I’m not sure if it’s love that Burton and Linda Pugash share but it sure is crazy. They got engaged in the late 1950s when he was an ambulance chasing lawyer playboy and she was a materialist virgin. Then she discovered he was already married and broke it off.
It was a rejection Burt didn’t take well. First he stalked and harassed Linda and then, when he discovered she had gotten engaged to another man, Burt hired goons to throw acid in her eyes.
The attack left Linda disfigured and all but blind. His trial, during which he claimed insanity and tried to commit suicide, was a media circus. But what came after is the craziest part of the story.
This is a well-made documentary but it’s also a film that leaves you feeling queasy about its subjects. As veteran New York newsman Jimmy Breslin says it, Burt is the most visibly insane person he’s ever encountered. And Linda herself is clearly a few sandwiches short of a picnic. But I did feel sorry for her because you get the sense that the trauma and injury bonded her psychologically to Burt.
Crazy Love reinforces the notion that truth is always stranger than fiction. You just couldn’t make this kinda stuff up.
Interrogation of Burt and Linda might’ve revealed more about their motives and how they saw themselves.
Regardless, it’s an interesting portrait of two sad but insular and happy fruit loops.
As a movie whose tagline should be 'See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya" this rates three stars. Crazy Love is in limited release now.
