Jerry Savage (Sylvester Stallone), an anti-war activist on a secret mission in 1969, meets Laurie, a pretty hippie jewelry maker. In NYC, Jerry joins a radical terror cell planning to blow up the headquarters of a Vietnam War defense firm. As the FBI closes in, Jerry runs off to see Laurie at her rural commune. They fall in love. Jerry barely escapes the dragnet, but his ill-fated romance with Laurie proves deadly.
“Rebel: Director’s Cut” traces its history to 1971, when Robert Schnitzer wrote an original film treatment entitled “Seize the Time!” Later that same year, he hired writer LarryBeinhart to co-write a screenplay based on that treatment. At the time, Beinhart was unpublished, but decades later wrote the novel ‘Wag the Dog’ (later made into a film starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman).
“Seize the Time!” was produced in 1971 in New York City with Sylvester Stallone starring in the leading role. Schnitzer self-financed the film on a micro-budget. It was completed and released in 1973 under a new title, “No Place to Hide.” The film premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival and was released on home video cassettes. It was also broadcast on several local television stations in the U.S.
When Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” became a box office success in 1976, Schnitzer recut “No Place to Hide” and re-titled it “Rebel.” It was reissued on home video cassette and was licensed to domestic U.S. television markets and various overseas distributors.
In the year 2000, Schnitzer discontinued all distribution of the film, allowing existing licenses to expire. He planned to reissue the movie at some point in the future when all worldwide rights would become available.
By 2023, Schnitzer, through his company Movicorp, remastered the film in 4K high definition and remixed the monaural single-channel soundtrack into stereo. This also gave him the opportunity to add some new music and “polish” the new edition with various touches to correct small things that always bothered him.
This new edition, now entitled “Rebel: Director’s Cut,” is the closest version to his original vision, and he has no intention of making future editions.
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