The bizarre saga of the Symbionese Liberation Army and the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patricia Hearst seems no less bizarre thirty years later, but from this distance, a new documentary brings the chaotic events into clear focus. Probably more for those who remember the time, whether recalling it with charity, or as widening the generation gap of those tumultuous times. The SLA was a radical San Francisco Bay area grassroots group that sprang from members of the political left Berkeley underground. A strange made-up name and violent tactics that pushed the limit even in those turbulent years led most of the group to a fiery death in their LA hideout.

As one of the chief contributors in the film and former SLA member, Mike Bortin, says, folks weren’t lining up to join, but there was a large groundswell of people in San Francisco and Berkeley who thought it was pretty cool at the start. Trading a hostage with enormous wealth for an instant food program to feed the hungry didn’t seem so bad. As the film points out, though the Hearsts were wealthy (Patty's grandfather was William Randolph Hearst, made infamous by Orson Wells in the thinly veiled character of Citizen Kane), coming up with $400 million in food was a ludicrous demand. Not to mention the difficulty of implementing such a program overnight.

The kidnapping thrust the SLA into a media feeding frenzy that fueled the debacle and allowed the group to gain control over media sway, astonishing in today’s world of spin doctors.

Initial public support waned dramatically after Patty went over to the dark side with her captors, and the holdup of the San Francisco Sunset neighborhood branch of the Hibernia Bank, in which an armed Patty was captured on camera actively participating. She claimed at her trial that she was forced to participate and that security cameras show SLA guns aimed at her. This defense did not spare her a guilty sentence and she served some time in prison.

The striking color photo (most news was still in black and white) of Patty with her gun and the SLA seven-headed snake symbol became ubiquitous in the media circus that continued for many months. Sifting through old news coverage, director Robert Stone brings order to the events, and a logic of sorts to the machinations inside the SLA. The FBI had no idea what they were looking for. The film suggests these events might be considered the dawn of domestic terrorism as we now know it, but acknowledges the sharp contrast in support from the community at the time. It must be remembered that the SDS, the Weathermen, and the Black Panther party were potent and very influential forces then, though the SLA failed to come together.

People did die, harm was done, resources were wasted, but irresponsible behavior was not limited to the outlaws. Peppered with amusing and appropriate clips of dialog from such heroic outlaws as Errol Flynn as Robin Hood, the film implies we might lighten up a bit in our worry over anarchy, perhaps it is right.