The Siege
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Movie Reviews of The Siege
Movie Review: One of the Effects of Cinematic Media: Reaction
Summary: 4 Stars
Watching the 1998 THE SIEGE in 2007 and then rolling through all the reviews of this film from the time of release to the present is a lesson in the power of the cinema. The obvious initial response was less about the film as a film than about the manner in which the FBI, CIA, Military, Terrorists, and public responded to the unimaginable: shouts of protests about 'glorification of occult terrorists', the Hollywood idea of the impossible happening, and the criticism of the fine cast of actors who steeped into roles 'beyond swallowing' are all here in these reviews.
Now, six years after 9/11 reviewers are taking a different view, though most still find the film pompous and obnoxious. Offensive versus defensive. And after viewing the movie as a movie it is gratifying to know that people feel strongly and are vocal about the depiction of the 'war against terrorism' we continue to lose. Movies that make people think and talk are valuable, and in that light the film is more successful than initially considered.
Yes, there are gaping holes in the script and the plot and the concept, but as a little thriller it maintains our attention throughout and offers some fine moments from actors such as Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Tony Shalhoub, Bruce Willis, Sami Bouajila, Ahmed Ben Larby, Aasif Mandvi among others. And then there are the panoramas of New York City under siege with the Twin Towers standing mightily in the cityscape... It begs the question: if scriptwriter Lawrence Wright and director Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Courage Under Fire, Glory, Leaving Normal, Legends of the Fall, etc) were thinking along these lines and finding flaws in our intelligence forces, why weren't the leaders in Washington, DC in tune with 'absurd possibilities'? It makes one think - and that is the best thing about this film. Grady Harp, January 07
Movie Review: A "terrorists come to Brooklyn" movie...
Summary: 3 Stars
The Siege is basically a "terrorists come to Brooklyn" movie. It stars Denzel Washington as leader of a FBI team investigating terrorist cells in NYC, Annette Bening as a sly and shifty CIA agent. Bruce Willis as the two-star Army general who brings his troops to town, and Tony Shalhoub as Washington's Arab-American partner (nice job, Tony).
So what happens WHEN things start blowing up? The FBI works flat out in stopping the bad guys. There are jurisdictional issues with other agencies. Shadowy folk remain shadowy. There are power plays. People want the ear of the president. And there are victims, heros, and villains. This movie has them all.
The plot had a convincing build-up, but the conclusion was a bit anti-climatic. The final cell was a bit too Hollywood, with everybody showing up at just the right time... and in the unoccupied public baths?
However, this movie is worth viewing for those first 80 minutes.
Movie Review: My second time buying this movie
Summary: 4 Stars
I used the title "My second time buying this movie" since for some reason the one that I had in my DVD collection just disappeared so I had to buy this movie again. Great performance by Denzel (he is one of my favorite actors) with Tony Shalhoub, and Annette Bening was a really convincing in her roll as a CIA Agent in this movie (I can tell that she did her homework for this movie). I am not used to see Bruce Willis as a bad guy, especially as an Army General, but he did a great performance and he still showing that he can do almost any roll in any movie. The only bad thing in this DVD is that is does not have special features in it.Movie Review: It is a great movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great movie. Denzel Washington is riveting. This movie is really a vehicle for him and he does a great job creating a multi-dimensional character plus he is easy on the eyes.
The themes seem a little creepy since 9/11 but still timely. I worked for an agency in my state for six years, a close relative worked for the state police in my state; I have a cousin who was a U.S. Marshall and an aunt who works for the labor department in another state. So after years of sharing war stories about government agencies and how they work (or don't work) I can say the way government agencies are portrayed is sad but accurate. The three agencies in the film Army intelligence, FBI and CIA don't communicate and share intelligence or resources even in the middle of a crisis. At times they seem to working against each other - something pointed out by the 9/11 commission report.
This movie also questions the role our foreign policy, how we choose to implement it and use our influence in the world. It also explores the connection between how other cultures view us and terrorism in a more indepth way than other films have in the past. This is particularly relevant now because of our policies in the Middle East where the U.S. and Great Britain have been involved in a lot of dirty dealing for a long time.
So this movie is entertaining; makes your think about U.S. foreign policy and you get to stare at Denzel for two hours - works for me!
Movie Review: An ironic anachronism, replete with Hollywood PC shibboleths
Summary: 2 Stars
You can tell this movie was released in 1998 because you can still see New York's Twin Towers standing, and because of the groveling incantations of "Islam is a religion of peace," repeated often enough (along with casting a Good Guy Arab Cop, Tony Shalhoub) to offset any PC-incorrect image of portraying Islamofascist terrorism.
A measure of how silly this movie appears from the rearview mirror of 2006 and all the ghastly Islamofascist atrocities since 9/11 is the first terrorist scene in the movie, where Denzel Washington as FBI agent tries, via megaphone, to talk the terrorists down from a hostage situation. He succeeds in getting the terrorists to let children exit the bus. Jihadis with a conscience -- now where have we ever seen this actually happen - Beslan (186 children killed)? London? Madrid? Mumbai? Only as old people start to exit the bus on a second appeal by Denzel does the bus blow up.
After a series of bombings in New York's supermarkets, movie theaters, restaurants, etc., pressure builds to call in the U.S. Army under martial law. Bruce Willis, the Army commander who is to take on this task, warns time and again that this isn't the proper role of the Army, but then, as one of the President's advisors explains in the movie, as if this is just one of those political things, the "President wants to appear presidential." Remember, this is 1998, and though critics of the movie, such as the New Yorker, refer to Willis's character as a "fascist U.S. Army general", the decision to grant him martial law authority would have been, ahem, none other than Bill Clinton. The movie slides by that little detail, however, to make it look like Willis, all on his own, is rounding up all able-bodied men of the Muslim persuasion (less draconian, by the way, than the rounding up of all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast by FDR, where the threat was less real and imminent than in this movie, but let's not talk about that, either; we're still in 1998, after all).
Of course, the CIA comes in for its usual whipping by Hollywood, where CIA agent Annette Bening has kept crucial facts to herself because she has personal scores to settle -- you see, she is the one who trained and armed some of these terrorists who are now running amok. Oh, yeah, sure, women-hating Al-Qaeda types would allow somebody like pretty Annette to train them!
But the best nonsense comes at the end: Denzel Washington and a handful of FBI agents rush into Army combat HQ and somehow surround Bruce Willis and pull their guns, saying he is under arrest for "violating the Constitution" (hey, why aren't they arresting the guy who ordered the martial law, Bill Clinton?). The general's clueless security detail also draws its guns, and there's a Mexican standoff. Denzel, using the same powers of persuasion that freed at least the kiddies from Islamofascist murder on the bus, appears to be succeeding in talking the Army soldiers out of using their guns to protect Willis. So Willis accepts the situation, allows himself to be arrested, and as the credits roll we see all these Army vehicles leaving Brooklyn in shame -- all it took was to bust the "fascist" general. Ta-dah!
So the movie, with a heap of literary license, proves at least one point at the end: back in the 1990s, it didn't take much for Bill Clinton to wuss out and avoid taking on the terrorists.
Meanwhile, some day, sooner or later, the idea of pre-emptive internment of Jihad-age Muslim men as a defensive measure will indeed catch on, if not here, then perhaps in France, the Netherlands, Russia, Israel -- it will be interesting to see who goes first. Because it is not just the Newtonian laws of physics that decree that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When they do the sequel to this preposterous movie in New York sans the World Trade Center, Willis will play the part of the hero, and whoever gets stuck with the FBI agent role will be the fool.
I give the movie two stars instead of one, because I would hate to discourage the making of such a sequel, and two, because any movie with Annette Bening in it automatically gets an extra star in my book.