After years of rumors and false starts, Edward Abbey's classic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, credited with inspiring the Earth First! movement, may finally make it to a movie theater near you.
The 1975 book follows a foursome of activists angry about the overdevelopment of Utah's canyonlands and not afraid to show it -- by derailing trains, attacking bulldozers, and the like.
Production on the film is set to begin in May and wrap by the end of the year, in time for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. But curiously, it will not be shot in Utah; the "indie-film budget" forced filmmakers to look to New Mexico, where tax incentives are more favorable.
Leading the project is director Catherine Hardwicke, whose most recent work, The Nativity Story, was crucified at the box office.
Says Hardwicke, "After Inconvenient Truth, we hit a tipping point where almost everybody in America cares about the environment. We feel like [Monkey Wrench] is going to be a rallying cry to shake people up to care about the land, the world, and do something about this planet."
Comments
View as Flat
randino Posted 4:08 am
14 Feb 2007
You are Gitmo bound, lady.
Randy Cunningham
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Gwenny Posted 7:36 am
14 Feb 2007
As awesome as this movie sounds like it will be, I fear that it will make us look bad. Not that I don't think it's funny when people like Frank Luntz say we're mean, but we eco-geeks really do have a bad rep. If a main-stream movie comes out showing us in a bell-bottom-wearing, train de-railing light, people might get the impression that the environmental movement hasn't grown up since its flower-power days, or even worse, equate us with danger and destruction.
I'm still gonna go see it, though.
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birdboy Posted 9:41 am
14 Feb 2007
Should you blame the entire movement for the actions of some?
No, but they did, and they will. Let's prepare our defense now.
Should you credit the actions of angry mobs rioting at the Democratic Convention for the end to the Vietnam war?
Maybe not, but it sure did speed up the process.
Winning the 'Green War' may be harder than winning the other idea wars (i.e., drugs, crime, terror), for several reasons.
We are all in it. You are with us or against us (I hate that quote), there is no 'neutral ground', no 'innocent bystander' (well, not in this country).
We are fighting our natural enemy- greed. There's a whole lot of money to be made by raping and killing the ecosystem.
We are up against a huge, powerful machine built up over centuries to enable the conversion of Nature into profit and human comfort. It won't go down easily.
I do not advocate radical activities- they attract the wrong kind of attention, and justify the enemy's position (much like torture).
But it will occur if we are collectively awakened, 'cause we don't control the crazies.
a liberal in redsville
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wiscidea Posted 11:59 pm
14 Feb 2007
When a few people become so confident, so arrogant, so self-righteous, and so certain that they are more informed and wise than the remaining 6 billion humans on the planet we see behavior ranging from derailing trains... to bombing family planning clinics... to lynching African Americans... to steering jets into buildings full of innocent people... to launching pre-emptive wars... to exterminating millions of fellow human beings because they view them as inferior.
Any celebration of such behavior, at any level, is absolutely disgusting. One is free to celebrate it -- I would never suppress the film -- but I'm free to condemn it. The American NAZI Party is free to organize parades, free to put their hate on display for the rest of us to condemn. If you are inspired by or hope others will be inspired by such a film, you should be ashamed of yourself. You are reinforcing the cycle of violence that plagues our species.
If your beliefs are valuable enough for others to adopt them and live their lives accordingly, you should be able to present strong rational defense of those beliefs. You should be able to persuade the majority to follow your lead.
The violence displayed by the foursome of activists is a reflection of their intellectual and physcial laziness. They preferred the scare tactics of a bully over the power of education.
Forward!
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Richard Albury Posted 1:35 am
15 Feb 2007
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Delay And Deny Posted 2:10 am
15 Feb 2007
The Chilling Stars At Amazon
So get your copy now! Then relax, get your bathing suit on, and hit the beach...
The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services.
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amazingdrx Posted 2:22 am
15 Feb 2007
I hope the movie stresses that point. How about a few jailbird informant characters in the movie that derail the movement along with the trains? That's the reality.
These informants are very often the lowest kind of criminals. The kind facing life for serious crimes under three strikes legislation, then converted to work for law enforcement.
Anyone remember the peace group in Oregon that found out they were infiltrated by a local cop only after he was killed in a motorcycle accident and his true identity appeared in the obits?
Or the first World Trade Center bombing? It turns out without the government informant planted in the group, the bombing probably would never have happened.
Or the alleged terror group busted in Florida just recently? Without government agents offering money nothing would have happened.
If you are in a group where an individual loudly advocates violence, loudly point out that he is probably a government agent trying to get the whole group busted and discredited. It tends to keep the discussion going forward on a more non-violent basis.
Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, those are our kind of heroes. The real reformers with the real courage to face up to murderous tyranny with non-violent civil disobedience.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Gwenny Posted 3:02 am
15 Feb 2007
These leaders showed us that violence is not the means to an effective resolution. They showed us that a highly organized campaign, and the use of main-stream media can lay the path to real success. They told stories that people wanted to hear about and that the media could not ignore, not by making noise, but by shining light on real problems that everyone could relate to.
Idolizing train-wreckers and trouble-makers is a waste of time. Our energy needs to be devoted to supporting well-organized efforts that get the point across in a clear, honest and non-threatening way.
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amazingdrx Posted 3:23 am
15 Feb 2007
See you at the GOP convention? Along with a few million of US planning a nice bike ride!
Clog in! That's civil disobedience at its finest.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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carfree Posted 3:37 am
15 Feb 2007
Should be lots of fun as a movie.
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caniscandida Posted 6:52 am
15 Feb 2007
But when people who are not directly involved in a controversy are injured or inconvenienced, they have a right to complain.
I think it is fair to say that the non-violent actions organized by Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., did little or no damage (in the sense that, if a few thousand protesters walk across a lawn, the lawn probably receives some damage), and always avoided inconveniencing uninvolved people for very long (in the sense that, if a few thousand protesters are walking up a street, it will take a few minutes before you can get across).
I do not know enough about Earth First! and the Monkey Wrench Gang to have a clear sense of how disruptive or destructive they were/are. But presumably it is they, and fellow travelers, who bear a great responsibility for creating the lamentably widespread prejudice against environmentalists.
Even as we speak, in the world of protesters against whaling, the Sea Shepherd people, with their disgraceful aggressive tactics, are undermining the careful non-violence of the Greenpeace people. Greenpeace, as well as the anti-whaling governments of Australia and New Zealand, have denounced Sea Shepherd; but one wonders if on balance that will matter.
On a completely different matter, a matter of style: The Powells site provides the first few pages of "The Monkey Wrench Gang," for our enjoyment. I found it unreadably bad. But, to each one's own.
I doubt I shall either read the book or see the movie. There is a better chance of seeing the movie, especially if somebody cute is in the cast.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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