"This is New York.  We can take it."      

THE SIEGE (R) 

Reviewed November 8, 1998 - Check out The Siege Website.

Directed and co-written by Edward Zwick (Glory, Courage Under Fire), and starring Denzel Washington, Annette Bening and Bruce Willis, The Siege has the type of pedigree that tends to raise people's expectations to a fairly high level.  Set in New York City, the story follows the activities of FBI agent Anthony Hubbard (Washington), CIA operative Elise Kraft (Bening), and Army General William Devereaux (Willis) as New York is hit by a series of terrorist attacks.  Each working for a separate wing of the government, Hubbard, Kraft and Devereaux find themselves alternately cooperating and competing with each other's approaches and agendas.  Eventually, however, the crisis escalates to a Presidential declaration of Martial Law in New York, with Devereaux's Army storming into the city in an attempt to find and eliminate the terrorist "cells" at work.  Unfortunately, the Army represents "a broad sword" in this case, and soon the entire Arab-American community is suspected of the terrorist acts, with the military sweeping through Brooklyn and detaining nearly all Arab-American men into a makeshift internment camp built inside a football stadium.

Okay, so what's the scoop on The Siege.  One part action adventure flick and one part military intelligence thriller, it's a film that clearly has the makings of a highly entertaining blockbuster.  Unfortunately, The Siege somehow never manages to take off like you'd think it would.  With a first half that offers an extremely entertaining look at the inner workings of counter-terrorist operations, The Siege definitely starts off well enough.  However, as the terrorist attacks escalate, and when the Army rolls into the city, The Siege quickly disintegrates into an unoriginal mix of military and intelligence capers, with the morals of the story laid on fairly heavily.  Moral #1: America often sows the seeds of its own destruction.  Moral #2: If in fighting terrorism we ignore the principles laid out in our Constitution, then we have lost the fight.  Moral #3: Arab-Americans are Americans too, and we cannot persecute this community (or any community) based on the actions of a small group of its members.

Well, I suppose you can't blame writers Lawrence Wright, Menno Meyjes and Edward Zwick for trying.  Considering the success Zwick and Washington have had in prior military film collaborations such as Glory and Courage Under Fire, you'd almost expect them to be able to pull something great out of The Siege.  However, despite a couple of solid performances by Washington and Anthony Shalhoub (as Hubbard's FBI partner), this film never quite gets there. 

If only they'd left the Army at home this time...

Responses from cyberspace--thanks for writing!

far3000@yahoo.com gives this movie  star: "crap film" (10/20/99)

ronin@dccnet.com gives this movie  stars: "I have my own movie review page (http://www.user.dccnet.com/fester1/ronin) and I review my movies out of 4 stars. I throughly liked The Siege and gave it * * * 1/2 stars. It should definatly be seen on the big screen." (11/8/98)