Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel

Despite a few nods to dissenting viewpoints—and really, we can all agree that Playboy objectifies women—this officially sanctioned portrait of Hugh Hefner treats the magazine magnate as Alfred Kinsey, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa rolled into one, a single-mindeded force for good in ’50s and ’60s America whose common decency and steadfast belief in open sexuality, racial equality and free speech bulldozed over obscenity laws, segregation, abortion restrictions and the Vietnam War. Hefner argues that his philosophy was essentially feminist in its intent, in that it paved the way for a more permissive climate. Celebrity friends offer testimonials to his greatness: Sure, there were always beautiful women at the Playboy Mansion in the 1970s, but mainly it was just a place where James Caan could kick back and play foosball.

Still, even a hilariously Hef-centric version of the Playboy story couldn’t help but entertain and inform, and Hefner himself was more than generous with his time. (The doc has been shortened by about ten minutes since its Toronto ’09 premiere.) The vintage clips are great: A young Hefner spars with a then-skeptical Mike Wallace and chats with an ascendant Lenny Bruce. There’s also a palpable sense of the more conservative Chicago of the ’50s, when Hefner saw what consumers wanted and seized his moment. It may not be your duty as an American to see this film (it’s a Canadian production in any case), but as a glossy coffee-table spread, it’ll do.

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