Has anyone ever read "Downtown" by Norma Fox Mazer? The basic plot is basically the same as "Running on Empty." "Downtown" is the story of Pete Greenwood, not his real name as he is in hiding and his parents are fugitives from the FBI after bombing a university lab in an anti-war protest. The book is a powerful account of the effects his parents well-intentioned actions have on his life.
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so do we know if running on empty is a true story/based on a true story or not?
coolness
"so do we know if running on empty is a true story/based on a true story or not?"
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It most certainly is. Any claims to the contrary would not be credible. Arthur and Annie Pope clearly mirror the lives of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn (Weather Underground) while they were hiding from the feds, but what really gives it away is the character from the film who visited Arthur and Annie briefly and tried to coerce them into participating in a bank robbery. This is obviously based on David Gilbert, also from the Weather Underground, who is currently serving 75 years in a New York prison for his part in the 1981 Brinks truck heist and subsequent murder of three security guards and cops. While I find some of Gilbert's politics persuasive, his claim to be a "political prisoner" is a sad joke and misuse of the term.
Interesting in that Ayers later became Obama's ghostwriter.
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