'Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel' review: Helping make history, for good or ill

During my junior year of college, I experienced a surreal moment unrelated to illicit substances: There I sat, the lone student in the campus library’s vast Rare Books room, flipping through an early ‘60s issue of Playboy while an elderly female librarian paced nearby with what I imagined must be a dour look of disapproval.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t participating in a fraternity prank but rather researching a history paper on Muhammad Ali and his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War. Tucked among this Playboy’s scantily clad (if that) women was a probing interview with Ali, conducted by Malcolm X biographer Alex Haley, regarding his conversion to the Nation of Islam.

That seemingly incongruous combination of sophistication and ribaldry is chronicled in the new documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, which highlights the wild life and times of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and his taboo-breaking magazine.

Oscar winner Brigitte Berman’s doc gets off to a inauspicious start, with grating sound bites from the likes of Kiss bassist Gene Simmons and Playmate/actress Jenny McCarthy making an unconvincing case for Hef’s cultural importance. Fortunately, Berman has a plethora of more surprising and insightful interview subjects up her sleeve, from Mike Wallace and Joan Baez to Jim Brown and George Lucas. Even better, she provides welcome balance by interviewing Hefner critics such as Christian activist and singer Pat Boone and feminist Susan Brownmiller.

Playboy, Activist and Rebel traces Hef’s life from outgoing teenager to Viagra-toting octogenarian. It’s hard to believe he started out as the prototypical ‘50s dad—married, two kids and working for a children’s magazine. But before long Hefner was raising start-up cash for a considerably more racy publication tentatively titled Stag Party.

When he scored a naked Marilyn Monroe photo for what became Playboy’s first issue in 1953, he was on his way to becoming a publishing sensation. By decade’s end, Playboy’s circulation was in the millions.

Berman’s documentary reaches beyond the naked women and into a treasure trove of archival footage that makes a convincing case for Hefner as activist and rebel. Without giving away too many of the film’s surprises, you’ll learn about the leading authors that were first published in Playboy, how Hefner gave unjustly blacklisted artists a chance to work on his groundbreaking (seriously!) TV show “Playboy’s Penthouse,” and the ways in which he fought for racial equality.

Though there’s markedly less time spent on Hefner’s playboy side, Berman does a respectable job providing opposing viewpoints regarding Hef’s unusual relationships views. But with limited interviews of family members, Playboy, Activist and Rebel fails to shed much light on the impact of Hef’s lifestyle choices on his children and ex-wives/girlfriends.

Worse, the film dedicates little time to the last 20 years, neglecting to probe the reasons for Playboy’s diminishing cultural impact. And it skims over the implications of the 80-year-old Hef living out his golden years gallivanting around with a trio of 20-somethings and starring on the brainless “The Girls Next Door”–hardly on par with Hef’s days of hanging with Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett and Lenny Bruce on “Playboy After Dark.”

Yet Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel is enlightening and entertaining more often than not. And short of a visit to the local college library’s Rare Books room, it’s the best way to see the multiple sides of Hefner in action—without a stern librarian peering over your shoulder.

Grade: B

"Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel" opens in Atlanta on Sept. 10 at Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema.

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