The Film: "The East"

The Film: "The East." - My Spoiler Free Mini Review

That is the name of the environmental, "Terrorist" organization in this EXCELLENT film featuring Brit Marling, Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgard, Jason Ritter, and Patricia Clarkson.

To me, it raises issues that are not exactly Black & White. It challenges the viewer to negotiate the different shades of moral grey, and it made me ask myself which side I would want to take. One side is The East, and the other is the Brit Marling character who is possibly too nice and overly sympathetic of a person as she goes undercover to try to dismantle them. As I mention below, being in an organization such as the REAL Earth Liberation Front will have unexpected consequences within their dream of improving our situation here on our expendable earth. With both sides of our Congress being completely bought off by big business, it asks how far we should go to stand up against the multi-billion dollar companies that can do so much damage to our earth without conscience. Many times that damage is done directly to the people and children on it. It asks where the ethical cutoff line is before people, "...take things to far." I saw a review somewhere that referred to that cutoff line as a cliche in this film. I completely disagree with that. We have a dozen people who are obsessed with fighting an unwinnable war on moral grounds. There are going to be a few people, who right or wrong, want to escalate their tactics more than the others. That is simple human nature. Keeping in mind that this is a film, I was REALLY for the lighter tactics that they were using at first, and I wanted to be for them all the way.

This show is not based on a true story, but one thing is clear to this news junkie: On a 60 Minutes episode from years back, it showed the E.L.F. and how they torched a ski-resort, at night thinking that nobody was inside. What they did not realize was that there was a security guard in the building who perished in the flames.

The comical expression that the John & Jeff radio show used to use was, "Are you with us, or are you with the terrorists?"  By the end, I could not pick either side and regarding this film that question is no longer funny.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1869716/