The Company You Keep
starring Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon
screenplay by Lem Dobbs
directed by Robert Redford
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Based on the novel by Neil Gordon, The Company You Keep resembles the real life story of long time FBI most wanted fugitive Katherine Ann Power who turned herself in to police in 1993 after living incognito for 23-years. I remember it in the news. Power’s case stemmed from a robbery attempt that ended in a murder charge for the death of a policeman. The intention of the robbery was to acquire funds to buy arms for the militant Black Panther group. At university in the 1960s Power was associated with the anti-war student group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
The Company You Keep develops that history. Only now it is a modern day FBI hunt for fugitive anti-Vietnam War militants, the Weathermen, who were an outgrowth of the SDS and who are still being sought for a bank robbery in Michigan in which a bank guard was killed.
Events were catalyzed by the decision of one of their members to turn herself in. After that, fugitives still at large begin falling like a house of cards, with a little provocation from Shia LaBeouf as the determined, persistent small city newspaper reporter. The story is intricate and you have to pay close attention to follow it, but it is gripping, thrilling, riveting and … pretty good.