Siege, The Review

The Siege is the latest political thriller to emerge from Hollywood and it poses quite an interesting question: Cells of terrorists have somehow established themselves in New York. To what extent do the protective forces within the United States abrogate civil rights in order to protect the population? With the first hoax bombing the head of the FBI/NYPD Terrorist Unit Anthony Hubbard - Denzel Washington - is on the case. And then he finds the CIA are secrectively muscling in in the form of Elise Kraft - Annette Bening. He plays it tough and so does she. She`s a hard-living, hard-drinking no-nonsense kind of woman. But as the random bombings escalate attention focuses on the Arab-American community of Brooklyn. And that`s when the army moves in, against the advice of General Devereaux - Bruce Willis. But orders are orders and Devereaux`s a true grit military man, he`s going to follow through no matter what...What irritates me about Edward Zwick`s films -he co-wrote and directed The Siege as well as Glory, Courage Under Fire and Legends of the Fall - is that he leaves no room for audience intellegence. He just can`t resist, he`s got to shove his message down our throats just in case we missed the grand subtleties. Up until Bruce Willis enters the film, and he doesn`t really do that until at least half way, the film delves into interesting territory - Elise is sleeping with her main informer - does this warp her judgement? Hubbard`s 21C is a Lebanese-born American, how does this warp his treatment of suspects? Hubbard himself is a confident professional dealing with a myriad of details and a huge team with skill but when Devereaux arrives he becomes a bland mouthpiece for the filmmaker`s views. The cast is solid, Bening is terrific, but ultimately Zwick`s insistence on being master of the bland ruins things for me, in every film he makes.