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Battle in Seattle (2007)

Director: Stuart Townsend

2

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Movie review

From Time Out New York

Certain to irk globalization adherents and adversaries alike, to say nothing of moviegoers impatient with multinarrative babble à la Babel, Battle in Seattle takes a worthy subject—the 1999 Emerald City WTO meeting successfully stalled by protests—and wraps it in a sudsy fictional framework. The intent may be to provide distance between topic and teller, but the result is more wishy-washy than neutrally clarifying.

The plot bounces between a group of protesters, led by a brooding hunk (Henderson) and his surly apostle (the grating Rodriguez); a well-meaning cop and his preggers wife (Harrelson and Theron, a match made in Hollywood do-gooder heaven); and, in the movie’s most interesting but least developed bit, a physician (Serbedzija) presenting at the disrupted conference. Ray Liotta also turns up as a ballistic make-believe Seattle mayor.

First-time screenwriter-director Stuart Townsend has a feel for rancor-raising action, and isn’t half bad at weaving together Battle’s intersecting threads. But the story’s melodramatic coincidences and dogged dedication to “balance” imply an uncomfortable eagerness to impose order on perceived chaos, and make inserted doc footage of the real WTO protests stand out like tear gas in a multiplex.

Author: Mark Holcomb 2008-09-16 18:14:46

Time Out New York Issue 677: September 18 - September 24, 2008

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User reviews of this film

  • Astrid said...
    Posted on Sep 18 2008 00:09 Someone should make a documentary about the same set of events that shows the self-pitying melodrama of the typical extremist protestor. The self-righteous victim stance turns even a sympathetic left of center person off to their cause.
    Protecting animals from undue suffering should be common sense to anyone, but the dramatists have to go out and spray paint on fur coats and insist that no one call dogs and cats "pets." Sympathy lost.
    Having more bicycle paths in cities and large towns makes more and more sense as pollution increases and gas becomes more expensive. But Critical Mass cyclists are so whipped up into a frenzy of self-righteousness that they don't care what happens to anyone when they snarl traffic for hours and prevent pedestrians from the crossing the street for 15 minutes while they ride by yelling, "Bikes not cars!" Sympathy lost.
    Some are just looking for an adrenaline high, but even more are seeking a confrontation with "authority" which gives them a chance to provoke the authority into victimizing them in some way. Every time an arm is wrenched too hard into a handcuff, whenever a knee is scraped and bleeding after a foolhardy charge at riot police, every time someone who has chosen to pierce their lip, chin, eyebrow and tongue and shave the left side of their head gets turned down for a job at Dunkin Donuts, the "oppressed person" gets a chance to revel in victimhood once again.
    That's what I would show if I knew how to make films, the vast reservoirs of sympathy for common sense causes that are squandered when extremists hijack the issue and make it all about their own selfish and self-righteous claims to victimhood.
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  • Tony44 said...
    Posted on Sep 17 2008 23:10 I COMPLETELY disagree with you here! I thought the film was quite moving and told an important story. As for the actors, Michelle Rodriguez was far from grating! She was amazing and Charlize and Henderson and the rest were absolutely flawless with the sometimes silly dialogue they sometimes had to work with. I give it 4 out of 5 stars just because it moved me to see a small film tell a big tale with so much passion.
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Battle in Seattle

Cast & crew

Director: Stuart Townsend

Cast: Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Woody Harrelson, Charlize Theron, Rade Serbedzija, Ray Liotta, Ivana Milicevic, Joshua Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Channing Tatum full cast

Rated: R

Duration: 98 mins

US Release: May 7 2008


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