THE SIEGE
US, 1998, 113 minutes, Colour.
Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis, Tony Shaloub, Sami Bouajila.
Directed by Edward Zwick.
The Siege takes its starting point from the bombs in the New York World Trade Towers during the 1990s, before September 11th 2001. What if terrorism took hold in the US in the way it does in other countries? What if New York were under martial law? This is an intelligent actioner rather than just a Boys' Own Adventure, even though Denzel Washington is the Mr Upright of the FBI. Annette Benning gives a very interesting performance as a former deep cover agent. Bruce Willis has a chance to be villainous as an extreme hawkish general 'taking control for the good of the nation'.
The screenplay has been attacked as singling out Arabs as terrorists. However, it is complex and I would have thought that the film was anti-racism and stereotyping and was quite critical of jingoistic American attitudes, raising issues of how America has alienated those with whom it worked in covert subversive activities who now want revenge for being abandoned by the CIA. Director Edward Zwick also made the war-questioning movies Glory and Courage Under Fire.
1.Pictures of terrorism in the United States? The terrorism of the 1990s? Viewed after 9/11?
2.The credibility of the plot, characters, situations? At the time, later? Hindsight? The tradition of films about terrorism?
3.New York City in the 1990s, the initial attack on the Twin Towers, the influence on the screenplay, Arab terrorists? The attack on embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania?
4.The 1990s and Arabs, the American experience, Saddam Hussein and the Gulf War, relationships with Arabia, terrorism in Yemen, Beirut, Iran? The distant terror? Terror in the United States, in New York City (and at the time of the release, plans were being made for the attack on September 11, 2001)?
5.American fears, prejudices, judgmental attitudes, ethnic clichés, as illustrated after 9/11?
6.Terror in New York City visualised, the terrorist cells, the perpetrators? The targets, the methods, merciless attitudes: the buses, death in the streets, the theatre and the deaths of the affluent? Indiscriminate killing? Disaffected students, the issues of visas? The head of the cells, collaboration – and his leading on the CIA? Interrogations? Suicides?
7.The staging of the attack on the bus, on the theatre? The final confrontations?
8.Elise/Sharon? CIA, her cover, expertise, experience? Helping Hub? The contacts? Sexual relationships with spies? Motivations? With Samir? Wanting names, information? Contacting Hub, working with him? His suspicions? Her being introduced as Sharon? The truth about her? Cooperation, compromised because of Samir, trying to help him, his betrayal, caught? Her death? Saving Hub?
9.Hub, a decent man, FBI agent, his character, working with Frank as his assistant agent? The team? The situation in New York City, the authorities? The president and his absence? The FBI being brought in, their detective work? Trying to negotiate for the bus, the sudden explosion? The puzzle about Elise? Frank and the information about his son, internment? The objections? Hub and the media, the interviews, the media’s critique of the FBI work? Anger? The interrogations, the build-up to the confrontation? Meeting with General Devereaux? Devereaux and his attitudes, taking control? The set-up at the end, success, Hub not killed, Sharon’s death?
10.Frank, his work, an agent of long standing, Lebanese background, the years in the United States, his son being rounded up under suspicion, the visualising of the internees? New York paranoia? Upset, his search, Hub helping?
11.The president, his role, advice, the general? The state of siege?
12.Bruce Willis as the general, decorated, his skills, smiling, ideas, with Hub and Frank, with Elise? The roundup, the state of panic? His growing despotic attitude, the confrontations and accusations?
13.The picture of the populace, life under siege in New York City, the fear of war? The results of terror?
14.The film as entertainment – with the touch of prophecy?
