SLC Punk

[Red Menace]

anyone see this movie? SLC punk is about a guy who is a anarchist/punk growing up in Salt Lake City. He is constantly attempting to topple the system, while beating up some posers at the same time. it brings up some good points in the movie. like im going to try to say it without ruining the ending, he relises he can do more damage within the system that out in the end. I liked it, and i recomend it.

[Seven Stars]

I've seen it, its a great movie, one of my favorites.

[Red Menace]

probably one of my favorite quotes from the movie was "A reason to fight. Somebody different. Difference creates dispute. Dispute is a reason to fight. Now, to fight is a reason to feel pain. Life is pain. So to fight with reason is to be alive with reason. Final analysis: To fight, a reason to live." and it is so true too.

[Purple]

The ending was a bit unexpected, but a well thought out one! Felt bad when his friend died.. He makes some good speeches, that have some nice points, without being too serious though! Great movie!

[Red Menace]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30 2005, 10:10 PM
The ending was a bit unexpected, but a well thought out one! Felt bad when his friend died.. He makes some good speeches, that have some nice points, without being too serious though! Great movie!
yeah it was pretty sad, i almost cried. another point was after his friend died and he became a lawyer he had a revelation. He was an anarchist, and he was so sure that the world was going to come to an end. but when it didn't he had to make something of him self. I think at that moment he became a real anarchist. before he was into the mohawk and the torn clothes with little spikes sticking out, and like his new girlfriend pointed out that wasn't what an anarchist was. anarchists had a cause to fight for. like i said earlier he said that he could do more damage within the system, than out.

[Guerrilla22]

I thought the movie had a terrible message. In the end the main character goes to law school and becomes an abrtitrator or something like that, because his past anarchist views were "immature" and not plausible. I thought the Anarchist Cookbook was a much better movie.

[bcbm]

The movie was garbage. He wasn't an anarchist, he was an apolitical violent nihilist who simply "rebelled" for its own sake. He was also extremely elitist. And then he realizes that you can't fight the system from the outside (which is nonsense, and he wasn't doing that anyway) and becomes another tool, seeking to pick fights with lawyers. Crap, crap, crap.


I thought the Anarchist Cookbook was a much better movie.

Hardly. Its essentially the same movie, with an updated cast. The movie portrays anarchists as mindless rebels fighting "just because," with no purpose and no goals. Not to mention as pedophiles! And then they work with neo-nazis and push drugs, while being controlled (!!) by a "nihilist" who follows the actual anarchist cookbook? Give me a fucking break. Oh, and he basically becomes a republican at the end. Crap, crap, crap.

[Gunman]

black banner black gun as said it all!

[Rage]

An Anarchist friend of mine suggested it for me and I saw it on cable from the point where he is in that shop with the UPS United pot smokers shirt.

I did not really get into it.

/,,/
Rock on!

[Jimmie Higgins]

Originally posted by black banner black [email protected] 1 2005, 08:12 AM
The movie was garbage. He wasn't an anarchist, he was an apolitical violent nihilist who simply "rebelled" for its own sake. He was also extremely elitist. And then he realizes that you can't fight the system from the outside (which is nonsense, and he wasn't doing that anyway) and becomes another tool, seeking to pick fights with lawyers. Crap, crap, crap.


I thought the Anarchist Cookbook was a much better movie.

Hardly. Its essentially the same movie, with an updated cast. The movie portrays anarchists as mindless rebels fighting "just because," with no purpose and no goals. Not to mention as pedophiles! And then they work with neo-nazis and push drugs, while being controlled (!!) by a "nihilist" who follows the actual anarchist cookbook? Give me a fucking break. Oh, and he basically becomes a republican at the end. Crap, crap, crap.
Right on!

I have to admit I really enjoyed SLC Punk though. Any movie where people beat up nazi skinheads has a few points for it.

Tha "anarchist" aspects of the movies were embarassingly either nieve or just plain wrong. He was not a political anarchist, he was a "cultural anarchist" (not that guys like that don't exist in many punk scenes).

He never fought the system from without, he dropped out like the hippies did. THe punk equivalent of a commune is a squat because it is a nieve attempt to circumvent the system rather than joining it or fighting it.

So the movie was about him dropping out and dropping back in, not finding flaws in anarchism.

[Guerrilla22]

Hardly. Its essentially the same movie, with an updated cast. The movie portrays anarchists as mindless rebels fighting "just because," with no purpose and no goals. Not to mention as pedophiles! And then they work with neo-nazis and push drugs, while being controlled (!!) by a "nihilist" who follows the actual anarchist cookbook? Give me a fucking break. Oh, and he basically becomes a republican at the end. Crap, crap, crap.

I didn't say it was a realistic portrayl of anarchist, I said it was a better movie. Largely because everyone but the main character dies at the end.

[Cyber Communist]

I have not seen SLC.

I do actually own a DVD of the Anarchist Cookbook and the ending was a let down. Too many stereotypes of anarchists in it (the pervy old man, the violent nihilist and druged out/constantly high other anarchists in the commune).

Basically every single member of the commune in the Anarchist Cookbook was a lifestyle anarchist with no real understanding of the ideology/theory behind anarchism.

Those generalisations make it a let down and then we have the ending, which without actually stating it, the lead character becomes a 'Republican' to quote Black Banner-Black Gun.

I would like to see a independent film, possibly made by anarchists themselves, that shows the life stories of anarchists and other anti-capitalist activists, whether it be a docu-film or a fictional film based on some sort of accuracy and reality.

[Craig]

I enjoyed this movie as a piece of entertainment. It had some valid social criticism. It was also pretty inaccurate when dealing with the issue of "anarchy." And, of course, I agree with everyone who says the ending sucked; it did.

...But when you think about it, most people do sell out/conform, so it wasn't totally unrealistic.

When taken for what it is, a teen angst film, it's better than some John Hughes crapfest like Pretty in Pink, but that's not saying a whole hell of a lot.

But whatever, there are worse films out there.

Oh, and one other thing. When the movie came out, I registered on their website and in return they fedexed me a movie poster, a pin, and half-a-dozen keychain bottle-openers, one of which I still use to this day.

I give them a C+ for content, but an A for swag.

[RABBIT - THE - CUBAN - MILITANT]

meh it was okay ... an enjoyable watch ... some of the debates were well done

[foreverfaded]

The movie was good: as in I can put it in and watch it at anytime and enjoy it. The message was not a high point of the movie, but the biggest problem with this movie is the portrayal of anarchist life: parties, acid trips, and a whole lot of talking about problems and not doing anything about it. Their way of fighting the system involves pounding in the faces of those that differ from themselves (i.e. political views and the way they dress). The best part of the movie was at the end when Stevo meets his girlfriend and future wife. She says,

"You wanna be an individual, right? You look like you're wearing a uniform. You look like a punk. That's not rebellion, That's fashion. Then what's rebellion? Rebellion happens in the mind. You can't create it. You just are that way."

Thats about the only good message in it and it is directed at us, the revolutionaries. It's ironic, actually, that in the beginning, Stevo was trashing posers for dressing like punks and he was dressed just like them.
I liked the movie and it will never get old. However, don't look to it for inspiration and don't look to it to find a lifestyle to follow after. That is not the lifestyle of a true revolutionary. A true revolutionary gets out there and fights fo something that they believe in. Thats the true style of life for a revolutionary. A punk is a stereotype; a revolutionary is a person with a cause that they fight for through all means possible.

[redcannon]

god, this movie was funny, but i hated it otherwise. the guy's basic idea of anarchism was pretty askew, and his stupid logic crap bored me.

[VukBZ2005]

The main character had no fundamental understanding of the ideas that are behind Anarchism.

He did not mention nor acknowledged any of the Anarchists that have been instrumental to the development to the revolutionary working class movement. He does not even address the class struggle for what it really is about. Instead, he thinks that Anarchism is about drugs, hating authority and doing stupid punk rock shit. That's why he ended up where he ended up, being some petit-bourgeois lawyer.

Seriously, the only thing that "SLC Punk" has only done is that it has re-enforced the ideology of what the Capitalist class wants people to think Anarchism is in the minds of the ignorant.

[Raúl Duke]

A friend of mine recommended this movie....maybe because he just recently learned I was an anarchist. :rolleyes:

After reading these posts...I don't feel like actually wanting to watch the movie.

[ahab]

The movie is flawed a lot. I live in SLC and a lot of the people who grew up around the guys that the movie is based on (because its based on a true story) always tell us how wrong it is. For example heroin bob actually did do a lot of heroin and other drugs, THATS how he got his name. The guy who wrote it and directed it had a venue or somethin and thats how he knew them, I think he changed a lot of facts to save face

[Chicano Shamrock]

Originally posted by [email protected] 18, 2007 05:15 pm
A friend of mine recommended this movie....maybe because he just recently learned I was an anarchist. :rolleyes:

After reading these posts...I don't feel like actually wanting to watch the movie.
I think you should. It is an entertaining movie. The thing that sucks about the movie is it's politics. The writers didn't know what anarchism is. It is a movie about punk rockers with an anarchist patch not anarchists who like punk rock.

[praxis1966]

Actually, I think it's pretty representative of the anarchists I have known personally away from this board. They're only anarchists because they think that means a totally lawless society in which they can fight whoever, fuck whoever, and do whatever drugs they want. It's petty and immature to be certain, but that's the way the ones I've encountered in my personal life think.

At any rate, just because the guy decided to become a lawyer doesn't make him petit bourgesie. You never know, he could've decided he was going to become the next William Kunstler or something. After all, he does say at the end, "I could be a litigator in New York and piss the shit out of the judges. I mean, that was me... a troublemaker, the future... one of those guys my parents so arrogantly saved the world for... so we could fuck it up."