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Movie Takes
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
The sad, deluded life of an eco-terrorist.
The money quote in If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman, comes near the end when the movie’s affable hero, Daniel McGowan, asks rhetorically: “When you’re screaming at the top of your lungs and no one hears you, what are you supposed to do?” Um, how about shut up? That, clearly, is not the answer expected, either by Mr. McGowan, who is now serving a sentence of seven years in the federal pen, or by the film. His assumption that the sort of extreme environmentalism which led to his participation in a series of arson attacks in the 1990s and early 2000s on businesses and research installations is its own justification remains unchallenged by Messrs. Curry and Cullman. If people don’t “hear” him — by which he means if they don’t do as he says and abandon their lawful businesses and livelihoods in order to flatter his compassion (as he would no doubt describe it) for trees — then those businesses and livelihoods must be destroyed.
Daniel suffers from the “attention must be paid” syndrome, first enunciated by Mrs. Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and since adopted by the “progressive” mind as one of its intellectual cornerstones — that is, the belief that the world owes you a hearing merely because you are you, and you suffer. And, as so often, the “attention must be paid” syndrome is intimately linked to the “right side of history” syndrome so beloved of progressive thinkers like President Obama and Senator Harry Reid. In a democracy, the will of the majority rules, but what if the majority is hostile or indifferent to the progressive agenda? Then the majority must be educated, violently if necessary. In fact, the majority is usually wrong and needs to get used to the idea that it is being disciplined not just by a few socially dysfunctional and overprivileged youths but by that imaginary deity, history, which may be reliably assumed to be on the side of the progressives.
Young Daniel, who was in his mid-20s when he committed the crimes for which he is now incarcerated, was the son of a New York City cop. Dad appears, with an ear stud, long enough to say, admirably, that “I don’t believe in his philosophies but he’s my son and I love him.” He went to Catholic school and appears to have had a normal middle-class childhood. While working for a non-profit helping women victims of domestic abuse in the '90s and studying for a graduate degree in acupuncture, Danny (as he is more often called here) went to an environmentalist center where “they played this film that blew my mind.” Oddly, the directors appear to be not at all interested in what the film was or what there was about it that was mind-blowing. As propagandists themselves, they might have been expected to take an interest in such an effective example of their craft. Instead, he hurries on to tell of this city boy’s first experience of the great and beautiful forests of the Pacific Northwest.
“I had never seen with my own eyes what kind of world we lived in,” says Danny, which is wonderfully amusing given how little he appears to know even now of what kind of world we live in. But the movie has little to tell us about Danny’s “philosophies” or political ideas, much more about his human predicament and the fact that he is “trying to get over the shame of making dumb mistakes.” Whether the dumb mistakes were burning down lumber mills and meat-packing plants or getting caught after having done so is not made quite clear. Although he is ostensibly (sort of) penitent for his career as an eco-terrorist, he still evidently thinks that he has some kind of divine right to be heard and his environmentalist agenda to triumph over the forces of reaction which, pending the arrival of the progressive utopia, continue have the law and the majority in their grip. Even if he regrets what he did, he doesn’t regret the intellectual and moral arrogance that made him do it.
But If a Tree Falls seldom allows us to see this side of Danny, who even manages enough self-detachment at one point in the movie to put himself in the place of a bewildered public, wondering why people like him are destroying other people’s property. “What if I burned down what pissed me off?” he imagines “people” saying to themselves. “It sounds kind of crazy. And it is kind of crazy.” Kind of crazy, maybe, but not crazy enough for him to apologize to those whose research, livelihoods, and businesses he helped to wreck. He rejects the label of “eco-terrorist” or “terrorist tout court to describe his acts on the grounds that he only destroyed property. “We didn’t try to hurt people.” But people’s lives are bound up with the property they have devoted them to acquiring and improving — and arson even in remote spots always involves a risk of death or injury to firemen or to those who simply happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Through out the film, we feel that we are being asked to feel sorry for “Danny” as he is torn from his family, his new wife and young child, and sent to do his time in the clink. And we do feel sorry for him. Even Kirk Engdall, the U.S. attorney in Eugene, Oregon, who was instrumental in cracking the case of the Earth Liberation Front’s acts of destruction, says he is now more circumspect in his view of the ELFs. “I know now that the world is not black and white,” he says, hitting just the right progressive note and adding: “you gain an insight about how they came to do these things.” So, of course, do we, though it’s not necessarily the same insight or one which would interfere with our resistance to the progressive assumption that tout comprehendre c’est tout pardonner. Making excuses for Danny and his kind is really the purpose of political movies like this one as they seek to confirm the enlightened in their conviction that history is going their way. And the more such movies there are, the more it seems that history is going their way.
About the Author
James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.
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Richard Baker| 8.22.11 @ 6:24AM
Like the Weathermen and SDS, these well to do brats imagine themselves as revolutionaries performing some sort of noble activity when they are nothing but children emotionally in an adult body. Spoiled brats who live in a world of extreme fantasy. Don't pity them. They are punks and nothing more.
Mike D.| 8.22.11 @ 7:35AM
Self styled get a life lunatics that somewhere along the way got indoctrinated(muzzle loaded) by some nutjob teacher or professor. Most of these types of people never had a self identity or self worth to begin with and this filled the bill on the self importance apetite.
sinanju| 8.22.11 @ 11:47AM
I spent most of the nineties grinding my teeth over these punks' exploits and the indulgent way they were treated by law enforcement and the media.
Local LEOs kept proclaiming their helplessness as these punks wrought their destruction across multiple jurisdictions where they were unknown. As they kept getting off with wrist slaps their acts only grew more egregious (duh?) with the Battle of Seattle their glorious apotheosis. Finally, after 9/11, the attitude towards them changed. I'm guessing GWB took about fifteen minutes out of his busy day to make a phone call to the FBI director's office to order him to take the gloves off. The "ELF's" were publicly branded "domestic terrorists" by the administration and Operation Backfire was born in 2004. It was a straightforward cross-jurisdictional effort using multiple agencies, co-ordinated through the Bureau's Portland, OR office and soon tracked down the adorable darlings. They were hit with a raft of serious charges, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and were eventually sent to do hard time, little Danny among them.
Once these cute little scamps were made an example of and force to suffer adult-size punishment, eco-terrorism seemed to lose its cachet as a pastime for the young and privileged.
Imagine that. Who could have predicted such an outcome?
And Lori Berenson is still in a Peruvian calabozo and Rachel Corrie is still dead.
JimBob7| 8.22.11 @ 2:13PM
I disagree Richard, Danny has a very long way to go to rise to the level of punk. He is just another easily swayed dolt, described by the communists of old as "Useful idiots."
Brian Mc| 8.22.11 @ 6:48AM
Thanks for the head's-up. I should be able to avoid this excuse for a documentary without any problems.
Pecos Pete| 8.22.11 @ 7:09AM
Another movie I will not watch. Even if admission is free. RB above is correct, nothing but punks.
And most of the environmental non-profit organizations are punks too. They make money by filing lawsuits and then use those lawsuits to seek more money from foundations to keep their lawyers earning more money.
Al Adab| 8.22.11 @ 6:55PM
Not to mention the federal grants and monies they receive from their Congressional friends in the institutional Left.
This stems from the old "60's" mindset of "Stop the war or I'll blow up your factory and burn your ROTC building". How come Conservatives never act like that? Remember Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn?
Herb| 8.22.11 @ 7:31AM
Oh, the arrogance of all-knowing youth! Been around in its present form since the late Sixties and is so tiresome.
I was young once. Did I have any transformative fantasies for altering society? Well, yes. I wished then that I had the power to issue to every upright citizen a Bible and a .45 automatic and tell them to pray to G-d to always do the right thing.
Anyway, hope Danny Boy's prison roomie is a convicted lumberjack.
Bill| 8.22.11 @ 9:22AM
Understanding that the James family was mistreated and cheated by the railroad doesn't make Jesse James' robbing of the railroads right.
Danny McGowan, as the son of a New York cop, no doubt grew up as an urban child. He seems to say that in the commentary. So does that make his epiphany in the woods of the Pacific Northwest somehow more authentic than the views of a person raised in a rural or small-town setting?
Burning and vandalism are crimes, period.
Bill| 8.22.11 @ 9:25AM
In our society, the general rule is majority rules. If Danny can't accommodate himself to that, burning the system down isn't the answer; removing himself to a place where people who believe as he does are in charge is the proper way to go.
Tired Taxpayer PRM| 8.22.11 @ 9:31AM
I have often wondered, when did trees become an non-renewable resource? Doesn’t wood grow on..uh, trees?
As for eco-terrorists, treat them the same as all terrorists. Hanging them from a tree would satisfy me (and perhaps them).
John Navratil| 8.22.11 @ 11:55AM
Tired Taxpayer PRM,
However, you must use natural, organically grown, hemp rope.
JimBob7| 8.22.11 @ 2:14PM
Easy enough to do, the fed'l gubmint maintains a 'war reserve' of hemp plants in Illinois to make rope for war purposes.
gearjammer| 8.22.11 @ 9:36AM
Which University 's professorship will he choose upon release ? Or, if not up to academic snuff, he can become one of our newly minted ENVIROMENTAL POLICE-give him a badge, a new shiny SUV-hybrid of course. He can enforce all the EPA regs he wants-plus he must be invited to grade schools to lecture our children to be just like him ! COMING SOON TO AN AMERICA NEAR YOU 1
John Navratil| 8.22.11 @ 11:59AM
gearjammer,
I like the way you say "all the EPA regs he wants". Have you noticed the irony of the Birkenstock crowd bristling at the raw milk regulations? The same crowd who have no difficulty regulating food production "for your own good" have finally found a regulation they don't like. There is hope!
Petronius| 8.22.11 @ 11:14AM
It'll be compulsory viewing at every jr. high next week. And the week after, the parents will be forced to see this cinesewage or see their kids expelled and their lives ruined. If any doubt who God is, ask a teacher or a journalist. They'll tell you.
Mistral| 8.22.11 @ 12:25PM
"He went to Catholic school....."
Since the Vatican Councils of 1965 this is meaningless since the "catholic" that used to exist in them has disappeared. Now most of them are like state schools and full of garbage curricula that propose eco-politics and gay aggendas. Inclusivity and relativism in education have reduced American society to a state of amoral ruin reflected in economic decay and political leftism that propagates illegal behaviours to impose legislative programmes. Let us not forget ACORN, for example. Or the incessant votes for sodomite marriage that have been beaten again and again but keep being reimposed until the liberal left gets its way. The fact that the so-called "catholic" vote helped elect Hussein Obama three years ago illustrates that American catholicism is as morally & politically bankrupt as the Democrats and their failed messiah.
wolflen| 8.22.11 @ 1:16PM
the attitude i like is: (I) we didn't hurt anyone. We only destroyed property.
Ahhh...if you burn down my house (via arson) im going to be very hurt...and should i find you before the law does...so will you.
RCV| 8.22.11 @ 1:29PM
These eco-terrorists should be given long sentences for their anarchist behavior. End of story.
Joe D.| 8.22.11 @ 1:42PM
This is truly pethetic. We read we have these problems is because we encourage it by feeling sorry for these eco terrorist. He and the organization that encouraged it below behind bars. These idiots in the environmental movement need to have the light shined on the lies that move the people, if for no other reasons to stop the money flow and people from being duped and joining.
cowgirl| 8.22.11 @ 2:50PM
And the difference between Danny and Rigoberta Menchu, one of the heroes of the left, is....
Nothing. Absolutely Nothing.
Robert| 8.22.11 @ 3:11PM
The First Amendment allows freedom of speech and I will defend that for everyone until breath leaves my body...BUT you have no right to be heard because once you force people to listen to you all freedoms are void.
c. j. acworth| 8.22.11 @ 5:31PM
A graduate degree in ACUPUNCTURE? Then, he saw a movie which "blew his mind". I guess it did. Literally.
Mike Giles| 11.30.11 @ 6:32PM
And if he had graduated, and couldn't get a job. it would have been "society's fault".
marshcope| 8.22.11 @ 8:56PM
But freedom of speech Does include your right to get right in someone's face to get your message heard, according to the Supreme Court of Missouri, in a case brought against Phillips and his gang from Witchita in their antics at the funerals of Vets. The court decision was buried in a paper I read, and did not get any other coverage I have found, so if anyone knows any more about this Missouri Court interpretation of free speech, inform me.
POST American| 8.23.11 @ 12:31AM
----------------BOTTOMLESS LINE--------------------
And speaking of 'EEK-O Tear-OR--ism' ,
WHY still nothing about the CHEM-trail
saturation of the skies (cadmium, barium and
aluminum oxides) ----or anything about
organ destroying, sterility engendering,
GM food ----or even anything about the
utter saturation of packaging etc. with the
feces of the petro-chemical industry -ie
non-biodegradable, estrogen leeching,
bisphenol A drenched ------PLASTIC?
OR so much as a word about the mandating
of those hideous, RED China manufactured,
mercury filled and fume emitting, mind control
engineered flourescent light bulbs.
And FINALLY, that little matter of the greatest
world nuclear halocaust of all time being
buried by the DEPOP OP 'friendly' media ----Fukishima.
REALLY-----just for the 11th hour hell of it,
why not start reporting the news?
BE BRAVE---------------!
Bill| 8.23.11 @ 9:05AM
It's the manipulations of the Tavistock Institute that keeps the REAL news from being reported.
Dan Mathewson| 8.23.11 @ 8:02PM
And don't forget the CFR/Bilderbergers.
Ore Gone| 8.23.11 @ 4:01AM
Those creeps were spiking trees and ruining equipment around Eugene until they found the spotted owl and could use it to close almost all logging on Federal Lands. The Federal lands should be given back to the States if they are just going to lock it up and let it become a preserve. This was not the original intent of the Federal Government having ownership when the States came into the Union. The intent was to sell the lands in order to fund the limited functions of the Federal Government since there was no tax.