Synopsis: Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel takes A revealing look at the outspoken, flamboyant founder of the Playboy empire. With humor and insight, the film captures Hefner’s fierce battles with the government, the religious right and militant feminists. Rare footage and compelling interviews with a remarkable who’s who of the 20th Century American pop culture, present a brilliant and entertaining snapshot of the life of an extraordinary man and the controversies that surrounded him.
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Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel 8.25

A thoroughly satisfying and fascinating look at the man many revere and others love to hate.

From his beginnings doing cartooning, to his success with Playboy and his indelible impact on pop culture and on civil rights and social movements (because, what a lot of people don’t know is that, despite his penchant for objectifying women, he also took on racism, homophobia, American foreign policy, the drug wars, …etc.), we get a pretty complete portrait of, like him or not, a very interesting individual.

It may be surprising to find out that he also helped move the sexual revolution forward in various ways: by providing lawyers to people who were unjustly incarcerated for sex acts that were then considered criminal (yes, even oral sex was a crime back then!), being a vocal proponent of birth control and a woman’s right to choose, and so forth. It wasn’t all about the bunnies.

The film is filled with tons of historical footage, interviews with writers, filmmakers, musicians, political activist, journalists, and many many more. It truly provides as an good overview of a whole life (85 years and counting!) as 2 hours will allow – which is exactly what a documentary should aim for. In that respect, it’s a resounding success.

Sadly, the film speeds through the ’90s and 00s. But I suspect that, by then, Hefner was no longer as culturally significant as he once was and there was only so much material that they could cull from. That was quite disappointing to me, seeing as the rest was detailed, and felt complete – i would have liked to continue having stuff to sink my teeth into. Oh well.

A couple of surprising things about this film (at least, I never expected this!): it’s a Canadian production, and it was written and directed by a woman. Hmmm…