Guardian Angels Picket Director’s, Actor’s Houses Over Gang Movie

Guardian Angels, toting seven mock coffins and a toilet bowl with Dennis Hopper’s photograph on it, picketed outside the director-actor’s Venice home Sunday to protest his latest movie, saying it glorifies gang violence.

The self-styled anti-crime group, after staging a similar protest at actor Sean Penn’s Malibu estate on Saturday, demanded that Hopper donate profits from the film “Colors” to neighborhood organizations that are fighting gangs.

Opens on Friday

About 25 Angels, wearing their customary red berets, paraded in a circle outside Hopper’s home, waving protest signs and chanting, “Profits from the movie ‘Colors’ will be no comfort for the crying mothers,” and, “How many dead bodies will we count to put more money in your bank account?”

“Colors,” directed by Hopper and starring Penn and Robert Duvall as police officers battling gangs in Los Angeles, is scheduled to open here on Friday. The movie, which uses authentic gang names, slogans and signs, has also come under criticism from some Los Angeles law enforcement officials.

Guardian Angel leaders charge that “Colors” glorifies gang members, affording them undeserved publicity. Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, leading the protest, also said the film is irresponsible, racist and exploits minority youths. He warned of potential violence in movie theaters among rival gang members.

“Los Angeles is in the eye of the storm,” Sliwa said, referring to recent gang-related shootings and the weekend’s massive police sweeps against gangs. “This is a war on crime, a war on drugs. You could not have released this film at a worse time.”

The Angels marked off an imitation homicide scene in front of Hopper’s house to symbolize what they said were the deaths the film would cause. They extended yellow police “caution” tape from the house’s white picket fence and used chalk to draw the outlines of two corpses on the street pavement.

Low-Income Neighborhood

Hopper did not emerge from the large, angular house with a facade made of silver corrugated metal. Located in an otherwise low-income neighborhood, the house’s garage doors are covered with apparent gang graffiti.

However, a man who identified himself as Hopper spoke to reporters through the front-door intercom and defended the film.

“The movie is great,” he said. “This (the protest) is bogus. They’re just out for publicity. It’s too bad, unfortunate.”