Battle in Seattle (2008)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Thanks for the memories!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This film is about the protests against the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle in 1999."Battle in Seattle" is a gripping mix of drama and documentary. It tells the story from the perspective of a group of activists and a policeman. It also has a side plot of a delegate from an African country, and a spokesperson from a well known charity organisation. Such comprehensive coverage from various angles gives "Battle in Seattle" a balanced view on the heated subject. The story is emotional and gripping, and there is much to be pondered upon. I feel sorry for the woman who happened to be standing at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the charity spokesperson who cannot make people realise what causes are more worthy. There is so much food for thought in the film, that makes me wonder what the world has come to.

I had never heard of this movie until it came on the TV the other day. It would have been better if it had remained that way.You don't get real idea of what the protesters were protesting about. Very much like the real protesters who were a mish mash of anarchists, drop-outs, ravers/party goers, manic depressives, attention seekers, show offs, chancers, and total dreamers. None of whom have any idea of reality because they cannot use logical thought processes.Anyway, Charlize Theron spends most of the movie crying in bed ignoring her husband Woody Harrleson who plays one of the riot police officers. I had high hopes for Theron when I first saw her years ago but she sure knows how to pick bad scripts and I do think her career is suffering from it. Woody (like Theron) will have been drawn to the project because of his environmental background and on paper he must have thought it would be a good move to accept the role. He, and Theron are both lucky the movie didn't finish their careers off. Ray Liotta plays the Seattle Mayor. The Mayor seems like a decent trusting guy but is essentially betrayed by the protesters rampage. Liottas performance, as well as Theron and Harrleson were mediocre at best. I don't blame them though. Clearly the director has absolutely no idea how to coax a performance from actors and if I were to hedge a bet I would say the director was personally caught up (emotionally) due to his obvious political views. Nothing wrong with putting your case forward in a movie, but you have to do it right and provoke a reaction from the audience, make them think. This completely fails to do that. The man completely forgot he was making a movie and like most extreme leftists the idea is always better than the reality. As you watch you will care nothing for any of the characters in the movie. Your constantly hoping something will happen, it never does because quite frankly very little actually happened in Seattle over those few days. A few protesters running around smashing windows will not give anyone the ammunition to make a full 90 minute movie.Its quite telling that since the movies release two years ago it only has around 40 reviews on IMDb. Just goes to show that no one, not even the protesters give a damn about this movie. They are probably to embarrassed.The favourable reviews of which there are far to many can only be from a few dreamers and those with an agenda. But seriously, pay them no attention because this is a really bad movie no matter what side of the political spectrum you come from.Avoid at all costs.

I caught this on the TV and was intrigued by the opening credits, always being one to be interested in real events and certainly ones in a recent political context. I admit that I was unaware of these events, but as the plot played out it left me feeling somewhat cold, always waiting for the hook that never came.This was basically a docudrama which melded the real and the reenactment together to create an at times frightening and tense view of the riots. Though this could have been any riot, over any subject, which was kind of the point. I feel that this could easily have been a film focusing on the Poll Tax riots of 1990 and have lost nothing.I feel that this needed to be more, in every area. More Seattle Riots, and I mean in a way that singled them out as such, and not just any riot. More character drama, with barely scratched the surface at most and more political. This attacks the WTO with the lowest common denominator, playing the emotional and reactionary left wing card, rather than a fully rounded balanced argument.I have no doubt that the World Trade Organisation is evil, as are most capital institutions, but there was little to convict them here, except the strong implications that they are against free speech.This was a film which was fair to it's characters; The riot cop just doing his job, the peaceful protesters, the anarchists and the forlorn Mayer. But there was a lack of a strong villain, as, as I've said, the WTO wasn't sufficiently justified.Also, its historical integrity has to be questioned. Simply put, are any of the characters portrait here real? The protesters are fictional, as I understand, but the Mayer? The reporter? It's not clear and based on their actions within the film, I would really like to know.*** SPOILER *** But finally, the most disturbing and probably the best, most compelling part of this film to me would be the what happens to Charlize Theron's character, a pregnant woman and wife of Woody Harleson's riot cop. As she is trying in vain to make her way home amidst the chaos of rioters clashing with police and in the confusion is treated as a rioter and is hit in the stomach with a baton. The result I'll leave in your imagination...This was best moment in the film were the true horror of these clashes become prevalent as the moral lines are crossed and order breaks down.************** In summation, this was worth a watch but will offer little in the way of clarification as to the motives of the events of that November, but maybe there are no more. Maybe it was a riot which stemmed from a protest against the capitalist machine. If you have strong lefty views then this is the film for you, if not, have a look but I doubt that you'll be blown away.

One has to applaud the interest in making a movie of something like the riots in Seattle in 1999. A hodgepodge of protest movements, environmentalists, anti-global trade people, anarchists, third-world trade protesters, and the list goes on.The makers of this obviously have a point of view, and that is of course, very sympathetic to the protesters (or whatever the term might be). Though, here and there, they seem to show some even handedness.I'm sure all know that basic story: The WTO, a world trade organization attempting to liberalize trade among nations around the world in order to raise all living standards (or so they claim). They seek to meet in Seattle to discuss the next steps in "global trade." Problem is, there are a lot of folks who really don't like the idea, not at all. So, as in the very first scene -- Democracy and the WTO are not at one with each other.The makers obviously favor the protesters, of course, but give some sympathy for the police and politicians of Seattle who are trying to preserve some sort of comity and sanity while an international meeting takes place in their city. You can tell they want the prestige of such a meeting, and want to keep a blow up from happening.They didn't get their wish.There are some mawkish and foolish subplots littered around here and there, fictionalized of course, but the central point is not badly done: Protesting in this day and age, in a time of plenty, for those who are protesting in the name of those who are in poverty.This is not a spoiler in the least, but anyone who has eyes and cable network TV knows, these protests, and the ones that followed, and will follow even form now, have achieved and will achieve nothing. Knowing that, gives a strange flavor to the movie -- that all they are doing, means nothing.No matter how much the Hollywood folks would like to think otherwise, and probably would, if they knew how much it would impact their pocket books.