The Siege

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The Siege
The movie poster for The Siege.
Directed by	Edward Zwick
Produced by	Lynda Obst Edward Zwick
Written by	Lawrence Wright Menno Meyjes Edward Zwick
Starring	Denzel Washington Annette Bening and Bruce Willis Tony Shaloub Sami Bouajila David Proval
Music by	Graeme Revell
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 6, 1998
Running time	116 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

For other uses, see The Siege (disambiguation).

The Siege is a 1998 film about a fictional situation where terrorist cells have made several attacks on New York City. Directed by Edward Zwick and starring Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Bening, and Tony Shalhoub.

1 Story
2 Cast
3 Analysis
4 Controversy
5 External links
6 See also
7 Sources

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie is about FBI Special Agent Anthony Hubbard (Denzel Washington), who is trying to prevent several terrorist bombs from going off in New York City. After a terrorist sleeper cell succeeds in destroying one bus, the FBI identifies the cells responsible and conducts a raid. During the ensuing shootout, the members of the cell are killed. However, the elimination of the first cell activates the work of a second sleeper cell, which succeeds in bombing a Broadway theater. The second cell is eliminated, and the third cell then successfully bombs the offices of the FBI Counterterrorism Division at One Federal Plaza. The President responds by declaring martial law and sending in the Army, led by tough Major General William Devereaux (Bruce Willis). The army detains people that fit the description of the cells. The city goes into massive riots while the army tries to keep control. When Hubbard catches Tureq Husseini, he almost gets killed by Devereaux, who arrives only a few minutes behind him. A CIA agent that Hubbard met a while back gets killed by Samir, who reveals himself to be the last cell. Samir kills Sharon, the CIA agent, forcing Hubbard to shoot him. Devereaux, meanwhile, is in the makeshift army base at a stadium where Hubbard goes to find him. Hubbard brings several FBI agents with him and attempts to arrest Devereaux, but he orders the Captain next to him to aim their guns at the FBI agents. Devereaux hesitates to shoot Hubbard, and is arrested, forcing the army to leave New York City.

[edit] Cast

Denzel Washington as FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Anthony Hubbard
Annette Benning as CIA Operative Elise Kraft / Sharon Bridger
Bruce Willis as U.S. Army Major General William Devereaux
Tony Shaloub as FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad
Sami Bouajila as Samir Nazhde

[edit] Analysis

Controversially, the film depicted mass internment of people of Arab appearance, regarded as an unlikely scenario at the time of the film's pre-9/11 release.

Although released nearly three years before the September 11th attacks, some elements of the film can be seen as prescient, such as the depiction of attacks on New York City by Islamist terrorists, including attacks on US government buildings, as well as an ensuing anti-Arab sentiment among some segments of the public.

"Blowback" is a key theme of the film. "Blowback" is CIA term used to describe the unforeseen consequences of their operations abroad. In the film, U.S. foreign policy in Iraq plays a clear role in the terrorists' motives. The CIA supported Sheik Ahmed bin Talal and his followers' efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein. To this end, the CIA taught his followers tradecraft, subversion and how to make bombs. Following a "policy shift", America stopped helping them, and Hussein slaughtered many of Talal's followers. Some of them, however, escaped to the United States and turned their frustration and resentment against the United States government.

Attached to the film was the teaser trailer to the long-awaited Star Wars film The Phantom Menace. It was reported that a large number of people had paid to see the film just to watch the trailer, and then walked out after the trailer had screened [1].

[edit] Controversy

When the film opened, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee came out against the film. Its spokesman Hussein Ibish said “The Siege is extremely offensive. It's beyond offensive. We're used to offensive, that's become a daily thing. This is actually dangerous." He thought it was “Insidious and incendiary” because it “reinforces stereotypes that lead to hate crimes.” Ibish acknowledged that Arab terrorists did, in fact, bomb the World Trade Center, but said that Arab and Islamic groups are upset by "the very strong equation between Muslim religious practices and terrorism. ...[Thanks to this film] Every time someone goes through the Muslim ablution, the ritual washing of hands everybody does before they pray five times a day, that image is the announcement to the viewer of the presence of violence.” Echoing such criticism the Council on American-Islamic Relations protested that "In this film, the Muslims have total disregard for human life." The groups were “faxing and calling news organizations on a regular basis” to voice their concerns.^[1]

Director Edward Zwick had met with Arab Americans, “who suggested that the story be changed to mirror the situation after the Oklahoma City bombing, when Arabs were immediately assumed responsible. That idea was rejected”. Zwick noted that The Siege's villains also include members of the U.S. government, and dismissed the criticism “Anytime you talk about issues that touch on religion of any kind, you can anticipate this kind of reaction. Should we only present every group as paragons and monoliths of virtue? The movie inspires to engender this kind of dialogue. I happen to come from the school that thinks that movies should not only make you comfortable, they might make you think. …You can anticipate any kind of reaction in these times in which sensitivity seems very high in the culture. I have a friend who says, if you've not offended somebody, you're a nobody. …How does it feel to be a lightening rod? It gets the blood going. I think it's better than being universally ignored. In a culture where there seems to be so much to talk about, it's good to be talked about."^[1]