Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: November 26, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A gripping documentary that uses voluminous period evidence — unedited news footage, tape recordings of SLA leader Cinque's rants — to brilliantly reconstruct the entire freak event. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A must-see account that casts a harshly illuminating light on a key period of recent American history. Read full review
90
Film ThreatTim Merrill
The story goes on and on, endlessly fascinating to the last - the sensational trial, the convictions, the revelations, the recriminations. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Gathers riveting, rarely seen news clips from the era into a chronology that plays like a suspenseful police drama. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Drawing on interviews with SLA co-founder Russ Little and amazing TV news footage, Robert Stone illuminates this fantastic narrative as vividly as it has ever been. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
A compelling piece of press criticism as it probes the media as terror's conduit of choice, spreading message and validating violence in the 1970s and today. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Guerrilla provides one huge compensation: the getting of historical wisdom. Read full review
80
VarietyRobert Koehler
Superbly researched and constructed, pic is an improvement over last year's "The Weather Underground," which backed away from judging political terror on the left. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
That a ragtag group of intellectuals and misfits could so blindside the FBI and hold the media in its grip is an especially sobering aspect of this dynamically told story. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Uses social and historical perspective to explain what happened then and, perhaps inadvertently, what's happening now. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
An insightful time capsule. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
It does manage to put a somewhat complex human face on the domestic troublemakers, if not their exploits. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
A remarkably clear-eyed look back at a moment in which real revolution seemed possible - even probable - in America's streets. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Plays out smaller and less climactic than the way anyone old enough to recall will remember. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Provocative documentary. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
There are no fresh revelations and the film can't touch Paul Schrader's 1988 drama, "Patty Hearst," as an inside account. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Though Hearst is the hook, Stone's unwavering focus is on the heady mix of social and personal dynamics that spawned the SLA. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Guerrilla' is an engaging film, but it's a documentary and nothing more. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Guerrilla still holds up as social history, primarily because its description of seething frustration in a divided America has become spookily relevant. Read full review
30
Washington PostPhilip Kennicott
Stone's film is a case study in cultural analysis that aims at too much and achieves too little. Read full review
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