THE SIEGE (1998)
a review by Christian Pyle
Edward Zwick's "The Siege" raises more questions than it can convincingly answer or even clearly articulate. Its subject is the rising threat of terrorism in American cities. Denzel Washington is Anthony "Hub" Hubbard, who runs the FBI's anti-terrorism task force in New York. His investigation into Arab terrorist cells intensifies when suicide bombers take out a busload of people. Hub focuses on a mysterious CIA operative (Annette Bening), whose goes by both "Elise" and "Sharon." As the terrorist attacks continue and the body count rises, the question of martial law is raised. Enter General Devereaux (Bruce Willis), who opposes martial law at first but who, as soon as the President decides to send in the Army, begins herding Arab immigrants into a prison camp and attacking every link that Hub uncovers in the terrorist chain. Hub listens as Devereaux tortures and murders a suspect.
The future Zwick and screenwriter Lawrence Wright offer is all too possible. What would happen, they ask, if terrorism became as much a fact of daily life in New York as it is in cities like Beirut and Belfast? What would happen to our civil liberties if soldiers patrol our streets with machine guns? These questions "The Siege" answers in realistic detail. It implies tougher ones, though: what can be done to combat terrorism without sacrificing justice and freedom? if we encourage terrorism abroad (from Bening's character we discover that the CIA trained the bombers), will it inevitably come back to us?
"Siege" avoids the tougher questions by endowing its hero, Hub, with a uncompromising sense of clear right and wrong. This comforting fantasy of Sir Galahad confronting the evils of the modern world is an escape from the thought-provoking issues the movie raises. Still, Zwick deserves credit for at least addressing the issue with as much realism as he does where so many movies (Willis' "Die Hard" series, for example) offer only a comic-book view on terrorism.
Grade: B
© 1999 Christian L. Pyle
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