"If A Tree Falls," is a documentary about the ELF (earth liberation front) and the fires they set in protest of the parks services, forest service, and logging.It's an interesting movie, and somewhat educational. On purely technical aspects alone I give it an 8. It did a good job of laying out everyone and everything involved, all sides, including prosecutors, law enforcement, environmental activists, and a few of the ELF extremists.Now for the spoiler alert. This documentary ends up trying to get the viewer to weigh in on not the actual events, but on whether or not these people are terrorists and deserve to go to a prison designed specifically for terrorists. My answer is yes. They try to justify their unlawful actions by saying they took great care in planning so no one would be injured or killed. The fact is they planned and carried out a Federal crime and burnt down other people, and our government's property to incite a reaction. They paint the main character of this film as a really nice guy, who got caught up in something dumb. Well he should have thought about the consequences when he did it. Besides, I am sure there are a lot of terrorists, murders, arsonists, etc. around the world, that if you asked their families, would say that their child was "such a good boy."He ended up being sentenced to 7 years in the Supermax prison for terrorists. I guess he will have plenty of time to think about it now. Arson is a serious crime that COULD have caused injury and death, and I after the first fire the ELF members should be called terrorists, because if you were in that area and owned a business I am sure you would be afraid someone might burn your business down at anytime. Once the government gets done with these people I sure hope they go after that adolescent Paul Watson from "Whale Wars" for piracy.The police were cast in a bad light in this movie as well. Environmentalists, as they always do, tried to paint law enforcement as some nazi jackboot thugs. They show people at a Pacific Northwest location involved in a protest "sit-in," and Police wiping and spraying pepper spray in their eyes. The whole time these protesters are saying things like,"Please don't hurt me," or," Please don't spray me. Well, you were asked, then told to leave. If you don't leave the police have an obligation to remove you. Stop getting your panties in a bunch and leave if you don't want to be sprayed.Anyways, for technical reasons this movie is a pretty good one.

"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?

I've seen this trend in documentary films, particularly in American ones: the story of a social movement or something wrong going on is told from the point of view of an affected individual, more often than not delivering not only information but a sentimental message, trying to make you emphatize with that particular individual. For me, that's a mistake. When a cause is wrapped up around a single person and becomes a personal issue rather than an universal fight, the whole thing sinks down under just "a" story. Thus my summary comment: "the" story would have been better, without the whole sentimental filling.Now, I ordered the DVD expecting to get more information about the ELF and related issues. I certainly did, although I had to cope with a lot of those sentimental fillers. Don't get my wrong, I do think that seeing what happens to someone involved with the ELF is educational, although there's no need to go that deep into Daniel's own life. You get involved knowing the repercussions, I'm sure people supporting the ELF emphatize with Daniel McGowan, and detractors will say "that's what he deserves". Then, again, why going so much into Daniel's private life details, not directly involving the ELF or environmental issues but rather trying to show his defects? For those wanting to get involved in the environmental movement, that may only scare them away. OK, some (if not all) of the stuff will simply anger these people, which in return will create, perhaps, an action. From my European point of view (and environmental activist, as well), I don't see the sentimental lines fitting anywhere. Alright, I'll stop repeating myself now. As I was saying, you will find useful information here (I discovered, among other things, the rare film "PiackAxe"). I didn't watch the extras yet, but I hope I will find even more nice information here -without fillers-. I believe the film also try to portrait ELF people like "humans too" by showing their mistakes and weakness'. Hm, about that, let's just say that activists should take it as a what-not-to-do list rather than a pointing finger. I still don't see any so-called mistakes there, even though I do see how messed up is to betray your comrades for money or other selfish reasons (being able to walk free hand by hand with your child is more valuable than fighting against the total destruction of our natural world, right? If your child doesn't have air to breathe in the future but the one sold by the same corporations that destroyed the planet, you will be long gone by then, so who cares...).Summarizing, worth watching, even with its flaws. If just for the informative value. If you can focus on what really is important, you will find the destruction mankind bring for greed. And, hopefully, will do something about it.

This documentary covers a lot of territory while following the compelling story of a man whose youthful conversion to activism lands him in the US torture prison grid branded a terrorist.This film has much to say about authority, youth, environmental activism, environmental destruction for profit, and finally, about a country using the war on foreign terrorists as a pretext to practice terror on its own citizens through the use of ridiculously aggressive sentencing and detention practices.We are asked to question if the cost of ELF destruction compares to the destruction of oil, gas, timber and mining companies across the USA, to say nothing of what the US war machine does abroad. The FBI is represented by a thorough but ultimately sad apologist agent who eventually admits to feeling 'circumspect' about jailing dedicated, idealistic young American citizens to isolation gulags.The automated, unthinking flip-side of authority is shown in the grinning face of a local cop from Eugene who's been on the front line of protests and is convinced of his righteousness in just doing his job. Yet another officer redeems himself saying he prefers to prosecute crimes, not terrorist acts.For a documentary, many characters take form. We see the faces of authority in various forms of dedication, moral contortion and ignorance. We see the fragile morality of youth, with us knowing its collision with cynical reality is just around the corner (thanks to an excellent job of revealing events in the editing). We also see the glory of people battling a system of exploitation on its own terms, and finally, a corrupt justice system willing to exert more harsh terror on its highest moral watch-guards than on polluters, arms dealers and war criminals.The actions of ELF are eventually tied into the WTO protests in Seattle, and the larger movement that was taking shape before 911. The film only nominally mentions what was ELF's biggest selling tool at the time, that it always claimed to have no center, and proposed the notion that each person should be their own activist. The similarities to other activist organizations in this regard was perhaps too similar to promote.Regardless, the film is incredibly dramatic in scope for a documentary, encapsulating the 90s and 00s in the USA, and the transition US democracy has taken forwards and/or backwards in that time. The conflicts it explores, mainly freedom vs security, are as old as civilization, but the canvas is as large as ever.