I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)

You're just being paranoid ...

Andy Warhol once said that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. How ironic (or is it?) that not even he was immune from someone looking for their 15 minutes at his expense. It nearly cost him his life, but we got to see the true story of the woman behind the myth when it came to Andy Warhol's career.

Valerie Solarnis was angry at the world, to say the least. She was a lesbian hooker in New York who was looking to publish her SCUM manifesto (the Society for Cutting Up Men). Indeed she had even presented it as her final thesis in college, why men are biologically inferrior to women. Eventually, she joins forces with a few of the trendy people, and gains access to The Factory. Here she meets Andy and the rest of his Warhol Superstars, a bunch of creative, eccentric people who are both innovative and pretentious. Heady with the promise of being with the In Crowd, Valerie even appears in one of Andy's Movies "I A Man", she anxiously hopes that he will publish her work. Andy, not really caring for it, yet just as vain as the next celebrity, puts her down. As she is descending into paranoia and obsessing on her own causes, Valerie walks into the Factory one day, pulls out a gun, and shoots Andy. She then walks out onto the street, hands to gun over to a policeman who just happened to be there on his beat, and said "I shot Andy Warhol".

What is this all about really? Mental health? Making a statement to others? Showing us that she was right and the whole rest of the world is wrong? No, it's about fame. She got her 15 minutes of fame. Then she was committed to a mental hospital and died there. End of story. She wasn't really trying to get her point across, she was just another nutcase who targeted a celebrity to make herself famous. Is that all it is? Yeah, that's all it is! August 3, 2007

A Bizarre Film about Bizarre People

The 1996 film "I Shot Andy Warhol" is a bizarre film based upon the true story of a bizarre woman named Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor) who, in the late 1960's in Manhattan, became an acquaintance of the famous pop artist Andy Warhol (Jared Harris). Obsessed with misandry and blaming men for all of the world's problems, Valerie wrote a booklet advocating an anarchistic and violent revolution to be carried out by women in order to create a female-only society. Valerie used the booklet, which she named the "SCUM Manifesto" (where SCUM referred to "Society for Cutting Up Men"), as a way to try and make money, often by attempting to sell copies (that she had typed & copied herself) on the streets of New York City, and at parties given by Andy Warhol at his famous art studio known as "The Factory" to which Andy had invited her. (During the film, Valerie is often shown quoting directly from the "SCUM Manifesto".) Valerie also wrote a play equally hateful of men that she asked Andy Warhol to produce, but his apparent lack of interest and misplacement of her only copy that she had lent him to read angered the already highly irrational Valerie. This encouraged Andy to ignore Valerie and set the stage for the film's final scenes.

Though often times difficult to watch with the scenes involving drug use and the various odd people that were part of Andy Warhol's life in New York City, it is the quality of the acting performances given principally by Lili Taylor, Jared Harris and Stephen Dorff (who played the drag queen known as Candy Darling, the only man that Valerie appeared to trust) that made "I Shot Andy Warhol" worth watching. For her efforts, Lili Taylor won a special recognition award for her performance in "I Shot Andy Warhol" at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. The film, though low-budget, had very high production values and cinematography. Hence, my overall rating for "I Shot Andy Warhol" is 4 out of 5 stars.
February 18, 2007

Lack of ambition!

I shot Andy Warhol was by itself a fortunate idea but to my view, wasted the fabulous opportunity to show both sides of the coin. And the script would seem to be much more interested around the tragic anima and the psychical disturbances of the woman in question rather than to remark Warhol' s relevance in the Pop Art. Perhaps the aim was to consider his murder as simply a departure point, as historical reference and nothing else.
January 13, 2007

Compelling look at some pretty bizzare people.

I really enjoyed this film. As a Factory fan, I was hesitant to get this, perhaps due to the off-putting title. But I'm glad I did. The acting was great, especially the actor who played Warhol himself - dead on. Also, Ms. Taylor was 100% believable as the unfortunate, demented, freaky Valarie Solanas.

I notice that a lot of negative reviews for this and other films consist of a rant about the film being the worst they ever saw, a waste of 2 hours, etc., but these folks never explain WHY they didn't like it. This is true for some of the bad reviews here.

Additionally, I'm not sure that that filmmaker Harron not taking a blantant stance against the SCUM Manifesto constitutes and endorsment of it; rather the opposite. It seems to me that Solanas' rants are so out there and crazy that it isn't necessary to say "Hey, this is wrong/bad/whatever." Her insane writtings speak for themselves. Why do people need to be spoon fed the obvious?

While not a masterpiece (hence the 4 stars), this certainly is a good movie and a fascinating subject. It is clearly not for everyone, as some of the reviews here illustrate. If you are into Warhol, 60's radicalism, the art scene, or that varried social movement called feminism, you'll like this movie. If not, this film is not for you. September 23, 2006

Not a bad reconstruction of the early 70's

But not the best either. Lily Taylor was terrific as the truthful and talented, but lost Valarie. And if you've ever seen footage on Andy and heard him talk, Jarrid nailed him. So vague and spacey, but that was Andy. This movie somehow shows how loud and pointless the 70's really were. But, see it for the bad fashion and people who aren't around anymore. February 11, 2006

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