Like another famous bunny, Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner keeps going … and going …. Director Brigitte Berman's nostalgic documentary profile, while obviously pro-Hef, nevertheless packs the witness stand with both admirers (Dick Gregory, Gene Simmons, Mike Wallace, Dr. Ruth, Dick Cavett, and others) and detractors (including Pat Boone, who joins feminist naysayers here). Supplementing the interviews and rare archival footage, digital animation brings to life Hefner's early career via autobiographical cartoons (we learn that the iconic rabbit was originally a stag). As the title suggests, the story also looks at the head Bunny wrangler as a political animal. Hefner shouldered considerable expense to ensure his Playboy clubs were racially integrated; welcomed black (and blacklisted) writers and performers (in the magazine, at jazz festivals, and on his TV shows); championed jailed comic Lenny Bruce; and worked for marijuana reform and abortion/contraception rights for women. With varying persuasiveness, the film argues that Playboy's financial travails and drug scandals were the result of government/FBI smears and conservative persecution (no mention is made that down-market competitor Larry Flynt stakes a similar claim). Throughout, the wizened and well-spoken Hefner comes across as somewhat surprisingly smart and sharp for a man who built an empire on louche hedonism. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
(2010) 124 min. DVD: $29.99. Phase 4 Films (avail. from most distributors). Closed captioned. Volume 26, Issue 2
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
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