The Green Chain (2007) Reviews

• A look at how forestry effects the lives of the residents a fictional mountain town.

  daveacarson2009-01-01

  A great film, especially in today's economic setting. All of the characters are revealing of what is really happening in the world of forestry, how "loving trees" does not necessarily mean that they all must be protected - a very unique movie that examines the industry, and its impact, from a number of perspectives. Although the story is fictional, I found myself totally hooked from the opening scene. I do consider myself to be an environmentalist, and I had never really given enough thought to the reliance that entire towns can have on forestry, how trees are literally the lifeblood for so many small towns. Highly recommended.

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• The forest through the trees...

  s_garrioch2010-02-23

  More than just a film, this doco within a film does a great job of addressing weighty issues that currently face the logging industry. Illuminating and objective, it even succeeds at being entertaining with a poignant array of true to life characters. It's surprising to see the talent that jumped on board, especially with Playboy model Tricia Helfer who plays the actress looking for a cause. Skillfully gift-wrapped with high production value, writer/director Mark Leiren-Young has succeeded in finding great entertainment value here, and the dialogue is both authentic and emotionally convincing. While the doco within a film vehicle is nothing new, it's done here in a unique way that has seemingly succeeded in fooling more than a few. If you want a thought provoking film that focuses on environmental issues, you'll find it here.

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• Very Bad...

  hercynianforest2011-02-07

  I'm guessing the producer/director got the "talent" together and told them to assume their characters and ad-lib on a basic theme, i.e., no real word-for-word script. Well, the actors did a rather bad job of it, in my opinion. What's worse, the whole film drops the ball on some of the real issues of old-growth logging. The fact is, four, five generations of Euro-peasants have swarmed over this continent cutting down everything in sight! Now there's hardly any old-growth left! That means the big- money jobs are harder to find. Nothing but scrawny, low- dollar 2nd-, 3rd-growth. So now we have a hand-full of "city" idealist want to protect the few remaining o-g forests. I'm saying the loggers, the logging industry, and the logging towns have reached the limit of their way of life and want to blame a problem that is 99% of their own making on the idealists. This fact is not in the least brought out in this film. In general, lots of why questions are left out in favor of "human interest." The last "citizen" (the waitress) was particularly galling. Honey, your men have cut down all the trees except for a few acres the "environmentalists" are trying to save. But you want to blame "city people" for your problems. . . . Very frustrating on many levels, this film...

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