"The Siege" is already under attack by Arab anti-defamation groups, thanks to its alarming -- and misleading -- trailer which shows U.S. army troops rounding up Arabs and forcing them into internment camps ringed by barbed-wire fences. However, anyone who shows up to protest what they assume is going to be an ultra-right-wing fantasy about the benefits of martial law will feel rather silly if they actually watch the film, which all but bends over backward to portray Middle Easterners in a favorable light. "The word 'Arab' is not synonymous with the word 'terrorist'," an off-screen voice assures us at one point. But at the same time, "The Siege" also errs in making most of its Arab and Arab-American characters faceless and nameless. Rather than being depicted as real people, they're shown largely as a mass of bodies being pushed around, waiting to be rescued by sympathetic outsiders. It's almost as silly as the infamous "Cry Freedom," which tried to relate the story of Steven Biko through the eyes of a white English family. In many ways, "The Siege" is a movie operating at cross-purposes with itself, a tell-tale sign that too many writers worked over the script. In this case, three are credited, although the writing is so uneven you can bet many more cooks stirred this particular potboiler. Thanks largely to director Edward Zwick ("Glory," "Courage Under Fire"), "The Siege" does manage to pull off a few genuinely startling moments, such as when a meeting of leaders is mysteriously disrupted by one pager after another going off, or when tanks roll through the streets of New York. In the film, New York is targeted by terrorists, and FBI agent Anthony Hubbard (Denzel Washington) and his partner Frank Haddad (Tony Shaloub) are forced to accept the assistance of mysterious Elise Kraft (Annette Bening), who's had more than diplomatic relations with some Arab suspects. In fact, Elise's idea of pillow talk includes asking about the location of terrorist cells in the vacinity of Manhattan. When the combined efforts of the FBI and the CIA fail, the President sends General Deveraux (Bruce Willis) and scores of troops to seal off Brooklyn and enforce martial law. Though Deveraux appears to be level-headed at first, soon he's become a maniac who bellows "I am the law" and feels no shame about torturing civilians. Consistency is not one of "The Siege"'s strong suits. Then again, the movie is more successful at creating tension than in building credible characters, which sometimes leaves Washington and Bening looking borderline silly as they try to rationalize Hubbard and Kraft's schizoid personalities. As in too many of his other recent appearances, Willis is present only to preen, in this case underneath one of the worst toupees since Burt Reynolds' heyday. Perhaps "The Siege" should be picketed -- by former fans anxious to see Willis break out of his terminal self-adoration and begin acting again. James Sanford
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