FAMILY TREE

FAMILY TREE is a perfect example of a totally unacceptable G-rated movie. Not only is it heavy, blatant propaganda which very few moral parents would want their children to see, but it also endorses a young boy rebelling against his father (who is very nice, by the way), for no coherent reason.

The movie opens with a voiceover by a teenage boy named Mark, who is discussing the exploits of his younger brother, Mitch, otherwise known as “Mess.” In this typical family movie set up, Mark is the star in the family. He does well in football and is the apple of his father’s eye. Mess of course feels left out and finds solace in talking to an old oak tree. Their town, Wagstaff, lost its only factory several years ago, and now the residents are barely surviving. To try to get the town back on its feet, Mess’ father, Henry, has worked out a very good deal to develop a piece of property for a plastics factory. Regrettably, this means that the old oak tree must be cut down.

Mess sets out to save the oak tree. At first, it looks like no one wants to join him in this crusade, because everyone needs work. Eventually, former football star and town hero, Larry, played by Cliff Robertson, joins in Mess’ protest. Of course, Mess fails to notice that his actions will keep the town impoverished and are destroying his father. Henry, meanwhile, tries to reason with Mess and with the plastic company. If the movie were not so biased, he would be the quintessential good guy.

After a violent thunderstorm, Larry dies. In honor of Larry, and forgetting that they don’t have any money or resources, the townspeople join in Mess’ protest. Therefore, his protest succeeds, but a trick ending solves the important plot problems.

FAMILY TREE is so tendentious, that my children were groaning all the way through it. Having worked in environmental law, I must admit that I was totally offended by the lack of wit, wisdom and reason in this movie. What’s worse than the high-handed environmental message, is the fact that Mess gets away with blatant rebellion. The question arises, is this the way the Unabomber was raised?

It should be noted that there are 140-160 million MORE acres of forest in the US today than in 1900. Thus, large portions of the country have been re-forested. Testing on the windward side of the US, on the Pacific coast, and then on the downwind side, on the Atlantic coast, shows that we are now one of the few countries in the world where the air gets better by passing over our country (carbon decreases, oxygen increase, etc.). Thus, FAMILY TREE is based on misconceptions and lies.

There will be those who endorse this movie because of its G-rating, but regrettably, they’re confusing a lack of semantic elements (foul language, sex and violence) with a much deeper philosophic evil.