Hi, Mom!

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Brian De Palma takes on late 1960s media culture in his followup to Greetings (1968). Seeking a place in New York life one way or another, Vietnam vet John Rubin (Robert De Niro) moves into a Greenwich Village dive, with hopes of becoming a director for porn king Joe Banner (Allen Garfield). Rubin sells Banner on his idea to make "Peep Art" by filming the racy action in the building windows across from his apartment. He plans to seduce talky window denizen Judy (Jennifer Salt) to get the film he wants; but when that plan fails, John trades his camera for a TV and joins a radical theater troupe for their performance piece, "Be Black Baby." Inspired by the radicals, John decides to make his own violent political statement -- or does he just want to be on TV? Mixing long passages of the TV-framed "Be Black Baby" with John's misadventures in Manhattan, the film sends up political extremism, liberal guilt, and the Chicago 1968 protestors' mantra that "the whole world is watching," as it all becomes one big staged performance for the cameras. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard), 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Pan and Scan, Black and White, Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: Spanish, French, English
• Features:
  • • cc Original theatrical trailer

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Brian De Palma

• Producer:

  Charles Hirsch

• Screenwriter:

  Brian De Palma

• Cinematographer:

  Robert Elfstrom

• Songwriter:

  John Andreoni

• Composer (Music Score):

  Eric Katz

• Songwriter:

  Eric Katz

• Editor:

  Paul Hirsch

• Art Director:

  Peter Bocour

REVIEW:

• Lurking beneath the humor of director Brian De Palma's irreverent breakthrough comedy is the politically charged suggestion that, in an already hyped-up environment, Vietnam vets may not be so easily re-assimilated to the home front. The main character of Rubin is something of a precursor to star Robert De Niro's ultra-violent, ultra-alienated Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). Independently produced, and shot for very little money on location in the Village, the film has a loose narrative structure and apt downtown details that give it a keen feel for the counterculture milieu on which it comments. More a cult favorite than a mainstream success, the film spotlights De Palma's visual smarts and interest in media voyeurism, and De Niro's off-kilter Rubin, retrospectively making Hi, Mom! a clever forerunner of the subsequent '70s work of both men. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi