The Anarchist Cookbook (film)
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| The Anarchist Cookbook | |
|---|---|
 DVD Cover Artwork |
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| Directed by | Jordan Susman |
| Produced by | Clay Bakker |
| Written by | Jordan Susman |
| Starring | Devon Gummersall Dylan Bruno |
| Music by | Josh Kramon |
| Cinematography | Brown Cooper |
| Editing by | Alan Edward Bell |
| Distributed by | Innovation Film Group |
| Release date(s) | June 6, 2002 (Seattle International Film Festival) |
| Running time | 101 min |
| Country | Dallas, Texas USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
[edit] Plot
In 2002 the movie The Anarchist Cookbook (directed by Jordan Susman) was produced using The Anarchist Cookbook as a key to the plot. The plot of the movie is about a young honors student-gone-anarchist, Puck (Devon Gummersall) and his group of anarchist friends living peacefully in a Dallas commune until the nihilist Johnny Black (Dylan Bruno) shows up with The Anarchist Cookbook and completely destroys their way of life. This film has an indepth look at human nature and is actually used at some colleges as a piece on human studies.
The first group of 'anarchists' have certain features that may or may not be realistic as far as flop house rebellious youths go. For example, they have a strict no-drugs policy, which is quite different from many real life live-in-poverty rebellious communal house type of folks who are into all kinds of drugs, especially alcohol, and have a laissez-faire attitude towards drug dealing. The 'family' in the movie, however, definitely leans towards the hippy veganish straightedge side of the rebellious philosophy. They do have rules, such as no drugs, no use of violence, and no 'Anarchist Cookbook' in their little communal bookstore.
Johnny Black shares much of the rebellious philosophy of 'the family' when he shows up. However, he 'takes over' the control of the commune by breaking the few rules they do have. He learns secrets of other people and uses those secrets against them. He reads "Johnny Red's" private diary, in which he describes fantasizing about young boys, and then shows this diary to the man's girlfriend, which breaks up their relationship. He uses drugs in order to control people, by getting them addicted and by dealing for money, a crux of the latter part of the film, in fact the entire tone of the film transforms almost completely. He then starts advocating the use of explosives and so forth in order to 'really make a difference'. Then he starts inviting neo Nazis, skinheads, white power types, militiamen, and so forth to his organization.
Eventually Puck is 'saved' by his kinky republican Reagan-worshipping girlfriend, and he 'saves the day' by whimsical methods left over from the spirit of the old commune, when 'we had fun'. He also narcs and snitches; but then again he had no choice; he had a death sentence put on him from Black. In the end, Puck goes to the FBI to turn in Black and all his fellow domestic terrorists and finds out that there were rewards for information leading to their arrest. Puck takes the money and leaves Dallas. The final sequence of the movie has a narrator decrying the idea of 'freedom without responsibility'.
[edit] Production Used as an Example
The film's budget and schedule are used extensively (and reproduced) in Robert Latham Brown's book Planning the Low-Budget Film. It was shot in Dallas, Texas, during the summer of 2001 for just under $2,000,000.
