Return Engagement ** (1983, Timothy Leary, G Gordon Liddy, Carole Hemingway) – Classic Movie Review 11,555

Director Alan Rudolph’s 1983 film Return Engagement is a documentary on the 1983 touring debate between the two Seventies/ Eighties contemporary eccentrics, or geniuses depending upon your viewpoint – Timothy Leary, the advocate of psychedelic drugs, and G Gordon Liddy, the former US prosecutor and official involved in bringing down President Nixon.

The two joined together for a series of debates billed as ‘Nice Scary Guy vs Scary Nice Guy’ in a speaking tour on multiple college campuses and they are seen here on and off stage in every possible combination. Leary had been labelled by Liddy’s boss Nixon as ‘the most dangerous man in America’.

Rudolph takes time out from his feature film career to direct this documentary and thankfully allows the two naughty boys enough space to do and say what they want, and the documentary makes the odd serious point among the anarchic buffoonery.

Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and writer known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs.

George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, 1930 – March 30, 2021) was the chief operative in the White House Plumbers unit during the Nixon administration. He was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping and jailed for 52 months. Liddy was listed as the top speaker on the college circuit in 1982 by The Wall Street Journal.

Carole Hemingway is the Moderator.

Films directed by Alan Rudolph: Premonition (1972), Nightmare Circus (1974), Welcome to L A (1976), Remember My Name (1978), Roadie (1980), Endangered Species (1982), Return Engagement (1983), Songwriter (1984), Choose Me (1984), Trouble in Mind (1985), Made in Heaven (1987), The Moderns (1988), Love at Large (1990), Mortal Thoughts (1991), Equinox (1992), Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Afterglow (1997), Breakfast of Champions (1999), Trixie (2000), Investigating Sex (2001), The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002) and Ray Meets Helen (2017).

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,555

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/