Mystery, fear and bumbling of the SLA

Among the events that helped finish off ‘60s idealism, such as Watergate and the fall of Saigon, belongs the spectacular flameout of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the domestic terrorist group that earned its greatest notoriety for the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst in 1974.

Director Robert Stone’s documentary “Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst” (which premiered at Sundance in January under the more precise title “Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army”) is an in-depth look at the SLA, full of an impressive amount of historical footage and interviews with former members, journalists and other observers.

Stone characterizes the SLA as a gang that couldn’t shoot straight, a ragtag group whose misguided principles and ideals were increasingly corrupted as they botched a series of criminal acts. From the wrongheaded 1973 assassination of Oakland schools superintendent Marcus Foster to the high-profile bank robberies the group used to finance its mission, the SLA’s brief, fiery reign as an enigmatic band of would-be revolutionaries was plagued by failure.

The exception, of course, was the Hearst kidnapping, which became that era’s O.J. Simpson chase, a story so compelling that the media covered it with unprecedented saturation.

If there was one thing the SLA did well it was spin and hyperbolize. Its use of paramilitary jargon seemingly led the FBI to overestimate the group’s firepower and belied its small numbers and lack of philosophical focus.

The mystery that initially shrouded the confederation was perpetuated by the media, which did little other than give the SLA exposure for its arcane political ultimatums and camp out in front of the Hearst mansion in Hillsborough, Calif., waiting for Randolph Hearst to respond to the latest ransom demand.

Interviews with former SLA members Russ Little, who served six years in the Foster murder before being acquitted in a retrial, and Mike Bortin, sentenced last year in connection with the 1975 murder of a woman during a bank robbery in Carmichael, Calif., prove revealing.

More than anything, the film makes the point that the exploits of a small group helped derail the radical movement that had evolved during the previous decade.

Stone made a conscious decision not to interview Patty Hearst for the film, a choice that helps keep the focus on the SLA. Her side of the story has been well chronicled and she’s a strong presence in the film via good use of the audiotapes recorded while she was held captive that trace her transformation from hostage to avowed radical. However, Stone errs in the use of a clip from a later television chat show that makes Hearst seem ridiculous and casts doubts on the filmmaker’s motives.

In some ways, Stone’s exhaustive treatment of the SLA diminishes the perception of the group’s threat at the time the events took place. It’s actually difficult to imagine from watching the film that a handful of militant Berkeley activists could not only hold the nation’s attention but genuinely inspire terror with the mere mention of the collective’s name. Even the infamous May 1974 shootout in which six SLA members died in a blaze of gunfire, woefully outgunned by the LAPD, plays out smaller and less climactic than the way anyone old enough to recall will remember.

*

‘Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Language, violent images

A Magnolia Pictures release. Producer-director Robert Stone. Editor-co-producer Don Kleszy. Camera Howard Shack, Richard Neill, Robert Stone. Music Gary Lionelli. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

Exclusively at the Nuart through Thursday, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 281-8223.