Uncle Bob

This documentary tells the story of Robert Opel, best known as the streaker who ran naked across the stage of the 1974 Academy Awards ceremony. Opel later repeated his exhibitionistic gag (once at an L.A. city council meeting, behind controversial police chief Daryl Gates), but his public life encompassed much more. Opel was a photographer and gallery owner in San Francisco in the '70s, riding a wave of extreme LGBT subculture and pop-pornography. Included here are interviews with contemporaries and celebrities including John Waters, Divine, and Elizabeth Taylor. But far too much of Uncle Bob's running time is devoted to redundant details concerning visual and performance art focusing on fetishistic sex, which Opel participated in both behind and in front of cameras (much of this material is hardcore pornographic). The film's director, Opel's nephew Robert Oppel (the different spelling is intentional), takes quite a while to arrive at his real subject—Opel's 1979 murder during a break-in at his gallery by thugs looking for drug money. The younger Oppel's rage and confusion over unanswered questions regarding the killing of his uncle interfere with his ability to tell the story clearly, and he fails to persuade viewers that Opel's life and tragic death were somehow broadly significant. DVD extras include bonus interviews, a “making-of” featurette, a music video, and a photo gallery. Not recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)