Rating: 
Summary: LIfe Imitates Art - 9/11/2001
Review: Having watched The Siege before, the events of September 11 were a reality check. One of the first things I thought upon hearing that planes had hit the World Trade Center was of this movie.While this is a fictional account, it is a somber reminder of what could have happened in real life. Watching this movie after the attacks, it takes on an entirely different meaning to me. Everyone has changed in some fashion after the tragedy, and this movie is an example of just how confident we were in our national security. Denzel Washington, in the lead role, portrays a very convincing anti-terrorism agent with the F.B.I. The casting of Tony Shaloub (Wings) as his Arab-American partner brings the other side of the argument into play - being blamed for something because you share a race or some other identifiable characteristic with a group. While this movie was not meant to be any sort of documentary or reality-based production, it also manages to provide a sense of understanding about what the FBI has to do when investigating such incidents. This movie was good before the attacks, now it it much more meaningful for them.
Rating:
Summary: an A-1 political thriller
Review: This is a film with a lot of detail, and really deserves more than one viewing. At first it seems to be the usual Hollywood depiction of Arabs as "fanatical terrorists", but it isn't...what you get is echoes of our past history, making this story very plausible. The plot starts with the abduction of a sheik who is suspected of having masterminded the bombing of a U.S. barracks in the Middle East, and the web grows and gets tangled with tragic results. Denzel Washington is superb...a powerful, multi layered performance, and Tony Shahoub is fabulous. His subtle and moving portrayal of an Arab American FBI agent is exceptional. Annette Benning is a hard, edgy, sexy tomboy CIA agent, and does a good job of it. Bruce Willis won the Golden Raspberry award for worst actor of 1998 for his part as a general...and I'm not sure it was deserved...he has his moments. The direction and script by Edward Zwick is tight, absorbing, and fast moving, and the cinematography by Roger Deakins brilliant. Though there are many big actions scenes, it's the ones with dialogue, like the one in the latrine, that are my favorites. This is a film with a message...thought provoking, but at the same time highly entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Let's not get carried away here, folks.
Review: All these five star reviews that, after the events of 9/11, call the film "haunting" and "important" and "before it's time." Yeah, it's definitely weird watching this movie knowing that it came out three years before the attacks. And it certainly does fit in with what's going on in the world these days. However, from a cinematic standpoint, this is no five-star film. The plot jumps around and is sometimes almost headache-inducing. The pace often meanders and Annette Bening is annoying. However, there are a few pretty good scenes; the best being when Denzel is trying to negotiate with a group of terrorists holding a city bus hostage. A couple other exciting moments, hence the three stars. Please, don't believe the hype unless you want to be disappointed. But, if you want to see a sporadically entertaining sign-of-the-times film, "The Siege" is isn't a bad way to kill two hours.
Rating:
Summary: WELL DONE BUT PATRONIZING
Review: One can't fault the quality of movie-making in THE SIEGE. Director Edward Zwick has crafted a tense, involving thriller with superior performances from Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis and Tony Shalhoub. However, in trying to be politically correct, we are forced to watch people march in protest as Arab Americans are grantedly wrongfully imprisoned in camps reminiscent of WWII Japanese. However, where were these protesters when innocent people were being killed in buses and movie theaters. The script also tries to evoke sympathy for the character of Shamir (spelling) who is Bening's convenient informant/lover. We are asked to understand his motivations, knowing full well he is not the "angel" Bening tries to paint, or rather the script tries to paint. The script once again decries the American government for its covert handling of terrorists like the shiek, who remember did cause the murders at the American barracks. The movie also shows that the Americans do not know how to effectively handle these kind of terrorists. Remember, these people believe they will go to heaven, so suicide bombing is nothing to them. Why Willis and crew thought they could torture someone is beyond me; they do not care if they die. How to effectively handle this type of terrorist remains a paradoxical problem. But back to the movie: some fine cinematography, some truly riveting and gut-wrenching moments, and a good score by Graeme Revell. However, in trying to play all sides of the cards, it seems to have lost its focus on what really mattered.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-Made And Rather Prophetic
Review: This is one of the more interesting movies about terrorism to come out of America between Oklahoma City and 9/11. A group of Middle Eastern terrorists, worked up apparently over the kidnap of some shiek, starting blowing stuff up in New York. Denzel Washington's FBI agent, Annette Bening's CIA agent and Bruce Willis's bigshot general all try in their very different ways to get the baddies. The big high tension showdowns with hostage-taking terrorists take a welcome backseat to plot and character development, in particular the faltering but, on the whole, growing trust between Washington and Bening, the growing hostility between Washington and Willis and the latter's dramatic alienation of Washington's Lebanese sidekick played by Tony Shalhoub. It's a very entertaining film that has the unusual characteristic of being immeasurably more topical now than at the time it was made not least in the light recent events at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. If only the good guys were so unambivalently victorious in the real world.
Rating: 
Summary: When will we ever learn indeed...
Review: Learn there is no reasoning with fanatics. This "politically correct" piece of fluff blames - as usual - the West in general, and the Americans in particular for the terrorist attacks. The message: "The Arabs only blow up innocent civilians because they were provoked, and they use American money and know-how to make them". So now you know: "it's all your own fault if you get bombed".
That's sickening in my book. The movie begins promising, but near the end everything goes awfully pear-shaped.
At the end, the "Evil American General", played by Bruce Willis, get's thrown in jail by the "Hero", for torturing a terrorist, who is vigorously defended by Washington's character, as if he were a saint instead of the leader of a terrorist cell. "Terrorists have rights too" they firmly want to put across here. To justify this message, they have the "Evil American General" not only torture the terrorist (to get info), but also shoot him (all off screen), without any logical motivation. Apparently that's what American Generals do, or so they want us to believe.
"The public" in this flick is (of course) "outraged" at the Army, deployed by the President, in order to prevent further terrorist attacks, and round up the remaining terrorist cell(s). Somehow no-one was protesting after two massacres of innocent Americans (a bus and a cinema full of defenseless people blown up), but when 200 young Arabs are detained for questioning, the angry crowds claim the streets, rooting for the Arabs. How very odd, but apparently that's what "politically correct" people do...
I'm sure Osama and friends must have laughed their heads off at the blatant display of so much Western self hatred. God forbid, they even may have found some inspiration here. They surely weren't blamed all that much in this horrid piece of film (that would put all those ravings about "haunting" and "before it's time" in quite a different perspective, wouldn't it...?)
Even Annette Benning apparently had to whisper "Insjallah" as her dying word (conveniently placed at the end of the Our Father, no doubt in an attempt to silence any criticism). So even here Allah had to have the last word so it seems. Again, very "politically correct" no doubt.
So what's the message here? "Not all Arabs are bad"? That would be rather patronizing and insulting, wouldn't it? Everyone with half a brain knows this. It's about religious fanaticism, not about race. We surely don't need this movie to tell us that. So it must be the same-old, same-old: "it's all the fault of the West" dogma then... or perhaps: "just be nice to terrorists and they will change career", "we Westerners forced these poor souls into terrorism", and more of such sickening nonsense.
A stunning display of ignorance about what makes these fanatics tick. To them, every non-Muslim is an enemy, who must die. That doesn't have the same ring to it as "we are the oppressed", so you won't hear them say it that much. Unless you speak Arab, and take the trouble to visit a fundamentalist Mosque that is. Then you learn the ugly truth no-one likes to hear. Being nice doesn't cut it (as also becomes clear in the choice of the final target in this movie). Convert to Islam, or die. There are no other options in their book of terror.
This movie, or rather it's patronizing "message", is infuriating at best. However, one thing became shockingly clear - if you didn't know it already: the so called "politically correct" activist types are complicit for weakening our society, to a point where it's become deadly ill and almost defenseless. That's maybe even scarier than the terrorists themselves. How do you fight something that's firmly rooted inside already? Not that easy as fighting an enemy in some conveniently far away country, now is it...
One line from the movie keeps ringing in my head: "the most determined will win". They hit the nail on the head with that one... We all know - finally, and way too late - how very determined these religious fanatics are - they are willing to die for their (warped) beliefs. As one of the terrorists says "this is not the last cell, there will always be others, this is only the beginning". Strangely, that sounds very believable...
And how about us...? How determined are we...?
Reading some of these reviews makes me fear the worst. Especially those written after 9/11. Milk and cookies anyone, after we sing "We Are The World" all together? For gods sake, what does it take for some to wake up? How many more innocent victims have to die by the hands of these Islamic terrorists?
When will we ever learn? It's past midnight already, whether you like it or not. Sorry if that doesn't fit all that neatly in your "politically correct" world view.
Wake up. Our freedom and our very lives are at stake here. There's a war going on. It's looking very different from any other war we know (of), and we are the target. If you don't believe me, ask them... But prepare to be shocked if you learn the truth.
Watch the movie if you must, but unless you are hopelessly brainwashed by all the "politically correct" BS we have been spoon-fed over the last decades, you won't like it.
Rating:
Summary: Let's not get carried away here, folks.
Review: All these five star reviews that, after the events of 9/11, call the film "haunting" and "important" and "before it's time." Yeah, it's definitely weird watching this movie knowing that it came out three years before the attacks. And it certainly does fit in with what's going on in the world these days. However, from a cinematic standpoint, this is no five-star film. The plot jumps around and is sometimes almost headache-inducing. The pace often meanders and Annette Bening is annoying. However, there are a few pretty good scenes; the best being when Denzel is trying to negotiate with a group of terrorists holding a city bus hostage. A couple other exciting moments, hence the three stars. Please, don't believe the hype unless you want to be disappointed. But, if you want to see a sporadically entertaining sign-of-the-times film, "The Siege" is isn't a bad way to kill two hours.
Rating:
Summary: Prophetic
Review: I don't have much to say other than that the movie is pretty rivetting and well made. It definitely was under-rated when it came out and is a MUST SEE for people today. NY Times published an article today entitled: "2 Men Charge Abuse in Arrests After 9/11 Terror Attack" (May 3, 2004). The parallels are just scary: so much so that I almost immediately thought of this movie. Read this article and you will understand what made this such a prescient, important movie then, and now more than ever. Or worse yet, juxtapose this situation with the one in Iraq at Abu Gharib Prison and it only gets scarier.
Rating:
Summary: Not a Racist Film
Review: As I am half Lebanese myself, I do not agree with the many claims that this movie is racist. First of all, it gives a glimpse of the Islamic and Arab community in New York City and shows some positive aspects of their culture, and second, the protagonist has a Lebanese partner. I think that many Arabs who did find this movie racist were more worried about the subject manner. Most Arabs living in America are very patriotic, often to the point where they hate seeing negative aspects of the American government as much as many European Americans. This was a movie which tried to show, in addition to terrorism, exactly what the American government is capable of when it feels threatened by a particular ethnicity or political persuasion; as exemplified by the internment camps which were created for Shiite Moslems and the scene where the suspected terrorist is tortured and shot. These acts were not an attempt by the movie-makers to say that they approve of it (if it were, I'm sure the Lebanese actor Tony Shaloub would not have had a part in it) but to show the extremities to which military officials can be driven. In the aforementioned internment camp scene a moment is even taken to address Arab pride, as Tony Shaloub's character throws his badge at Denzel Washington 's character and says, "Tell them I'm not their sand-ni**er anymore." Those who want to criticize racist movies need only look to The Delta Force, or Rules of Engagement. But The Siege is a movie which truly takes all aspects of the terrorism issue into consideration, except perhaps what provokes it.
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