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BATTLE IN SEATTLE Send This Review to a Friend
The clash between protesters and those trying to squelch dissent or keep it within boundaries is effectively dramatized in the provocative film, “Battle in Seattle,” written and directed by Stuart Townsend. The filmmaker has skillfully blended archival footage with a fictional story, although the fictional aspects sometimes border on cliché. But there is a strong overall impact in telling the story of what happened in 1999 when demonstrators poured into the streets of Seattle to protest at a conference of the World Trade Organization.
The police didn’t expect the number of demonstrators who turned up, an estimated 40,000. In a way typical of how authority cracks down against what is perceived as disruption of city life instead of legitimate exercise of rights, there were violent clashes. A few more militant protestors apparently resorted to incidents of unplanned violence, but the use of force is depicted overwhelmingly as employed by the police. The film chronicles the arrests made and the ensuing battle to vindicate those taken into custody and gain their release.
Into this tension-laden mix, Townsend injects his fictional trappings. The key performances are by Woody Harrelson as Dale, a decent police officer swept up in the events, and his wife Ella, played by the excellent actress Charlize Theron. Ella is pregnant, and it doesn’t take a plot expert to expect that the dramatics will involve a threat to Ella’s well-being when she gets ensnared in the hubbub. Others in the cast include Ray Liotta as Seattle Mayor Jim Tobin, and André Benjamin, Martin Henderson, Connie Nielsen, Michelle Rodriguez, Channing Tatum, Rade Serbedzija and Jennifer Carpenter.
While the personal storytelling is strained at times, it does add a human dimension to the unusual battle taking place, a dimension that mere reportorial footage can’t capture. It is obvious that the film sides with the demonstrators and their rights, and it affords yet another lesson in how protestors are often savaged by police. Anyone who has ever been caught in a situation in which cops try to break up or contain protests will know the danger. A Redwood Palms Pictures release.
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