The current United States administration, in its attempt at curbing the actions of radical anarchists should, instead of churning out blatantly propagandist media, get behind indie documentaries such as ‘Guerilla: The Taking Of Patty Hearst’.

In an excellent account of a revolutionary treason, the 2004 film previously known as ‘Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army’, directed by Robert Stone, chronicles the short-lived reign of the extremist socio-political group the SLA.

Really just a collection of frustrated white college kids led by a black prison escapee, the so-called revolutionaries were bent on making radical changes through extreme means. One of the ends to the means was the mafia-styled ‘taking’ of millionaire heiress Patricia Hearst.

As the drama unfolds, ‘enemies’ are murdered, ‘army operatives’ are taken prisoner, and Patricia, fed-up with the rich separatist life she was leading, falls in love with an SLA member, dumps her snatch-stached fiancé, disowns her family, and converts, renaming herself Tania.

A dramatic, near unbelievable, twist that could not have been scripted any better had this been a Hollywood blockbuster. The Hearst family cries foul. “She has been brainwashed” they speculate. The public cheers Tania’s admonishment of the upper crust from which she came. The viewer is left briefly confused.

But the SLA wastes very little time, and on her first outing there is not doubt that the then nineteen-year-old Patricia is a new woman. “This is Tania” she is recorded mouthing on closed-circuit television while wielding a machine gun during an SLA orchestrated bank hold-up, “get on the fucking floor.”

You hear her voice though various taped communiqué outwardly rejecting her past life, and you cannot help but sense that in her lies a woman that is searching for someone or for something to need her. In the SLA she finds such a cause and with every recitation of the SLA’s motto, “Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people”, she steps out from the shadow of her infamous granddad, William Randolph Hearst.

Though an experience very personal to the Hearst family, the kidnapping is gets extensive media attention through the granted demands of the SLA. The small anarchist group makes a mockery of the FBI, brings national focus to their cause, and for a short period feeds the poor as Patricia through recorded pleas encourages her dad to pick up the tab.

But Tania’s allegiance only lasts as long as it takes for the nihilist fairytale to end. The band switches cities (but strangely not states), the LA police set fire to a house where key members are hold up, causing their death, then in a botched bank robbery escape, the remaining members, Patricia ‘Tania’ Hearst included, are captured.

Patricia sobers up a little too quickly from what she describes as an experience similar to a trip on LSD. Like a reverse Cinderella, at the point of capture she transforms from Tania back to Patricia, and her guerilla mind state magically disappears, replaced by the sorry sniveling rich girl mentally you assume she had prior to becoming a public power figure.

She plays in to the widely publicized speculations that, though she originally discounted the notion, her mind was being controlled by the SLA. Patricia Hearst, instrumental in at least one murder and several acts of terror, was only sentenced to seven years in prison, of which she only serves two, pardoned by President Reagan.

The film ends with Patricia firmly inserting her fist up the collective asses of ex-SLA members and supporters. While the other members were serving time for murder, Patricia, who went on to play supporting roles in a slew of John Waters directed films, appears as a guest on a modern-day talk show. She walks down the set’s stairs with a wooden toothed smile as jarring music scores her sashay across the stage. To the host’s question about what her experience with the SLA was like, she gleeful responds, “It was totally awesome”.

Stone’s documentary serves as a damning blow to radical ideals. It illustrates that revolution does not mix well with fun times, braggadocio, and lack of street smarts. But most of all the film should exist as a deterrent to any band of angst-ridden teens planning on running around shouting ‘Anarchy’ when really they just want to bask in public attention.

Netflix it.

+ also published on the Pixel Surgeon website