Genres

Visitors Review

sophiabs 2012-05-25 12:46:34

Battle is an excellent political thriller

Battle in Seattle was the best movie ever. It was amazing! I wouldreally recommend this movie because it makes you think about theenvironment and global warming! My favourite actors in this movie wouldbe Woody and Andre. Martin Henderson is also excellent in Battle. Myfavourite actresses were Charlize and Michele. I think writer/directorStuart she be applauded for his first movie. The producer kirk shawfrom Insight Films should be proud of making a movie with such apowerful message. I hope millions of people go to the theaters to seethis movie in September before the US election in November. You shouldgo onto Utube to watch the trailer.

2012-05-25 06:21:53

Best Protest Movie (Fiction) I've Seen

I've come to expect movies about political or social justice issues to be watered down. I still enjoy them, because I love the subject matter. "Erin Brokovich" was pretty good. I actually loved it. But "Battle In Seattle" was awesome! Many movies that try to show all sides lose something in their attempt to be fair, but this one is high-octane powerful AND realistic. I'm an activist in Long Beach, California and really admired the protestors' use of strategy. They were so prepared! There was a scene that I will not give away about a broadcast journalist that I wondered about, but loved anyway. Characterization of the mayor of Seattle, caught between many forces, and the police of Seattle, unprepared, overworked, and working long shifts without meals, was also realistic, compassionate without making excuses for their violent behavior. It was really shocking. I met a young woman who had been there and told me how a group of protestors were tear-gassed on a police bus even though they were already seated, handcuffed, and completely unable to defend themselves. It's not in the movie but fits the violence shown in the movie. Of course the protestors were the heroes of the movie. Am I biased? You bet!!People who stand for truth and justice are owed our bias, in my humble (I wish) opinion. The movie even covers tactics used by violent protestors, and the conflict between them and the largely non-violent other protestors. Another good thing about this movie is that it is not overdramatic. Many Hollywood movies overdo things to be "powerful." This movie is somehow both truly powerful yet also understated (without being precious about it). I suspect that the scecret of this movie's success is the sinceriy of its director. In the special features section, he describes how he wanted to be fair to all concerned (protestors, mayor, police, even WTO), yet make a true and honest statement of the horrific injustice perpetuauted by the majority of the members of the WTO. There is even a refreshing minority of WTO attendees with good agendas in the movie, something I didn't expect and was glad to see. This movie really covers all the bases! I would give things away if I said anymore (apologies if I already said too much). I highly recommend this movie. After I rented it from the neighborhood video store, I bought it on Amazon immmediately. Enjoy!

bob the moo 2012-05-18 02:18:14

Worthy if flawed but the intensity of the riots is well-captured even if the dramatic devices let it down

Recently I was watching This Revolution and found it to be a reallysurprisingly poor piece of work that did the subject no justice. Sowhen a kind IMDb user provided me with this film to watch I was not allthat interested but watched it anyway. Firstly, to get the comparisonsout of the way let me just say that Battle in Seattle is much, muchbetter than This Revolution in almost every regard apart from thecategory of "celebrities getting arrested" in which case it is 1-0 toThis Revolution. The film provides fictionalised scenarios andcharacters in a recreation of the famous Battle of Seattle at the WTOand as such is an interesting and engaging piece of work. Shame that itis not a really good piece of work.In the overview the film is worthy and is very impressive when itrecreates the riots from the inside. With comparatively little money,director Townsend manages to capture the feeling of being there and theintensity of it did really affect me, which is praise from where I wassitting. Sadly the film is not as good when it is outside of thesescenes. To its credit it tries to create these characters so that wecan see the events from several perspectives and also get a feel forwhat is going on in these different worlds but it has two main thingsthat damage this attempt. Firstly the characters are too simplistic andbasic. This is mostly down to them being devices rather than people butwe are not given enough time or reality with them to care for them muchand what happens is that they become figures whose destiny we can see –ie when a woman is pregnant at the start of the film it is no stretchto see where that is going. This hurts the dramatic impact of the filmbut not so much its overview of events.The second thing about covering a lot of ground is a problem with theprotests themselves, which have as many issues as people and havealways struggled to have a clear voice. The film struggles with this aswell; with so many characters and aspects the topics get little timeand get boiled right down to their essence – best illustrated by theAfrican's leaders outburst towards the end. The "message" of the filmis muddled for most of the time and then plopped down in a simplisticway that helps nobody. Like I said though – credit to it for trying andit is still a solid attempt at a dramatic recreation. The cast involvedhave lots of names and they can all do solid performances but need moreif more is to be delivered. As a result Harrelson, Henderson, Theron,Benjamin, Liotta and others all do as required, having good moments butnot able to lift the film around them.Battle in Seattle is not a great film and it is perhaps a bit tooflawed to be one that can be considered good by the casual viewer butit is a sturdy one that works reasonably well. More worthy than it isactually really good, it is worth seeing for how well it recreatesevents but it is the narrative and dramatic threads that let it down alittle bit.

2012-05-17 16:34:28

disappointed

I had read the book a few weeks before seeing the movie (yes, there is an actual book). The movie was nothing like the book and I didn't really learn much from watching the movie. My husband and I were bored during it. The governor didn't seem any thing like Gary Locke except that he was Chinese. He was a very angry fella. The subplot with the pregnant woman was not mentioned as I recall in the book, so I guess they just felt they needed to add this. Lots of fu-- swear words didn't make the movie any more appealing and I don't remember any swear words in the book. All in all the movie did not capture the spirit of the passionate people who were involved in fighting the WTO and in portraying all of the planning that went into this.

Frederick M 2012-05-17 09:43:20

I recognize myself and others

This is the 1999 WTO conference in a fictionalized format. It's nottotally necessary, there are a half-dozen documentaries about theprotests in Seattle in 1999. It seems a lot of the content from thismovie was directly lifted from the documentary "This is What DemocracyLooks Like". There are shots which have been recreated and evenquotations by some of the protesters. One for instance is when one ofthe pro-environment protesters compares the crowds to people coming outof nowhere "like in the Michael Jackson 'Thriller' video" Yet this is agood movie with some wonderful acting. Harrelson and Liota stand out intheir roles as a riot cop and the mayor of Seattle. Although I was moststruck by Martin Henderson as Jay, a protest organizer whose brotherwas killed in a forestry protest and has two strikes against him andcould spend a long time in jail if he gets arrested again. Having beento protests in Seattle and in Ottawa against globalization I recognizedhis character as a common person we see in this movement. The romanticplot line with another protester did almost feel forced at times. Itwasn't necessary but for the most part this movie wasn't necessary.If the movie accomplishes anything I hope it will bring younger peoplewho were too young to be politically aware at that time into the foldand fight against corporate and state tyranny.The movie definitely captured the feeling of these anti-globalizationprotests and how they represented a multitude of voices fromenvironmentalism to labour leaders. I just wish they had focused moreon the anarchists who seemed to be the only ones to get the short endof the stick in this movie. Why not show their story and who they are?Are hippie leftist protesters more interesting. Perhaps next time whensomeone makes a movie out of the 2001 protests against the FTAA inQuebec City. Battaille en Québec.

Rasmy 2012-05-16 15:04:46

Ban The WTO

This was one of the best film. It really empowers us and encourages people to stand up for their rights, especially our constitutional rights to express and protest, exercising the freedom of speech.

btm1 2012-05-14 01:42:00

Powerful attack on WTO profits-over-people policies

The story in this film is merely a framework for its attack on policiesof the World Trade Organization that give lip service to environmentalprotection, workers rights, medicine for poor nations, etc. It is adramatization of actual protests at the Seattle WTO meeting. What I particularly liked about the film was the way it sympatheticallytold the story from the perspectives of various sides in the conflictbetween protesters and the city, as well as the perspective ofconference delegates from third world countries and NGOs. The Mayor thought he would score political points by getting the WTO tohold its meeting in his city. He was aware that there would be protestsbut had met in advance with the protests leaders and gotten pledgesthat the protests would be non-violent. In return he gave his word thatpolice would only arrest any demonstrators who disrupted theproceedings. Decades ago the Mayor had been a participant in protestsagainst the Vietnam War so he was reluctant to use any sort of violenceagainst the protesters. Labor Unions planned a peaceful march inprotest of the meeting, and had agreed to confine the march to adesignated path. His Chief of Police assured him in advance of themeeting that the police were prepared to handle the demonstrationswithout getting any bad publicity.Things didn't go as the Mayor and Police Chief expected. Instead ofpicketing the conference site, the environmental protesters preventeddelegates from reaching the meeting site. Then the Labor marchersdeviated from the agreed path and also started breaking storefrontwindows. The Governor wanted the Mayor to declare an emergency curfewand call out the National Guard, but the Mayor believed that wouldworsen the situation. The Chief of Police got the Mayor to authorize use of tear gas andbatons. The pregnant wife of a member of the police riot squad workeddowntown and got caught in a violent attack on the nonviolentprotesters.We see the story develop from the viewpoints of the Mayor and of theriot squad police officer and his wife, as well as from the perspectiveof the organizers of and participants in the environmental protests. Wealso briefly follow a conference NGO delegate who is at the conferenceto try to persuade the WTO to allow impoverished third world nations toobtain medicines at a lower cost. We also briefly see the conferencefrom the viewpoint of a delegate from a third world nation who istrying to persuade the WTO to change its policies that the WTO purportshelps impoverished nations, but in reality oppresses them. We also getthe perspective of a TV reporter assigned to cover the convention,which President Clinton is scheduled to attend.

neimanj 2012-05-13 19:42:10

Excellent film that is well worth the time to see

As a member of the Seattle community for nearly 20 years I was herewhen the WTO protests happened and I found this movie to be extremelypowerful. I paid close attention to the events as they occurred in1999; I even took part in one of the later protests outside a KingCounty Courthouse/Jail. This film uses fictional characters to giveperspective on the events both for legal and entertainment reasons andthe result is amazing. I watched this film as part of the opening nightcelebration for the Seattle International Film Festival with nearly3000 other Seattle area residents and the response was simplyastounding. Afterwards in both the Q&A session with the director andpart of the cast and the party following, I had the opportunity to hearfrom some others who were involved in the WTO incidents and no onevoiced any disappointment with the way the film handled the issues. Iwould encourage everyone to see this film as soon as possible; Americanrelease is scheduled for September 2008 and I'm sure internationalrelease dates will be around the same time.

Spiral_Architect_420 2012-05-13 03:28:22

a half right look at the WTO riots

I was at the battle in seattle...all 4 days of it....they cant get thedays or times right....the gassing didn't start till after 5 pm in theafternoon on N30 not during lunchtime, we didn't march on the jail tillDecember 3rd not December 2nd, and the Broadway and Pine Riots or as welocals call it the city sanctioned gay bashing wasn't started becauseof a cop flipping out but rather when a few people started shaking thepolice car with a cop in it...they don't bring up the fact that in themornings people came downtown with coffee for police and brooms toclean up the mess...they don't talk about the peaceful protest thatstayed on the sidewalk in response to said Broadway riots...and theydidn't talk about how people were boxed in at 2 am when bars closeinfront of 3 packed bars. for a movie yeah its a good watch but for alook at the Battle In Seattle they could have done better in gettingtheir facts right

imizrahi2002 2012-05-12 09:00:11

if you're living in America, it would be advantageous to read this...

i expected the polarized opinions this film received from some of thecommentators here... there's one that said something about '10 yearslater/very little progress'. something about 'small steps'... butthey're wrong. LARGE steps have been taken by the businesses. how manyof you know about the limited access corridor being constructed fromMexico to canada through the midwest? a turnpike that will carry goodsmade outside of US to places nearby this route. the contract was givenby 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 tobuild this turnpike will be shipped into Mexico ports and thendispersed 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 administrationssuch as the present one. it's big business interest. and if you're abig business the bush's will do business with you. witness the binladen family, which have been 'buddies' with the bushes from 'wayback'... witness grand daddy bush doing business with the Nazis as theybegan their quest for world cleansing and domination. all this isdocumented and accessible if you just do a little work looking forit... why not start with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur's(democrat/Ohio)explanation of the corridor on u tube? that'll help make believers outof 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 likewhat the people in control are doing and this is my way of protest. notpaying them with my tax dollars. each of us have to find a way to reactto this piecemeal sale of the US...hopefully non violent no matter whatthe response... the people with the money do, after all, control themilitaries. and not just the American one. or you can just notbelieve...not do ANYthing and be surprised at what transpires... noreview of a movie will MAKE you do anything. that's up to you. goodluck.ps remember how easy it would be to check this out. as easy as it wasto 'get HERE', internetwise...

JazzGiver 2012-05-03 15:31:51

Generally Mediocre

This movie was pretty darn bad. There were heaps of cringe-inducinglines of dialog and generally mediocre acting. To their credit, theprincipal actors didn't have much to work with, especially Ms. Theron.Her ability was absolutely wasted since her character spends most ofher on screen time whimpering and moaning. The standout performance wasfrom Andre, who was able to use his few good lines to create a likablecharacter.The script was absolutely contrived and there were too many moments ofincredulity. The fictionalized events that were "inserted" werehamhanded and obvious, and some downright insultingly so. There were ahandful of "serious" moments that caused a laugh and too few "funny"moments that inspired one.One of the only really redeeming parts of the film was the filefootage; something tells me this would have been much better as adocumentary than a docu-drama.

2012-05-03 04:29:38

"The people I'm really trying to fight are the ones who destroy so much, and they hurt so many lives... Literally, millions"

In Stuart Townsend's fascinating true story of BATTLE IN SEATTLE, acts of vandalism and a violent, wide-reaching police response to them destroy an intended "peaceful" demonstration against the World Trade Organization's summit talks. However, the protestors' planned shutting down of certain streets to choke the conference into failure is just another form of anarchy. Cops continue to bash heads and amidst total chaos, hundreds are arrested. The upshot of this four days of craziness is all subsequent WTO meetings have better security and demonstrators can't get near the events or disrupt traffic.Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.(6.9) Battle in Seattle (Canada/USA/Germany-2007) - Ray Liotta/Woody Harrelson/Charlize Theron/André Benjamin/Jennifer Carpenter/Martin Henderson/Joshua Jackson

Deveousdevil 2012-04-26 13:05:44

Frighteningly Well Made.

I just watched this movie and finished it being completely stunned. Itchronicles the events when citizens of Seattle protested the WorldTrade Organization talks. It is really scary to watch. Riot copbrutality, anarchy, mayhem, violence, all put together very well withsome pretty swell performances, particularly by Charlize Theron (greatactress), who, although plays a very small role, plays it well.This movie sends an important message that we should boycott horrible,slavery supportive organizations such as the WTO, which directly causesthe deaths of millions around the world, and is a blatant symbol ofgreed and inequality.The movie is made well because they mix real footage of the actualriots with reacted sequences of it's own. Creating a very grim settingand sending a clear message that people should come together whenrights are violated.

me 2012-04-26 02:42:59

MUST SEE

EXCELLENT MOVIE... HOW LONG ARE WE AS HUMANS GOING TO LET THESE INJUSTICES CONTINUE ON OUR PLANET? C'MON PEOPLE, THERE ARE THINGS WORTH SAVING AND CARING ABOUT THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH MONEY AND PROFITS!!!! GREED IS THE SCOURGE OF OUR SPECIES

robinakaaly 2012-04-25 17:39:38

The consequences of mob rule are never positive.

This was a serious and intelligent, if incredibly depressing, filmabout the anti-WTO protests in Seattle in November 1999, and how theyaffected some of the participants, on all sides of the barriers. Thefilm mixed archive footage of the massive demonstrations, with modernreconstruction around the various story lines: several professionalprotesters and their reactions to the violence they were unwittingly(but not unforeseeably) responsible for, the civic and policeauthorities confronted with overwhelmingly hostile demonstrators out tobreak the law, the policeman on the front line whose pregnant wife,inadvertently gets caught up in the riot, is beaten by a passingpoliceman and loses her baby, the professional demonstrator bent onwilfully damaging property, the camera crew who go from being neutralto siding with the protesters as the civic response gets tough. Thestart of the film portrays the WTO as being some shadow organisationdevoted to making the rich richer and the poor poorer whilst raping theplanet. As usual with protect movements, truth does not matter. Thefact that the WTO is there to try and provide a framework for policinginternational trade, and what would the situation be like without it,are of no concern to the protesters: the WTO is bad and must besmashed. This is a self-evident truth, so ordinary people should getout of the way whilst those who "care" take the law into their ownhands. When it comes to defeating what protesters do not like, the lawdoes not come into it. The film also makes it clear that (a) thedemonstrators have nothing positive to offer, and that as usual (b)they take no responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Onthis point, the protester's lawyer who should no better, has norealisation of what she is doing. Generally, all the people the filmseeks sympathy for are the demonstrators, who by their own ignoranceand irresponsible refusal to accept the democratic process, puts aheavy burden on those paying through taxes for their right to bestupid. To be fair, the response to the demonstrations was affected bypolitical rather than practical considerations of crowd control leadingto ugly confrontations and use of force, but this was not the fault ofthe police.This is the sort of film which should provoke debate, but sadly, fromthe evidence of the demonstrators, their only response is to shoutslogans and cry foul as they have nothing else.Here endeth the lesson.

mybutterhastouchedanotherfood 2012-04-25 04:15:34

brilliantly made and brilliantly acted

I just came back from watching the film at the Toronto Internationalfilm festival, and I absolutely loved it. It is brilliantly made andbrilliantly acted. Stuart Townsend is a very talented man; he is sureto win a few Oscars before the end of his career. Battle in Seattle isa 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 usesreal footage during some parts which really help those who were notpresent during the riots see that the film isn't exaggerating howhorrific people's actions were (on both sides). I highly recommend thisfilm for anyone who loves films that entertain and teach.

2012-04-19 09:37:05

Good

This review is from: Battle in Seattle (DVD) The movie is good. It sours the reality of a lot of Anarchist's and other protesters that were present. You should also get the book Battle og the story of the Battle of Seattle. It is put out by AK Press. Phenomenal read that pairs well with this movie. Link here: [...]

the___force 2012-04-19 00:12:05

Can only appeal to people on the left

If you like socialism, this is the movie for you; a boring exercise inleftist propaganda. A badly acted, badly made movie that will onlyappeal to people who actually support these nonsensical protestsagainst capitalism.What's so annoying about these pseudo-documentaries is that they are soin line with the politics of Hollywood. Who, when they read thedescription of this movie, did not immediately realize that it is justanother propaganda piece by the elites in Hollywood, designed topropagate their personal political agenda.I thought art was about being radical, not about blind conformity tothe prevailing philosophy of the time. Will we ever have a mainstreammovie about an abortion protest?Never. That would be TRULY radical.When are the people on the left going to realize that they are nolonger counter-cultural? Their ideas are boring and non-compelling,which is why movies like this never succeed in spreading theirideology. Let's move on.

hendry-robert 2012-04-09 00:39:37

Appalling waste of space

I had never heard of this movie until it came on the TV the other day.It would have been better if it had remained that way.You don't get real idea of what the protesters were protesting about.Very much like the real protesters who were a mish mash of anarchists,drop-outs, ravers/party goers, manic depressives, attention seekers,show offs, chancers, and total dreamers. None of whom have any idea ofreality because they cannot use logical thought processes.Anyway, Charlize Theron spends most of the movie crying in bed ignoringher husband Woody Harrleson who plays one of the riot police officers.I had high hopes for Theron when I first saw her years ago but she sureknows how to pick bad scripts and I do think her career is sufferingfrom it. Woody (like Theron) will have been drawn to the projectbecause of his environmental background and on paper he must havethought it would be a good move to accept the role. He, and Theron areboth lucky the movie didn't finish their careers off. Ray Liotta playsthe Seattle Mayor. The Mayor seems like a decent trusting guy but isessentially betrayed by the protesters rampage. Liottas performance, aswell as Theron and Harrleson were mediocre at best. I don't blame themthough. Clearly the director has absolutely no idea how to coax aperformance from actors and if I were to hedge a bet I would say thedirector was personally caught up (emotionally) due to his obviouspolitical views. Nothing wrong with putting your case forward in amovie, but you have to do it right and provoke a reaction from theaudience, make them think. This completely fails to do that. The mancompletely forgot he was making a movie and like most extreme leftiststhe idea is always better than the reality. As you watch you will care nothing for any of the characters in themovie. Your constantly hoping something will happen, it never doesbecause quite frankly very little actually happened in Seattle overthose few days. A few protesters running around smashing windows willnot give anyone the ammunition to make a full 90 minute movie.Its quite telling that since the movies release two years ago it onlyhas around 40 reviews on IMDb. Just goes to show that no one, not eventhe protesters give a damn about this movie. They are probably toembarrassed.The favourable reviews of which there are far to many can only be froma few dreamers and those with an agenda. But seriously, pay them noattention because this is a really bad movie no matter what side of thepolitical spectrum you come from.Avoid at all costs.

kosmasp 2012-04-08 11:57:41

Awareness

Based on actual events, this really is unnerving. But in a good way. Ofcourse it has some cinematic changes to it (like putting peopletogether we know, where could expect them to have more "space" betweenthem) and other freedoms a movie does take. Really great actorsconvince you, that this is how it went down.But it's strong part is that it shows us both sides of the coin. Whileof course more sympathetic to one side of it, we still get a chance toglance at "the enemy" and how or why decision were made. You couldn'timagine anyone better than Ray Liotta playing the Mayor. And though itis a very moral story, it is a very personal story too. Hopefully itwill spark the interest of quite a few people to be more concernedabout what happens out there.On the other hand as movie, it does have a few flaws, because it putsso many people together. And of course one of the best "in-jokes" is atheatre and their "Thanks Seatlle ..." title card/board towards the end... A nice touch!