(out of 5)(out of 5)
"The worst act of terrorism in the United States since Oklahoma City." That is how one new reporter describes the bombing of a bus full of people in New York City in Edward Zwick's Arab-terrorism/military terrorism film The Siege.
Arab anti-defamation groups began protesting the film long before it opened, and before they saw it themselves. Anti-defamation groups wouldn't exist if there weren't people who didn't wake up in the morning waiting and expecting to be offended. And there is nothing truly offensive about this film, about a rash of terrorism sweeping The Big Apple culminating in the declaration of martial law by General Devereaux (Bruce Willis) of the U.S. Army. What is depicted here is a set of Arabs living in Brooklyn. There are those who have families, those who own business, one (Tony Shalhoub) is an FBI agent and the partner of the hero of the film (Denzel Washington), and still others are terrorists. Is it offensive simply to say that some Arabs are terrorists? No, because the simple fact is that some are. It would be offensive to depict Arabs as a wholly anonymous group of people who engage in terrorist activity. Washington plays FBI agent Anthony Hubbard who leads the investigation into a terrorist bombing which eventually leads to the bombing of a crowded Broadway theater and finally to the bombing of his own FBI headquarters resulting in 600 dead. The FBI receives help from CIA operative Sharon Bridger (Annette Bening) who, as a result of her work in training Middle East operatives to counter Saddam Hussein, has mixed loyalties. Eventually, the Army moves in to set matters straight by setting up internment camps for Arab males living in Brooklyn. The idea is to flush out the terrorist cells operating in Brooklyn. Here, Zwick treats the Army more offensively than he does the Arab community. While the Arabs are seen as a diverse community, the military moves on the streets with their tanks, shouting orders over loudspeakers. They torture and murder a suspected terrorist. We are left feeling no sympathy for the Army at the end of the film. There is not much to say for the acting of Willis, who unfortunately continually haunted by wooden characters. However, Bening holds her own and maintains a nice chemistry with Washington, who is better here than he has been in these type of roles. He tends to be much better in the roles that could only be portrayed by a black actor (i.e., Glory, Malcolm X, and He Got Game). Then again, for the type of movie that this is, we don't always look for phenomenal acting. Make no mistake, The Siege is not only a popcorn movie, is has an important message. The real question is will people be able to see that this is not a film that comes down hard on the Arab community so much as it examines the way we react to events such as those shown here. I just hope most people can see through the surface to get there.