If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011)

A so so documentary, I did enjoy finding out more about the ELF movement. However, I had a hard time relating to the main protagonist Daniel McGowan. He just was not a very interesting person, in fact I found him highly annoying.It's a pretty standard documentary. I did find some of the information informative, but I did not really see this film breaking any new ground. One thing that stuck in my mind was the idea that you are going to push peaceful protesters to do other things, when you remove their ability to peacefully protest. It was something I had been tossing around in my mind anyway, but this sort of provided a further example.Check out our full review at 3guys1movie.com

One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter is and old tired cliché but in this film that quote seems yet again to ring true.This doc explains why a group of environmentalists started to radicalize when they felt that corporations, police and politicians no longer listen to them.Their solution? Firebombing various facilities that according to them(later they found that some of their targets really didn't support harm to the environment, but actually the opposite)was posing a threat to the environment.This solution was extreme, and got the FBIs attention who started investigating their attacks. Slowly but surely FBI was closing the net but biggest question remained, was this domestic terrorism? And should it be viewed as domestic terrorism? For a viewer, like me, who never been involved in radical political organizations this film poses a lot of interesting questions, such as how far are you willing to go for your ideals? And also how easy is it to push idealistic youngsters to commit worse crimes then just illegal demonstrations, vandalism etc? It should be seen by anyone interested in why, how, people regardless of political views easily can be persuaded to commit crimes in order to get their agenda, message, across.So if you liked docs like Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army (2004), The Weather Underground (2002),One Day in September (1999)etc then you should see this one.

If you go back in history and read about real heroes you can get a clear idea about what exactly is wrong with our society today.. Greek heroes during the Greek rebellion in 1821 opted for torture and death upon their arrest instead of surrendering key information to the Ottomans. Mexican Commander Antonio López de Santa Anna when he got arrested after the battle of San Jacinto begged for his life and signed the Treaties of Velasco, in which he agreed to withdraw his troops from Texan soil and, in exchange for safe conduct back to Mexico, lobby there for recognition of the new republic (which led to the independence of the state of Texas. And what about activists you might ask? Well this movie will tell you a lot about their courage, determination, perseverance and a whole bunch of life skills they claim to carry..

"What to do when you're screaming out and no one wants to hear you?" I thought they would have learned the lesson in kindergarten.The eco-terrorists look to me like a bunch of spoiled rich brats who just want to have a tantrum, in this involving arson, because it seems no one wants to hear them.You know them - they're usually the kids in the classroom who are screaming out because they didn't get cake.Here's an idea. Go to a third-world country if you're so concerned and work with the villagers there.Going out and burning stuff down is just wrong. In that case, everyone should get a gun and start taking matters into their own hands. Now where would that lead us?