The secret U.S. abduction of a suspected terrorist, leads to a wave of terrorist attacks in New York City, that lead to the declaration of martial-law. The Siege is one of those many 90's films where you end up watching them and you eventually think to yourself "how did this film bombed at the Box Office?" and personally i can't understand, the movie is full of great suspense and thrills, Denzel Washington is amazing as always and he is just freaking terrific. The action goes threw the roof with this one and even Tony Shalhoub is great probably the best performance i have seen from him. Now the story might feel a bit much for some and i'll totally get it but always remember it's just a movie and just an action film that is actually pretty damn great if you ask me also Bruce Willis plays a General named William Devereaux before he became gritty and started making awful movies. (A+)

This film tells of a wave of terrorist attacks in New York provoked by Muslim terrorists. It debuted in 1998, but it could almost have been done yesterday, as current and pertinent as it is. The script mixes politics, military secrecy and terrorism, themes sinisterly close to our reality. I liked the way the film criticizes US because much of what is said in the film seems to resonate with what we have seen lately in the last twenty years. Terrorism is no longer a thing of some countries or regions: as in the movie, it can happen in our city and we have to live with it. As noted in the film, CIA made blunders in Middle East, which the world is now paying the bill. And the behavior of American military in the film doesn't lead us remember Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo? Everything in this film is sinisterly current. Another thing I liked: here almost there are no heroes. We all have our ghosts, gray areas, and sins to atone. The notion of "good guy" and "bad guy" is no longer valid in this film. Problems? The lack of reason for the terrorist attacks. There are fanatics blowing up bombs, but why? This could have been well explored, as it certainly would have been had the film been more recent.Actors do an OK job for most of the time, though none of them have actually been excellent. Denzel Washington has the most central character and is closest to the image of the good guy, but is a character too simple and flat. Annette Bening has the most psychologically intense and complex character, deserving applause for the way she did it, but ends up losing her brilliance by the way the film ends. Bruce Willis is the villain, in an open criticism of the American military's authoritarianism, but is a character so little explored and poorly developed that it looks like a caricature.The film was thought of as a thriller, and we actually feel the tension growing, but the ending is disappointing and predictable. There remain good political criticisms, although relatively lightly, and the sinister parallels of topicality I have mentioned.

Released in 1998, "The Siege" chronicles events as New York City becomes the target of escalating terrorist attacks after the abduction of an Islamic leader by the US military. The head of the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Task Force (Denzel Washington) teams up with a CIA operative (Annette Benning) to hunt down the terrorist cells responsible for the attacks. Ultimately, the US government declares martial law and sends in the troops, led by General Devereaux (Bruce Willis). Tony Shalhoub plays the FBI agent's Arab-American partner while Sami Bouajila plays a seemingly suspicious Arab-American.While clueless PC morons have criticized this movie as "racist propaganda" it dared to show the awful truth in the late 90s and was nigh prophetic in light of 9/11 occurring less than three years later. There are numerous noble Arab-Americans, and the movie emphasizes this, but – let's be honest – there are also Islamic whack-jobs in our midst who enjoy blowing themselves up with as many innocents as possible so they can go home to Allah and 72 virgins (or whatever).I like the fact that General Devereaux (Willis) isn't a black or white character and viewers can have completely different views about whether or not he's actually a villain. The movie shows that he's a professional soldier who warns the governmental leaders exactly what would happen under martial Law, a suspension of all civilian rights guaranteed under the constitution, clearly cautioning them that they might not like the form of medicine martial law dishes out. But it's a desperate situation and they give him the go-ahead, so he offers up exactly what he said he would give. He has his methods to protect his country and performs them with conviction. The terrorists were killing masses of innocents and he's commissioned to stop it, which is what he does, PC or not. Does this make him evil? These are questions the movie provokes and you'll have to answer them for yourself.This is a quality movie that frankly addresses relevant topics and tries to be fair and balanced, but it sorta shoots itself in the foot at the end. Read the spoiler commentary below for details.The film runs 116 minutes and was shot in New York City with a couple scenes in California.GRADE: B- ***SPOILER ALERT*** DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM One of the main points of the movie is that it's wrong to mistreat Muslim-Americans by profiling them, rounding them up and subjecting them to investigation outside normal procedures because it's equivalent to the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2. There are two problems with this: (1.) It isn't the same issue. Interning the Japanese was wrong because the government was rounding them up based on their ETHNIC HERITAGE. The Feds would've interned German-Americans if they used the same logic. The issue with Muslim terrorism isn't ethnicity, but rather religion. Statistically, most terrorists against the US are Muslims of Middle Eastern descent. Therefore "profiling" them is simply acting in accord with statistics. That's just cold hard logic, not racism. By contrast, interning Japanese-Americans during WW2 wasn't logical.(2.) More importantly, the movie undermines itself by having Samir turn out to be a radical suicide bomber. This revelation demonstrates that peaceful Muslims can't be trusted, just as the Army and their supporters believed (in the movie). There's no reason to assume that any of the rank-and-file Muslims depicted couldn't have turned out to be terrorists just like Samir. This being the case, the army was right to intern and interrogate them. As you can see, the movie takes a noble position and then inexplicably contradicts it.

Let's not talk about 9/11.Let's not talk about all the great points about freedom this film makes, let's not be captain obvious.I think what we need to focus on here is the theater, and this is good theater: very action packed and filled with drama.It contains all the elements: romance, humor, shooting, mystery, suspense, terrorism, clever film techniques, Denzel Washington AND bad guy Bruce Willis.The scale of the film? Unbelievable (but in a positive way), every time the film hinted at something and I was like "they're not gonna do that", but then the subsequent scene happens and for a moment I am amazed by the big budgetyness of this big budget film.The film wasn't afraid to shy away from repeatedly murdering innocents, which is good. Although one murder in particular was too gritty, and the sort-of feel good ending couldn't make up for it, but again - in a good way.What I didn't like was the negative portrayal of the army, that aspect of the film was clearly story driven (although I do imagine the army's intellect might have come along a bit in the past 15 or so years? heh)Not to give away anything, but the ending also had a certain Deux Ex Machina element to it, there were probably also tons of other inconsistencies that I didn't notice, but most of them are negligible.Verdict? This isn't your average Call of Duty patriotic circlejerk, this is a sophisticated and thoughtful reminder of what Murica's constitution was made for and why it should be upheld, and the hyperbolic hypothesis presented by this film will send chills through your spine, making you rightfully paranoid about how paranoia can affect democracy.Also, it is really fun because there are lots of things that go boom, so you should watch it either way.