Fantastic!

The first must-see film of the year.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

SO CONFOUNDED BAD, IT'S KINDA GOOD.......The aims and messages of any political theory contrary to Capitalism are always dumbed down and joked up, and this is certainly the case with THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK (dir. Jordan Susman). Opposing views pertaining to the strengths and weaknesses of our political reality are always portrayed as the feeble musings of, 'American troublemakers'. If, "Get a haircut, ya Commie hippie!", works for you, you might just like this film. If your political outlook is a bit more sophisticated, I would recommend any film by Noam Chomsky as a cinematic antidote to the cracked Hollywood styling of THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK.

The film The Anarchist Cookbook tells an intriguing tale and deserves our attention. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to find that Amazon sells secondhand copies almost for free. The fundamental theme addresses by the film is the extent of violence that can be employed in order to attain ones political goals. Since anarchists reject the violence monopoly of the state, an anarchist setting was the obvious choice for the film makers. Note however that every person is confronted with this question, also the loyal elector in the democratic state. Do you support breaches of privacy? Long prison sentences? The death penalty? So actually the choice of the anarchist backcloth is more or less arbitrary, or perhaps an intended move in order to appease law-abiding citizens. Consequently the film did not evolve into an in-depth study of anarchist ways of life. If you want to delve into this theme, I would recommend the Swedish film Tillsammans (Together) instead. Nevertheless, The anarchist Cookbook gives a reasonable impression of the diversity in the anarchist ways of living. The story unfolds in a commune of squatters. It harbors a free socialist (who conducts a book shop), an advocate of free sex, and several libertarians. Of course the group embraces the vegan menu, and rather surprisingly, drugs are prohibited. The average group member in this commune is devoid of ideology, but simply loathes authority. This holds in particular for the main character Peter, or Puck, his anarchist alias. One day a man called Johnny Black joins the group. He wants to bolster the level of violence used by the group. Of course minor infringements are already common: shop lifting, vandalism, obstruction. But Johnny wants to step up the scale of destruction, and employ sabotage, explosives and physical assaults. Anyone who has spent some time in observing the extreme left, will confirm that such tactics do exist. Personally I have always had difficulty in understanding the sense in attacking common laborers and constables. Is it an expression of contempt? There have been times when some streets in Amsterdam were completely controlled by communities of squatters. They used reinforcements in order to turn the buildings into fortresses. Police raids were countered with the throwing of bricks and bottles, and sometimes the dumping of heavy appliances from the roof tops. Indeed these pockets of anarchy or autonomy were ruled by violent sections, who used repression to discipline the other group members. Johnny Black represents precisely this type, and manages to gradually seize power by means of the usual turnover and the introduction of his own comrades. Since Peter is a nihilist, he willingly adapts to the new leader. Others follow, including the socialist - which seems rather incredible, considering his principles. Under Johnny the commune starts to increase its means by the trading of drugs, and gets a criminal character. When Johnny forges an opportunist alliance with fascists, racists and nationalists, Peter decides to rebel. He betrays his former comrades to the FBI, and accepts a significant bounty in return (how far are you willing to go?). In the end we see him continuing his journey, traveling on a long straight road in the wilderness, towards the sunset. In conclusion I find the film satisfactory: the characters are steady (except for the socialist), the events seem possible, and dilemmas are elaborated on. For instance, after a police raid one of the group members is sent to jail, another to a mental institution, and Peter gets an ankle bracelet and is again brought under parental care. Although The anarchist cookbook does not evoke feelings of empathy, it is food for thought. If it is to your liking, consider also seeing Strawberry Statement.

I've been reading trough the comments on this movie, and i don't think that many people really got it... it was showing that anarchy and nihilism are not the same thing, they may have slightly similar goals, but they are definitely not the same thing! Johnny Black is a nihilist, and he turns the anarchists into his toys, he uses them and destroys something beautiful (SAM) when doing it. I'm not saying that johnny Red was right in all the things he did, but he had a better view of how to take down the man than Johnny black. but the one who really knows what he stands for is Puck, he is the hero in this story, in a certain way... he knows that Johnny black is leading them all a-stray. If you think after watching this that anarchy is about violence you are wrong, please re watch the movie up until Johnny black shows up. thats what its all about

If anyones ever compared this film to SLC punk, Id have to agree.If I ignored the manipulative horrible ending, Id recommend it for Kids under 20 yrs old.Through the first half I found myself droning along with a bunch of perfect skin, conditioned hair Sh*ts fresh out of a teen hunk magazine, supposedly living in a punk squat. (though I enjoyed seeing John Savage from 'Hair' ...ect)The second half I guess there were a couple giggles.Do show it to your 14 Yr old Kid who's getting into politics.If Your Kid is getting into punk, show him 'Dogs In Space' instead. (this is coming from a 26 yr old)I wont give away the ending, but it could make you sick in the way that makes you wish you hadn't wasted your time.