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American Anarchist

Play trailer 1:45 Poster for American Anarchist 2017 1h 20m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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67% Tomatometer 12 Reviews 38% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
In 1970, 19-year-old William Powell published "Anarchist Cookbook" - a manifesto and bomb-making manual that sold more than 2 million copies. The film explores the book as an inspiration for decades of violent, anti-government attacks and provides Powell with the opportunity to explore his book's troubling legacy.
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American Anarchist

Critics Reviews

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J. R. Jones Chicago Reader 04/13/2017
[Powell] comes off as a tragic figure: a teacher haunted by his most spectacular lesson, and a man of learning who, where his own guilt was concerned, took care not to learn too much. Go to Full Review
Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune 04/13/2017
3/4
Siskel's movie - flawed, somewhat limited but never dull - makes Powell eat his words and then, in metaphorical terms, write the restaurant review. Go to Full Review
Matt Fagerholm RogerEbert.com 03/24/2017
3/4
An intriguing film about an infuriating man. Go to Full Review
Steven Prokopy Third Coast Review 05/06/2020
American Anarchist is a truly fascinating and enlightening work. Go to Full Review
Cathy Brennan One Room With A View 03/26/2019
1/5
If this had been a short documentary made by a filmmaker with some scruples, then there could have been a work worthy of its subject. Go to Full Review
Sherilyn Connelly SF Weekly 03/24/2017
American Anarchist makes the interesting choice of saving Powell's difficult childhood for the end, and while it was tragic, most people with difficult childhoods didn't go on to write books about how to make bombs. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Cameron J 04/26/2024 William Powell is a really fascinating person and basically everything that involves him is the best it can be, but the interviewer is kind of a jerk. He is VERY biased and clearly had a ax to grind. Oh also this movie is really short of a subject like this. I feel like you could’ve added at least an extra 10-20 minutes and been fine. See more Benjamin P 06/13/2023 Overall it had a lot of interesting parts, but the filmmaker/interviewer was terrible. His obvious bias distracted from the subject and left many more important questions on the table. I can't help but wonder how much better this could have been if tackled by a different director. See more 05/16/2020 My review is has nothing to do do with the subject matter or the subjects ....the filmmaker's bias and moral high ground completely suffocate the entire film. I spent 80 minutes feeling sorry for Mr Powell and truly wish some other filmmaker had tackled this subject. He should be ashamed of himself. See more 05/06/2020 I found the interviewer absolutely infuriating. He constantly ran around in circles during the film, which not only made the interview obviously confusing for Powell, but made the entire documentary miserable to sit through (despite the interesting subject matter). His blatantly accusatory nature when questioning Powell about the atrocities that readers of his book -which he pieced together angrily at 19 years old- committed was incredibly frustrating and unprofessional. See more 04/27/2019 It's not a documentary to me. The director seem to have a dog in the fight and loses a lot of time in trying to lead the author to admit complicity in mass murder. Many interesting aspects could have been investigated, like "why teenage kids feel the need to blow up their school mates, is it because of a book or because we live in shitty society? "Was the Anarchist cook book common among teenager who felt to be rebels?" . The author of the book is responsible for discolising information to an audience which in some cases never even bothered to read the warning at the beginning, let alone understanding it. The information disclosed was potentially harmfull as the content of many tv series and movies nowadays, but luckily most of the people are not interested or too lazy to do anything with it, let alone a search on the internet. See more 03/31/2018 An interesting story but not that good of a document. See more Read all reviews
American Anarchist

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Movie Info

Synopsis In 1970, 19-year-old William Powell published "Anarchist Cookbook" - a manifesto and bomb-making manual that sold more than 2 million copies. The film explores the book as an inspiration for decades of violent, anti-government attacks and provides Powell with the opportunity to explore his book's troubling legacy.
Director
Charlie Siskel
Producer
Charlie Siskel
Screenwriter
Charlie Siskel
Distributor
Gravitas Ventures
Production Co
Bow and Arrow Entertainment, Patna Pictures, Gravitas Ventures
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 24, 2017, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 24, 2017
Runtime
1h 20m
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