Battle in Seattle

i expected the polarized opinions this film received from some of the commentators here... there's one that said something about '10 years later/very little progress'. something about 'small steps'... but they're wrong. LARGE steps have been taken by the businesses. how many of you know about the limited access corridor being constructed from Mexico to canada through the midwest? a turnpike that will carry goods made outside of US to places nearby this route. the contract was given by bush's people to a very, very wealthy construction firm from spain. the owner is one of the richest men in the world. the materials used to build this turnpike will be shipped into Mexico ports and then dispersed where needed. probably using mostly non American labor. now maybe some of you will understand part of the point of this movie. there IS no such thing as countries anymore. not with administrations such as the present one. it's big business interest. and if you're a big business the bush's will do business with you. witness the bin laden family, which have been 'buddies' with the bushes from 'way back'... witness grand daddy bush doing business with the Nazis as they began their quest for world cleansing and domination. all this is documented and accessible if you just do a little work looking for it... why not start with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur's(democrat/Ohio) explanation of the corridor on u tube? that'll help make believers out of the skeptics. this isn't some 'quack' with a conspiracy theory. my location is listed as netherlands. i left the US b/c i don't like what the people in control are doing and this is my way of protest. not paying them with my tax dollars. each of us have to find a way to react to this piecemeal sale of the US...hopefully non violent no matter what the response... the people with the money do, after all, control the militaries. and not just the American one. or you can just not believe...not do ANYthing and be surprised at what transpires... no review of a movie will MAKE you do anything. that's up to you. good luck. ps remember how easy it would be to check this out. as easy as it was to 'get HERE', internetwise...

This movie was REALLY TERRIBLY written - terrible in terms of plot, characterization and dialogue, among other things. It's so bad that even a gripping true story of mass human conflict and political protest, decent directing, amazing archival protest footage, and the attempts of Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta, Charlize Theron, and Andre from Outkast couldn't save it. Woody nearly saves his character and turns him into perhaps the most interesting human character in the movie - and he's a friggin' riot cop! The rest of the poor actors just can't pull it off. The man and woman who are the supposed main characters are a joke -- badly written, plotted in a way that makes no sense, acted poorly and woodenly, clichéd, utterly un-interesting and un-sympathetic - it seems like the film makers thought the fact that they were white and the man had a strong chin and the woman had big breasts would somehow carry them through. It's truly, truly unfortunate, since the makers of the film clearly wanted to tell a complex story about one particularly important event of unrest in the process of human social change and evolution that I lived through and still find important even though I have little interest in reliving and recreating it. They wanted to show people coming to a better understanding and empowerment in their shared humanity through the outcome of mass protests against inhumane international trade policies on the streets of Seattle. But they made some awful mistakes. As others have pointed out, they'd likely have been much better off making a straight documentary - or doing much MUCH better research about what really happened in Seattle, and from that writing a drama that actually had believable characters acting in realistic ways and saying things real people would say. Hopefully next time they'll find a way to send a message of hope and change in a way that is aesthetically appealing enough to get out to more people.

If you like socialism, this is the movie for you; a boring exercise in leftist propaganda. A badly acted, badly made movie that will only appeal to people who actually support these nonsensical protests against capitalism. What's so annoying about these pseudo-documentaries is that they are so in line with the politics of Hollywood. Who, when they read the description of this movie, did not immediately realize that it is just another propaganda piece by the elites in Hollywood, designed to propagate their personal political agenda. I thought art was about being radical, not about blind conformity to the prevailing philosophy of the time. Will we ever have a mainstream movie about an abortion protest?Never. That would be TRULY radical. When are the people on the left going to realize that they are no longer counter-cultural? Their ideas are boring and non-compelling, which is why movies like this never succeed in spreading their ideology. Let's move on.

I was lucky enough to see this film in advance, and it opened my eyes to a few very important issues. Going in, I'd never even heard of the "battle in Seattle," as I was only 13 years old at the time of the protests. But now that I'm aware of the event, it makes me wonder why the controversies with the WTO aren't still being discussed on a larger scale. This is something that we should all be concerned about, and Stuart Townsend has done us a favor by introducing the issues in a format that is riveting, informative, and inspirational. If there's one thing Battle in Seattle does best, it's that it fires you up to take action any way you can. Not to mention the great production values, absolutely stellar cast, and intense action sequences (Intense because they're real! Actual footage was used). I would highly recommend attending a showing of this film with your family and friends, because these matters are important to us all, and Stuart's presentation of them is nothing short of breathtaking.

As a member of the Seattle community for nearly 20 years I was here when the WTO protests happened and I found this movie to be extremely powerful. I paid close attention to the events as they occurred in 1999; I even took part in one of the later protests outside a King County Courthouse/Jail. This film uses fictional characters to give perspective on the events both for legal and entertainment reasons and the result is amazing. I watched this film as part of the opening night celebration for the Seattle International Film Festival with nearly 3000 other Seattle area residents and the response was simply astounding. Afterwards in both the Q&A session with the director and part of the cast and the party following, I had the opportunity to hear from some others who were involved in the WTO incidents and no one voiced any disappointment with the way the film handled the issues. I would encourage everyone to see this film as soon as possible; American release is scheduled for September 2008 and I'm sure international release dates will be around the same time.

I don't think I have ever seen this many plants since the garden section over at Home Depot. I saw the movie. It was like this guy saw Sunday Bloody Sunday and was like, you know, I like your style Mr. Greengrass... I'm going to do my best to copy it but my best is like comparing your Bourne movie to Degrassi The New Class. Besides the obvious signs that this movie was bad... Not even Hollywood would touch this movie. He had to come up to Canada. It's not like Hollywood didn't like the idea, the script was horrible. I mean the dialogue in the movie was awful. But oh well, we Canadians don't mind making bad movies, just pay us. Then this movie was mad what, 2006 I hear... It's 2008 and it's still not out in the main stream theaters. I caught this at the ol' SXSW fest... I mean yeah, some movies take up to five years to make... but those are movies like Toy Story and Nemo. So I am guessing that because people sunk some money in this crap shoot, they are trying to get the ol' word of mouth via message boards... if you check the forums mostly everyone hates it. However the review board has nothing but praise even one saying it was genius or Oscar worthy. ROFL.

This docu-drama about the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999 is made in the same style as "Bloody Sunday", "United 93", and "Battle for Haditha": it just shows events in real time without comment. We follow everyone here from the ground up; the protest groups, the cops on the street, their commanders, city officials, a news reporter, and innocent bystanders. Maybe the scenes with the news reporter are the least fleshed out, but that's a fairly minor complaint for a movie that is very involving and entertaining and thought-provoking. Woody Harrelson and Charlize Theron are very good, as usual, and Michelle Rodriguez is perfectly cast. One of the big surprises here is Andre Benjamin, from Outkast fame, who delivers a fine supporting performance; he's irreverent but very smart. Ray Liotta is very effective as the mayor, and the film does a great job of seeing the complexities in elected officials as he struggles to please all sides; he is looking for the protesters to behave while also wanting the WTO to address important issues. The audience I saw this with at the Toronto Festival gave it an ovation that lasted all through the credits. In terms of pure audience satisfaction, this movie was up there with "Juno" and "Body of War" and "Eastern Promises" as the fan favorites.

I just came back from watching the film at the Toronto International film festival, and I absolutely loved it. It is brilliantly made and brilliantly acted. Stuart Townsend is a very talented man; he is sure to win a few Oscars before the end of his career. Battle in Seattle is a great work which simply tells the story of the WTO riots in Seattle, without an obvious bias (at least in my opinion). The film also uses real footage during some parts which really help those who were not present during the riots see that the film isn't exaggerating how horrific people's actions were (on both sides). I highly recommend this film for anyone who loves films that entertain and teach.

I knew very little about this subject before watching the film... I expected to learn a little about it during the film and that was my primary reason for attending the screening at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin. Instead, I was blown away by an incredible story that weaves the events in Seattle with several inspiring and complex characters. In an amazing interaction that muddied the waters between the 'good' and 'bad' guys, this script moves you. The theater cheered and yelled... an ovation throughout the credits in Austin as well... this movie is powerful and inspiring. I absolutely loved the cast as well as the style of film-making. Great work.

This lame film sets a terribly-written fictional narrative against the backdrop of the 1999 riots in Seattle that occurred during the meeting of the World Trade Organization. Director Stuart Townsend, who is also responsible for the juvenile screenplay, concocts ridiculous and melodramatic situations out of a scenario that already had enough dramatic heft of its own without embellishment. Townsend creates a group of stock characters that includes the beleaguered Seattle mayor (Ray Liotta); a couple of protesters (Martin Henderson and Michelle Rodriquez) whom the screenplay forces into an awkward and unnecessary romance; a reporter (Connie Nielsen) who actually joins the protesters(!) after she witnesses some police brutality (I'm not making this up); and a police officer (Woody Harrelson) and his pregnant wife (Charlize Theron) whose lives are altered dramatically by the events of those few days. These actors are put into narrative situations that a 16-year-old would come up with if he were asked to jot down a bunch of scenarios that he thought would have a dramatic impact on his audience. Therefore, everything is hokey and maudlin to the extreme. The story line involving Theron, in particular, actually made me angry because of its cheap tactics. A straight-up documentary about the WTO riots would be far more worth your time than this film. Hell, your time would be better spent watching "Dumb and Dumber." Grade: D