I Shot Andy Warhol

Dir: Mary Harron

1996

*****

In the early 90s, Canadian film maker Mary Harron decided to make a documentary about Valerie Solanas after reading her 1967 SCUM Manifesto. The problem was, there was very little video of Solanas and the people who knew her were reluctant to speak about her. The BBC were all set for Harron’s documentary and were prepared to show it on television but without any archive footage the director pulled the plug and decided to make a dramatization instead. As a teenager, Solanas had a volatile relationship with her mother and stepfather after her parents' divorce (her father was sexually abusing her). As a consequence, she was sent to live with her grandparents. Her alcoholic grandfather physically abused her and she ran away and became homeless. She came out as a lesbian in the 1950s. After graduating with a degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, Solanas relocated to Berkeley, California, where she began writing her most notable work, the SCUM Manifesto, which urged women to "overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex". While working on the manifesto she moved to New York City, where she supported herself through begging and prostitution. In 1965 she wrote two works: an autobiographical short story, "A Young Girl's Primer on How to Attain the Leisure Class", and a play, Up Your Ass, about a young prostitute. In 1967, Solanas encountered Andy Warhol outside his studio, The Factory, and asked him to produce her play. He accepted the script for review, told Solanas it was "well typed", and promised to read it. According to Factory lore, Warhol, whose films were often shut down by the police for obscenity, thought the script was so pornographic that it must have been a police trap. Solanas contacted Warhol about the script and was told that he had lost it. He also jokingly offered her a job at the Factory as a typist. Insulted, Solanas demanded money for the lost manuscript. Instead, Warhol paid her $25 to appear in his film I, a Man. In her role in I, a Man, she leaves the film's title character (played by Tom Baker) to fend for himself, explaining "I gotta go beat my meat" as she exits the scene. Solanas was satisfied with her experience working with Warhol and her performance in the film, and brought Maurice Girodias to see the film. Girodias described her as being "very relaxed and friendly with Warhol." On the 31st May 1968 Solanas visited many different publishers and producers to buy her script but no one was interested. She ended up visiting Margo Feiden's (then Margo Eden) residence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as Solanas believed that Feiden would be willing to produce her play. Solanas talked to Feiden for almost four hours, trying to convince her to produce the play and discussing her vision for a world without men. Throughout this time, Feiden repeatedly refused to produce Solanas's play. Solanas then pulled out her gun, and when Feiden again refused to commit to producing the play, Solanas responded, "Yes, you will produce the play because I'll shoot Andy Warhol and that will make me famous and the play famous, and then you'll produce it." As she was leaving Feiden's residence, Solanas handed Feiden a copy of her play (a partial copy of an earlier draft of Up Your Ass). Later that day, Solanas arrived at the Factory and waited outside. Paul Morrissey arrived and asked her what she was doing there, and she replied "I'm waiting for Andy to get money". Morrissey tried to get rid of her by telling her that Warhol was not coming in that day, but she told him she would wait. At 2:00 pm she went up into the studio. Morrissey told her again that Warhol was not coming in and that she had to leave. She left but rode the elevator up and down until Warhol finally boarded it. She entered The Factory with Warhol, who complimented her on her appearance as she was uncharacteristically wearing makeup. Morrissey told her to leave, threatening to "beat the hell" out of her and throw her out otherwise. The phone rang and Warhol answered while Morrissey went to the bathroom. While Warhol was on the phone, Solanas fired at him three times. Her first two shots missed, but the third went through both lungs, his spleen, stomach, liver, and esophagus. She then shot art critic Mario Amaya in the hip. She tried to shoot Fred Hughes, Warhol's manager, in the head, but her gun jammed. Hughes asked her to leave, which she did, leaving behind a paper bag with her address book on a table. Warhol was taken to Columbus–Mother Cabrini Hospital, where he underwent a successful five-hour operation. In January 1969, Solanas underwent psychiatric evaluation and was diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia.In June, she was finally deemed fit to stand trial. She represented herself without an attorney and pleaded guilty to "reckless assault with intent to harm". She was sentenced to three years in prison, with one year of time served. Her work has since become infamous, her manifesto often regarded as a great piece of feminist litriture. The Manifesto argues that men have ruined the world, and that it is up to women to fix it. To achieve this goal, it suggests the formation of SCUM, an organization dedicated to overthrowing society and eliminating the male sex. It is widely regarded as satirical, but based on legitimate philosophical and social concerns. The film opens moments after the shooting, quickly followed by a scene with Solanas in custody for shooting Andy Warhol. The film then uses flashbacks to when Solanas is living in New York making a living as a sex worker, then to her difficult childhood, then to her success in studying psychology at college. Here, Solanas discovers that she is a lesbian, that she can write, and that she has a distinctive view of the world. This leads her to New York City and its downtown underworld. Through her friend Stevie, she meets Candy Darling, who in turn introduces her to Andy Warhol. Meanwhile, Solanas also meets Maurice Girodias, the publisher of Olympia Press. While Solanas wants Warhol to produce her play, Up Your Ass, Girodias wants her to write a pornographic novel for him. Once she signs a contract with Girodias, she comes to suspect his offer is not a generous one and may not be in her best interest. She comes to regret signing this contract. At this point, her increasing derangement leads her to believe that Warhol and Girodias are controlling her. The film concludes, where it began, with Solanas' attempted murder of Warhol. The film then steps ten years into the future, where Warhol lives in fear the rest of his life that Solanas will strike again while he continues his life up until his death, and in death Valerie's "pornographic" novel was the SCUM manifesto, which is now regarded as a feminist classic. It’s about as close to the truth as you could squeeze into a standard length feature film. Based on 1992’s The Letters and Diaries of Candy Darling, the story follows one viewpoint but acknowledges other’s, particularly the shooting itself. Lili Taylor is mesmerizing as Valerie Solanas and, even though he was probably my last choice of Andy Warhol, Jared Harris is brilliant as the iconic artist. Stephen Dorff steals each scene he’s in as Candy Darling but overall all of the performances are strong. The film stages the conflict between Solanas and Warhol as less the result of gender politics – particularly because Solanas intended no connection between her writing and the shooting – than of the decline of print culture as represented by Solanas and the rise of new non-writing media as embodied by Warhol and the Pop art movement. It is by no means a defense of Solanas’s actions but there is a dry irony that Solanas gained sensationalist success from trying to kill the worlds most famous sensationalist. The 90s saw huge interest in such recent history, the internet still wasn’t a thing so we’d all read up on past pop-culture such as this and share what we learned. If I had to make a short list of important 90s movies then I Shot Andy Warhol would have to be on it. It was like folklore to us then, plus it was brilliantly filmed and performed, a film a whole generation adored while everyone else didn’t seem to notice.