If a Tree Falls: A Story of the
Earth Liberation Front
Photo Gallery
If you were looking for the least usual suspect to be hauled in as part of a terrorism case, then Daniel McGowan would be a good fit. An average-looking kid from Queens, the son of a cop, who worked in public-relations and environmental cause offices, McGowan was arrested in 2005 for being part of the Earth Liberation Front. A radical environmental activist group, ELF had been labeled domestic terrorists by the government and more vividly branded "eco-terrorists" by the media. Co-directors Marshall Curry (Street Fight) and Sam Cullman come to this fascinating story via a personal route - Curry's wife was McGowan's employer when he was arrested - but handle it all in an impressively judicious manner.
Unlike the great majority of environmentally-themed documentaries, If a Tree Falls comes at its subject from a personal and criminological perspective - this is as much a law-and-order story as it is one about the fight over environmental issues. The filmmakers want to describe McGowan's journey from well-balanced kid from Queens to environmental saboteur but almost more importantly to use him as a way of putting the whole micro-movement under a microscope. The story of how a muscular anti-logging campaign devolved into sectarian turmoil that shot off radicalized cells like burning cinders is ultimately what drives the film and makes it so rewarding.
When the film begins, McGowan is virtually imprisoned in a Manhattan apartment, an ankle bracelet keeping him there until the authorities determine his fate. He walks viewers through a snapshot of his exceedingly normal upbringing (narration interjected only when necessary) before leading them into his involvement in environmental campaigns of the early-and-mid 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. The filmmakers then rope in other parties, from fellow activists who did a better job at staying out of the law's way, to prosecutors and cops who ultimately brought the ELF down. Together they graph how a number of confrontations in and around Eugene, Oregon in 1996 and 1997, which saw police indiscriminately pepper-spraying and beating down marchers, convinced a number of those protestors that stronger actions were necessary.
Not long after, a carefully calibrated campaign of arson was ignited. Ranger stations, lumber company buildings, offices of professors researching genetically modified tree strains, the targets were widely dispersed. The perpetrators, which included McGowan and a knot of other disaffected activists, left no clues behind, as one of the more genial investigators acknowledges, in the tone of the cop who appreciates occasionally having competent adversaries. Though tactically deft, the ELF's motives seem transparently ill-considered. Having abandoned the way of peaceful protest (even though one famous 1995 action detailed here impressively held off logging in Oregon's Warner Creek area for a year), the ELF members come off as less true believers than impatient adolescents, seduced by the romance of stealth guerrilla actions. Protestations that their actions were planned as being nonviolent appear naïve at best, discounting the possibility that one of their bombs (planted when they believed nobody would be around) could have gone off later than intended.
If the film has a failing, it's only in the relatively uninteresting observations of most of the ELF members themselves. It's very likely that most of them were too nervous to go into much soul-searching detail on-camera, given the weight of charges laid on them. McGowan is particularly guarded in his interviews, and unwilling to delve deeply into any of his or his compatriots' motivations. Given this lack of insight or thoughtfulness, when some complain later about being branded eco-terrorists (which could lead to multiple life sentences), it will prove difficult for even the most environmentally conscious viewer to have much sympathy with their plight. After all, those viewers were more likely to be the ones out doing the long, boring scut work that such movements require to accomplish even the most minor social change, instead of playing with bombs in the woods.
Unlike the great majority of environmentally-themed documentaries, If a Tree Falls comes at its subject from a personal and criminological perspective - this is as much a law-and-order story as it is one about the fight over environmental issues. The filmmakers want to describe McGowan's journey from well-balanced kid from Queens to environmental saboteur but almost more importantly to use him as a way of putting the whole micro-movement under a microscope. The story of how a muscular anti-logging campaign devolved into sectarian turmoil that shot off radicalized cells like burning cinders is ultimately what drives the film and makes it so rewarding.
When the film begins, McGowan is virtually imprisoned in a Manhattan apartment, an ankle bracelet keeping him there until the authorities determine his fate. He walks viewers through a snapshot of his exceedingly normal upbringing (narration interjected only when necessary) before leading them into his involvement in environmental campaigns of the early-and-mid 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. The filmmakers then rope in other parties, from fellow activists who did a better job at staying out of the law's way, to prosecutors and cops who ultimately brought the ELF down. Together they graph how a number of confrontations in and around Eugene, Oregon in 1996 and 1997, which saw police indiscriminately pepper-spraying and beating down marchers, convinced a number of those protestors that stronger actions were necessary.
Not long after, a carefully calibrated campaign of arson was ignited. Ranger stations, lumber company buildings, offices of professors researching genetically modified tree strains, the targets were widely dispersed. The perpetrators, which included McGowan and a knot of other disaffected activists, left no clues behind, as one of the more genial investigators acknowledges, in the tone of the cop who appreciates occasionally having competent adversaries. Though tactically deft, the ELF's motives seem transparently ill-considered. Having abandoned the way of peaceful protest (even though one famous 1995 action detailed here impressively held off logging in Oregon's Warner Creek area for a year), the ELF members come off as less true believers than impatient adolescents, seduced by the romance of stealth guerrilla actions. Protestations that their actions were planned as being nonviolent appear naïve at best, discounting the possibility that one of their bombs (planted when they believed nobody would be around) could have gone off later than intended.
If the film has a failing, it's only in the relatively uninteresting observations of most of the ELF members themselves. It's very likely that most of them were too nervous to go into much soul-searching detail on-camera, given the weight of charges laid on them. McGowan is particularly guarded in his interviews, and unwilling to delve deeply into any of his or his compatriots' motivations. Given this lack of insight or thoughtfulness, when some complain later about being branded eco-terrorists (which could lead to multiple life sentences), it will prove difficult for even the most environmentally conscious viewer to have much sympathy with their plight. After all, those viewers were more likely to be the ones out doing the long, boring scut work that such movements require to accomplish even the most minor social change, instead of playing with bombs in the woods.
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