Director: Brian De Palma
Screenplay: Brian De Palma
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jennifer Salt, Gerrit Graham, Ruth Alda
Country: USA
Running Time: 87 mins
Year: 1970
Rating: 15
Hi, Mom (1970) delivers one of the greatest Robert De Niro performances ever. A ringing endorsement being the fact it inspired a couple of his most iconic roles, Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982) which I’d go as far as saying, feel like complete rip-offs of the character he plays in this is absurdist and scathing satirical comedy.
Radiance is releasing the movie in 4K UHD and Bluray, from the original camera negative, presented in Dolby Vision HDR. This makes it the world premiere of the film on 4K.
The picture is as vibrant as the yellow and red packaging. This is a wonderful transfer and it’s great to see De Niro so young and fresh-faced in such crisp quality. It also features the uncompressed mono audio, so the sound quality is also strong.
De Niro plays, you guessed it, a down-on-his-luck Vietnam War veteran Jon Rubin who returns home to New York and sees an opportunity to make some money by entering the porn business. As Jon, De Niro slips into a range of guises to get ahead with his plans of making a peepshow type porn movie with a camera pointed at the neighbouring apartment block.
He’s a delight to watch. Again, like in Taxi Driver, there are scenes where he speaks and performs to himself – to his reflection and to inanimate objects – as he’s revving himself up to get into character. As the satirical plot progresses, Jon becomes more and more radicalised. If you’re wondering why this character seems so similar to Travis Bickle – well, the film’s director Brian De Palma actually introduced De Niro to Martin Scorsese years later.
De Palma helms the 1970 new wave movie which has a lot to say about politics, sexual politics, race inequality and voyeurism. The character of Jon had appeared in his previous movie Greetings (1968), so this serves as a very loose sequel. The film takes us on a journey through three narratives, using different ways of filming, which thread together around the De Niro character.
In addition to following Jon on his exploits, the story is told partly housewife who films a video diary on an 8mm camera and a bizarre public television documentary about black American experience. These two viewpoints culminate with a confrontational theatre performance called ‘Be Black, Baby!’.
The strength in the film lies in the absurd humour – the film plays with extremely heavy topics yet remains hilarious throughout. Most memorable, more shocking, moments stem from the activists, or the confrontational theatre troupe, who are staging a play about the black experience.
The comedy comes from how over-the-top they are. Watching them making mischief on the streets of New York is eerily similar to watching activists making confrontational videos on TikTok in the present day, and how ridiculous these people come across. It feels extremely timely, in this sense, especially with the commentary on voyeurism and radicalisation.
De Niro is wonderfully slimy and endlessly entertaining to watch as he slips in and out of his various guises. Jennifer Salt is terrific as the eccentric love interest Judy Bishop. Her performance is funny and seems authentic. The Be Black Baby crew of actors were exceptional in their roles.
Film:
Special Features:
- New 4K restoration from the original camera negative, presented in Dolby Vision HDR
- 4K UHD and Blu-ray presentation of the feature; world premiere on 4K UHD
- Uncompressed mono audio
- Audio commentary by writer Travis Woods (2026)
- Interview with critic Ellen E Jones (2026, 12 mins)
- Dionysus in ‘69 – an experimental theater production of Euripides’ ‘The Bacchae’, filmed by Brian de Palma (1970, 85 mins, SD)
- Archival interview with co-writer Charles Hirsch (2018, 10 mins)
- Trailer
- Optional English SDH subtitle track
- Reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original posters
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Matt Zoller Seitz
- Limited edition of 5000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Audio commentary by writer Travis Woods: Woods provides an utterly fantastic commentary where he delves into the themes of the movie. I enjoyed the movie as a absurd comedy and appreciated much of the subtext – but Woods makes clear so many more messages in the film. Such as anti-capitalism, the crass commercialisation of America darkly satirical, and how sexualised voyeurism, negates connection, making the viewer an extra in their own lives.
Interview with critic Ellen E Jones (2026, 12 mins): Jones examines De Palma’s life and career, and how the movie fits into it. She speaks about the themes of surveillance, how it was influenced by experimental environmental theatre, dissolving the boundaries between performers and the audience. Excellent video essay.
Dionysus in ’69 (85 mins): So, this is a film De Palma made with the theatre group who inspired ‘Be Black Baby!’. It pairs really well with Jones’ essay which touched on this experimental type of theatre. The video and sound quality is quite poor, unfortunately. I found the play way too dry, tough to get through. Very dated. I really tried.
Feature length behind the scenes footage/documentary: This was very rough. The behind the scenes shots are way too long and makes for ponderous viewing. Needed to be editing significantly.
Archival interview with producer Charles Hirsch (2018, 10 mins): The producer describes Jon’s character arc as “Taxi Driver lite”. He talks about casting, the character’s radicalisation, the absurdity of the comedy. A great insight what went into making the movie.
Disc/package:
Radiance is releasing Hi, Mom! on 4K and Bluray on the 18th May, 2026.
