Review: The Siege (1998)

'The Siege' is the "it could've been better" film of the year. This controversial (not really) film tries to play on our fears of terrorism and living in a military state. It also attempts to ignite our frustration of America's different factions of government agencies working against one another. This movie succeeds in failing on all accounts.

Remember, I am a reviewer. That means that this is only my opinion. I ask that you please believe me when I say that I really wanted to like this movie. Actually, I really want to like all movies I go see. Why? Because I have to pay money to see them. I am not like other reviewers; where the movie is paid for and the reviewer only wants to like dramas, indies, and movies based on books. Also, these same reviewers decide beforehand to hate all action, sci-fi, or horror movies. I usually try to be more on the fan and filmmaker's side. However, I am incapable of liking every movie I see. Why do I share this... No reason.

Anyway, there are some good things to be said about this movie. I'll start with those first (so I can get them out of the way). It starred Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis. Don't get mad that I left out Annette Bening. I could care less about her, especially in this movie. The only thing I can say about her is that she is aging well. Our other two headliners (Denzel and Bruce) did a great job with a script that they obviously didn't get. Not that they didn't understand the basic story. That is the easy part of this movie. However it seemed that they weren't too sure about all the subplots and backstories in order to be completely convincing. They did a great job hanging in there though. What was also good was certain action sequences and the slow build of tension that occurred during the first half of the movie.

...And just when you thought you understood what was happening, the second half fell apart. I am not saying that I didn't get the movie. I understood it fine. I don't spoil movies in reviews so I will not go in proving I caught everything, but I go it. What I also got was that the movie became cliched and contradictory. Also, way burdened with too much subplots and backstories. I got the fact that Bruce Willis' character General Devereaux was a hypocrite, Annette Bening's Elise Kraft/Sharon Bridger character was untrustworthy, and Denzel Washington's Agent Hubbard was supposed to be the trustworthy, friendly good guy. What disappointed me was the way these characters, mainly Willis' and Bening's, changed in the third act after more plot was revealed. Very unconvincing and lazy in the writing. As always, you'll have to see it to know what I'm saying because I won't spoil a movie. Then again, you may also be satisfied with the story. It just didn't do it for me in the "making sense" category.

This so called controversy surrounding this film was really miss-placed or miss-understood. It might have been a better movie if said controversy was played up more. Dealing with subject matter like the Middle East immigrant/terrorist factor or the martial law factor, I can understand the talk of controversy. However, I think it was misplaced in that this film was trying to make a point about the U.S. military's harsh treatment and stereotypical viewpoint of them. Which it didn't really drive the point home with me. Not that I don't get or don't agree with the point, just that the director (Edward Zwick) didn't show enough imagery to be convincing along the lines of his film. Like I said, this film tried. It wanted to be a few things, and just wasn't any of them.

This is director Edward Zwick's third film with Denzel Washington. The first two (Glory and Courage Under Fire) were wonderful. This one is fair at best. I'll even give some credit to Edward Zwick for doing a decent job here as far as pacing and even succeeding in helping me get this script by Lawrence Wright. What a mess that second half was. Granted, someone will read this review, then go see this movie, and in turn e-mail me about complaining so much about relatively small issues. For example, like some of the (sub) plot twists and character developments towards the end. To me, though, all these things must make sense. In a movie like this where they take something improbable and try to make it as realistic as possible, they shouldn't have bogged themselves down by trying to be so real and explanatory to only lose focus in the end.

I get longer and longer winded as I write more reviews. So I'll end with these final thoughts. This could have been more. The action could have been more exciting and the drama more dramatic. I like complex movies, but only when a script justifies itself (meaning...makes sense). This would have been better if the story was simplified just a bit. Focusing more on the main story and giving us more shocking visuals would've helped drive the points it was trying make home. In the end, this unpowerful movie tried to be something it couldn't. That's okay. I still recommend seeing it so you won't wonder if it really was good. To me though, this movie made as much sense to me as this review will to you.

Grade: Ehh

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