Review of If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011) by Akash G — 26 Jan 2012

Another one of the five documentaries up for an Oscar in 2012. And another one that sits at 6/10. The story is interesting enough: how did these people get involved with the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF), and why did they do what they did, namely burn down various buildings in protest? But they are just kind of lame people. I rarely trust radicals. Why are they radical? It seems like they are never attractive people, and they just want to leech on to a cause. That was pretty evident in this movie as they do the deeds, sometimes based on wrong information, which is entirely unforgivable, then they whine and cooperate with the government once caught. Some principles.

The people who like this documentary say it is a perfect balance of all three sides: those associated with ELF, enforcement, and the business owners hurt by the fires. Hardly. Towards the end, law enforcement tells a little of how the arrests came to be. That's mostly procedural stuff that gives no philosophy of law and order, etc. And the business owners barely get a say. Mostly, it's following one ELF clown as he sits in an apartment on house arrest (MLK never had house arrest by the way) and then whines that they are charging him with terrorism.

It's not so black and white. A lot of non-violent protestors were subjected to excessive force, and this kind of mirrors the financial protests today. And the ELF may have had some decent ideas before it went off the deep end. Hell, maybe the acts themselves weren't all that bad. But when you see the people responsible for them cower under the weight of the law, the acts lose meaning. They became acts of outlaws, not principled protest groups. There is a difference. MLK has a holiday in his name and he affect great social change. And he and his protestors also took their lumps and did their time as necessary. These pukes live like the rest of us while claiming a moral superiority about the environment, all the while setting cars and buildings on fire. Sure. Sounds good for the environment.