kidnapped and (possibly) brainwashed by a revolutionary group - without demonizing the revolutionary group in question at least a little.

This film doesn’t exactly offer a clear cut answer about Patty Hearst. There’s some suggestion that she comes to genuinely believe the SLA’s cause, there’s some suggestion that she was manipulated into believing them, there’s some suggestion that she was only doing what she was told to do to prevent further…

Friend needed a link, I needed a movie to watch, a voila, here it is.

This certainly fits within the realm of Mishima, following the trajectory of one woman as she becomes indoctrinated into a fairly militant group of leftists. Combine that with all the free-love and white guilt of the late 1960's and you get the Symbianese Liberation army.

The film is shot from the unclear but hyper-realized vantage point of Patty Hearst as she struggles to make sense of her situation. Dramatically lit rooms feature discussions, monologues, and expository dialogues as Patty is trying to understand her new reality. Paul Schraeder is fascinating in this view of the characters that populate this small organization. You also see the…

Paul Schrader Retrospective (No. 15)

This has to be one of the more obscure and difficult to find works of Paul Schrader. 

Patty Hearst is a biopic on the life of the kidnapped socialite who was brainwashed into joining the guerilla terrorist group, The SLA. Paul Schrader directs her story with an ultimately effective, surrealist approach as we subjectively traverse through the dreamlike nightmare Hearst was forced to live through. It works as an example on how to create an effective and appropriate atmosphere for the storyline it’s accompanying.

Natasha Richardson is brilliant as Patty Hearst and Ving Rhames gives a top 10 performance as SLA leader, Cinque. Unfortunately, the rest of the SLA is cast by a group of…

this is the second time i've read about a really fascinating part of history, thought "wow this would make a good film" only to realise that paul schrader has done one already, at which point i let out a sigh of disappointment. the first was mishima (a film i have yet to see, but i predict it will just coincidentally be much more empathetic to the fascist leanings of yukio mishima than any of the ideology on show here). before i briefly moan about how annoying this film is politically, i just want to say that it was somehow extremely aggravating but also relentlessly boring in the second half. the cinematography was great though, and i was pretty engaged until…