Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
mherrin-43253
Battle in Seattle:
Written and directed by Stuart TownsendThis docudrama is about the protests in Seattle(obviously) against the World Trade Organization that turned vicious and ugly in 1999. This takes a somewhat documentary style camerawork approach to the material. It follows a bunch of different people on both sides of the event humanizing them in an event that could have been enveloped entirely within its political ideologies. This is some emotionally charged material. Knowing that this actually happened helps push you to investing in the story. This does follow a large group of people around and it is a brief running time so you learn just enough about most of them to relate a bit. I did appreciate the fact that it doesn't demonize the people and make the protestors out to be these heroes. A lot of them aren't. A lot of the time the message they are trying to convey is taken over by anarchists or other people pushing violence. The cops are people with families and sometimes what they are experiencing at home or how the protests affect them as well. I know this sounds vague and partially generic. It's not. I just want you to find out for yourself what happens to these people caught in the grip of an unwieldly monster that neither side can control. It does sometimes come across as melodramatic and high in weak character development, a byproduct of the short running time I imagine. This was a good film. It put you right in the middle of the situation and never made it a piece of proganda. It showed you the people caught in the middle and what they lived through and experienced and why they might have decided to keep fighting when things might be looking dour for them. It has solid acting across the board. It never wears out its welcome. It is a solid movie. I give it a B.
neopol313
I caught this on the TV and was intrigued by the opening credits, always being one to be interested in real events and certainly ones in a recent political context. I admit that I was unaware of these events, but as the plot played out it left me feeling somewhat cold, always waiting for the hook that never came.This was basically a docudrama which melded the real and the reenactment together to create an at times frightening and tense view of the riots. Though this could have been any riot, over any subject, which was kind of the point. I feel that this could easily have been a film focusing on the Poll Tax riots of 1990 and have lost nothing.I feel that this needed to be more, in every area. More Seattle Riots, and I mean in a way that singled them out as such, and not just any riot. More character drama, with barely scratched the surface at most and more political. This attacks the WTO with the lowest common denominator, playing the emotional and reactionary left wing card, rather than a fully rounded balanced argument.I have no doubt that the World Trade Organisation is evil, as are most capital institutions, but there was little to convict them here, except the strong implications that they are against free speech.This was a film which was fair to it's characters; The riot cop just doing his job, the peaceful protesters, the anarchists and the forlorn Mayer. But there was a lack of a strong villain, as, as I've said, the WTO wasn't sufficiently justified.Also, its historical integrity has to be questioned. Simply put, are any of the characters portrait here real? The protesters are fictional, as I understand, but the Mayer? The reporter? It's not clear and based on their actions within the film, I would really like to know.*** SPOILER *** But finally, the most disturbing and probably the best, most compelling part of this film to me would be the what happens to Charlize Theron's character, a pregnant woman and wife of Woody Harleson's riot cop. As she is trying in vain to make her way home amidst the chaos of rioters clashing with police and in the confusion is treated as a rioter and is hit in the stomach with a baton. The result I'll leave in your imagination...This was best moment in the film were the true horror of these clashes become prevalent as the moral lines are crossed and order breaks down.************** In summation, this was worth a watch but will offer little in the way of clarification as to the motives of the events of that November, but maybe there are no more. Maybe it was a riot which stemmed from a protest against the capitalist machine. If you have strong lefty views then this is the film for you, if not, have a look but I doubt that you'll be blown away.
southsidepopper
I really love this movie in many ways. I appreciate the good character development throughout the movie. I was getting very emotional through this movie. This movie also shows a few things that I feel are very important. I feel like people are forgetting that they are the ones with the power. It's just that not enough people exercise their power, so the elite one's can really take advantage. This movie shows that if enoguh people feel a certain way and act on those feelings they can change the world. Even if it's just one small step at a time. I really got into each characters story. I myself, being someone who has witnessed first hand what can happen if cops let their power go to their head and don't have any empathy for anyone. So I felt myself getting angry during the scenes where cops were beating non-violent protesters. Overall a good political movie with a very good story line and many good points.
Spiral_Architect_420
I was at the battle in seattle...all 4 days of it....they cant get the days or times right....the gassing didn't start till after 5 pm in the afternoon on N30 not during lunchtime, we didn't march on the jail till December 3rd not December 2nd, and the Broadway and Pine Riots or as we locals call it the city sanctioned gay bashing wasn't started because of a cop flipping out but rather when a few people started shaking the police car with a cop in it...they don't bring up the fact that in the mornings people came downtown with coffee for police and brooms to clean up the mess...they don't talk about the peaceful protest that stayed on the sidewalk in response to said Broadway riots...and they didn't talk about how people were boxed in at 2 am when bars close infront of 3 packed bars. for a movie yeah its a good watch but for a look at the Battle In Seattle they could have done better in getting their facts right
