Guerrilla: The Taking Of Patty Hearst

In 1974 a small group naming themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) declared guerrilla warfare against the USA. Their aim was to bring "death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people." And so began a saga exploding with murder, robbery... and the kidnapping of a media heiress.

Beginning with the ominous role call of the now infamous SLA, Robert Stone's definitive documentary details the "terror" group's rise and subsequent fall. His aim: to present all the facts - leaving some questions to be answered by the audience, others by history itself. It is a complicated affair and, like the frenzied attention placed upon the SLA's exploits, his film makes for compulsive viewing.

Pieced together from newsreel footage, CCTV and interviews with the people involved, including former SLA members, Stone uses his investigative skills (he was Oscar nommed for the 1987 doc, Radio Bikini) to retell the story in his own archival style. Through the frenzied, soap operatic coverage placed upon the unfolding drama, Guerrilla highlights the threat served against America during the Seventies and the way in which the media responded.

Following the kidnapping of Patty - grandaughter of Randolph - Hearst, Stone kickstarts into a full-on trajectory, where fact and fiction are only to be seen to be believed. Accompanied by her laconic taped addresses to the world outside, Patty becomes a subject of national scrutiny. Watched by a massed rally of reporters and news teams, her transformation from captor to "brainwashed" Tania, warrior of the SLA, brings up many of the film's core head scratchers. Did she experience so-called Stockholm Syndrome? Was she forced into the entire saga? And, ultimately, did the SLA serve a just purpose?

Packed with enough mind altering revelations to keep you gripped for its duration, it is the aftermath that hits home the hardest, as the decimated SLA lies in tatters and the fugitive Hearst is locked away. After early release, she becomes something of an oddity, with her subsequent rise to celebrity and movie stardom - aside from TV appearences, she became a regular in John Waters flicks.

"Terrorism has been turned into a form of mass entertainment," Stone concludes.

Detailed and engrossing, the simplicity of this exceptional documentary charts a burgeoning time in American society. It may not be revolutionay, but it's damn close.