The Siege (1998)

The secret U.S. abduction of a suspected terrorist leads to a wave of terrorist attacks in New York City, which leads to the declaration of martial-law.

Director:

Edward Zwick

Writers:

Lawrence Wright (story), Lawrence Wright (screenplay)

Stars:

Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Bening

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Denzel Washington	...	Anthony Hubbard
Annette Bening	...	Elise Kraft / Sharon Bridger
Bruce Willis	...	General William Devereaux
Tony Shalhoub	...	Frank Haddad
Sami Bouajila	...	Samir Nazhde
Ahmed Ben Larby	...	Sheik Achmed Bin Talal
Mosleh Mohamed	...	Muezzin
Lianna Pai	...	Tina Osu (as Liana Pai)
Mark Valley	...	Mike Johanssen
Jack Gwaltney	...	Fred Darius
David Proval	...	Danny Sussman
Lance Reddick	...	FBI Agent Floyd Rose
Jeremy Knaster	...	INS Official
William Hill	...	INS Uniform
Aasif Mandvi	...	Khalil Saleh

Storyline

After the abduction by the US military of an Islamic religious leader, New York City becomes the target of escalating terrorist attacks. Anthony Hubbard, the head of the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Task Force in New York, teams up with CIA operative Elise Kraft to hunt down the terrorist cells responsible for the attacks. As the bombings continue, the US government responds by declaring martial law, sending US troops, led by Gen. Devereaux, into the streets of New York City.

---

Plot Keywords:

martial law | terrorist | new york city | military | fbi | 

---

Taglines:

An enemy they can't see. A nation under siege. A crisis they can't control

---

Genres:

Action | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Arabic Spanish

Release Date:

6 November 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Against All Enemies

Filming Locations:

6th Street Viaduct, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,931,285, 8 November 1998, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$40,981,289

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$116,672,912

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox,Lynda Obst Productions,The Bedford Falls Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This started life with the title "Martial Law."

---

Goofs

When the bus blows up, at one point the blast wave is seen hitting two cars. The blast hits first the car that is further away from the explosion, and the hits the car that is closer to the explosion.

---

Quotes

[Hubbard holds a briefing on the first identified bomber from Bus #87]
Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: Ladies and gentlemen, meet the late, uh, Ali Waziri, one of the bombers of Bus 87. We were able to trace this sucker to a... group in Ramallah. That's West Bank - not West Side - for all of you just joining us from Nebraska. Tina?
Tina Osu: We've pulled his landing card and his I-94. So now we know he came in three days ago, out of Frankfurt. What we need now is to fill in the time between his arrival and the incident. We need all ...

---

Alternate Versions

Some post-2001 versions have the World Trade Center digitally removed from the New York skyline.

---

Connections

Features Jesse James (1939)

---

Soundtracks

Great Leap Forward
Written by Jim Kerr (as James Kerr) and Charlie Burchill (as Charles Burchill)
Performed by Simple Minds
Courtesy of Virgin Records America, Inc.

User Reviews

Effective movie on a relevant topic with an ending that contradicts its message

Released in 1998, "The Siege" chronicles events as New York City becomes the target of escalating terrorist attacks after the abduction of an Islamic leader by the US military. The head of the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Task Force (Denzel Washington) teams up with a CIA operative (Annette Benning) to hunt down the terrorist cells responsible for the attacks. Ultimately, the US government declares martial law and sends in the troops, led by General Devereaux (Bruce Willis). Tony Shalhoub plays the FBI agent's Arab-American partner while Sami Bouajila plays a seemingly suspicious Arab-American.

While clueless PC morons have criticized this movie as "racist propaganda" it dared to show the awful truth in the late 90s and was nigh prophetic in light of 9/11 occurring less than three years later. There are numerous noble Arab-Americans, and the movie emphasizes this, but – let's be honest – there are also Islamic whack-jobs in our midst who enjoy blowing themselves up with as many innocents as possible so they can go home to Allah and 72 virgins (or whatever).

I like the fact that General Devereaux (Willis) isn't a black or white character and viewers can have completely different views about whether or not he's actually a villain. The movie shows that he's a professional soldier who warns the governmental leaders exactly what would happen under martial Law, a suspension of all civilian rights guaranteed under the constitution, clearly cautioning them that they might not like the form of medicine martial law dishes out. But it's a desperate situation and they give him the go-ahead, so he offers up exactly what he said he would give. He has his methods to protect his country and performs them with conviction. The terrorists were killing masses of innocents and he's commissioned to stop it, which is what he does, PC or not. Does this make him evil? These are questions the movie provokes and you'll have to answer them for yourself.

This is a quality movie that frankly addresses relevant topics and tries to be fair and balanced, but it sorta shoots itself in the foot at the end. Read the spoiler commentary below for details.

The film runs 116 minutes and was shot in New York City with a couple scenes in California.

GRADE: B-

***SPOILER ALERT*** DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM

One of the main points of the movie is that it's wrong to mistreat Muslim-Americans by profiling them, rounding them up and subjecting them to investigation outside normal procedures because it's equivalent to the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2. There are two problems with this: (1.) It isn't the same issue. Interning the Japanese was wrong because the government was rounding them up based on their ETHNIC HERITAGE. The Feds would've interned German-Americans if they used the same logic. The issue with Muslim terrorism isn't ethnicity, but rather religion. Statistically, most terrorists against the US are Muslims of Middle Eastern descent. Therefore "profiling" them is simply acting in accord with statistics. That's just cold hard logic, not racism. By contrast, interning Japanese-Americans during WW2 wasn't logical.

(2.) More importantly, the movie undermines itself by having Samir turn out to be a radical suicide bomber. This revelation demonstrates that peaceful Muslims can't be trusted, just as the Army and their supporters believed (in the movie). There's no reason to assume that any of the rank-and-file Muslims depicted couldn't have turned out to be terrorists just like Samir. This being the case, the army was right to intern and interrogate them. As you can see, the movie takes a noble position and then inexplicably contradicts it.