The Siege
USA 1998
Reviewed by Ken Hollings
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
New York City, the present. 'Hub' Hubbard heads the joint FBI/NYPD anti-terrorism task force in the wake of the Oklahoma and World Trade Center bombings. After a fake bomb splatters a busload of passengers with paint, his team receives a demand for the release of Sheik Ahmed Ben Talal, kidnapped in the Middle East on the orders of US General Devereaux. The bombing of New York will begin in earnest unless Talal is freed.
Hubbard finds his investigations shadowed by CIA operative Elise Kraft. When a second busload of passengers are killed by a bomb, the search focuses on Brooklyn's Arab community. Through Kraft, Hubbard contacts Samir Nazhde, a Palestinian CIA informer. Hubbard discovers Kraft was in Gulf War intelligence with Samir and that they are lovers. The task force locates the terrorist cell and wipes it out. However, new bombs blow up a theatre and FBI headquarters. Martial law is declared and Devereaux takes command.
Devereaux's draconian measures result in a suspect being tortured to death and Hubbard strikes out on his own to find the terrorists. Kraft - real name Sharon Bridger - discloses that she helped train Talal's followers in terror tactics against Saddam Hussein until the CIA abandoned them. She helps Hubbard coerce Samir into arranging a meeting with the bombers during a massive civil-rights rally. Samir seems to comply, but reveals he is the last terrorist on a suicide mission to detonate a bomb in the middle of the protestors. Samir shoots Kraft, but is killed by Hubbard. With Devereaux arrested on a murder charge, martial law is suspended.
Review
The Siege attempts to update the bluffs and counterfeints of the Cold War spy thriller, not to advance any ideological point but to obscure the fact that it doesn't have one. Every major flashpoint in recent US foreign policy is mentioned, from Beirut to Haiti, as if citation alone can take the place of argument. "Ask a question, get an atlas," a Washington politician complains at one point, and it's hard not to sympathise.
Director Zwick tackled the meanings of race and conflict in Glory and his Gulf War drama Courage under Fire, both featuring Denzel Washington, but the issues here have left him giddy. Daring you not to take the whole thing seriously, The Siege opens with President Clinton on television in the wake of the Somalia bombing, warning that "America takes care of its own", intercut with video footage of the devastated Federal Building in Oklahoma. Scarred and grainy, the raw actuality of these images only undermines the portentous dialogue and glossy production values to come.
When Hubbard (Washington) and his team first swing into action, the crackle of their procedural repartee seems impressive, until you realise its sole purpose is to establish him as a team player. With his FBI coffee mug and his natty monogrammed shirts, Hub's an organisation man of heroic proportions: an ex-paratrooper who studied law, a Catholic liberal who believes in the system. Compared with Devereaux (Bruce Willis) and Bridger (Annette Bening), he's a total square. While the other characters tend to drift in and out from moral twilight zones as the plot requires, Hub remains front and centre.
Zwick maintains a smooth pace, as Middle-Eastern terrorists bomb the supine citizens of New York into a panicky State Of Emergency. However, unsettling racial divisions are quickly smoothed over once Martial Law is declared. Herded together into wire cages by heavily armed American soldiers, the Arab population of Brooklyn is allowed to demonstrate good citizenship through its capacity for patient suffering.
Willis and Bening, meanwhile, bring grim determination to their dispiriting roles. Unsure if Devereaux is a dangerous fanatic or an authoritarian berserker, Willis tries both, coming up with a weird mix of Ollie North and Colonel Kurtz - the sight of tanks on the streets and camps heaving with captive Arabs seems to turn him on, but we never find out why. Bening bears the heaviest burden as not only the movie's sole major female character but also the only one devious enough to operate under an alias. Even the bombers arriving from the Middle East conveniently use their real names.
As soon as Bening is shown smoking hashish with her Palestinian lover, we know she's doomed. Such behaviour would have been criticised during the Cold War as "going native". In this political melodrama which revels in its own sentimental extremism, it represents, in grossly literal terms, how the expediencies of foreign policy create strange bedfellows. No matter how intelligent, perceptive or experienced Kraft/Bridger may be, she still winds up paying for Hubbard's isolationist purity. With its curious blend of cynicism and naivety, The Siege tries to tackle serious issues without actually offending anybody. Unless you happen to be a woman, of course.
Credits
- Producers
- Lynda Obst
- Edward Zwick
- Screenplay
- Lawrence Wright
- Menno Meyjes
- Edward Zwick
- Story
- Lawrence Wright
- Director of Photography
- Roger Deakins
- Editor
- Steven Rosenblum
- Production Designer
- Lilly Kilvert
- Music
- Graeme Revell
- ©Twentieth Century Fox Corporation
- Production Company
- Twentieth Century Fox presents a Lynda Obst production
- Executive Producer
- Peter Schindler
- Co-producer
- Jonathan Filley
- Associate Producer
- Robin Budd
- Production Supervisor
- L.A.:
- Carl S. Griffin
- Production Co-ordinators
- Ellen Gannon
- L.A.:
- Diane Ward
- Unit Production Manager
- Jonathan Filley
- Location Managers
- Dana Robin
- L.A.:
- Richard Davis Jr
- 2nd Unit:
- Charlynne Hopson
- 2nd Unit Director
- Peter Horton
- Assistant Directors
- Nilo Otero
- Paul S. Bernard
- Gregory G. Hale
- Additional:
- Michael Pitt
- L.A.:
- Stuart Hagen
- 2nd Unit:
- John E. Gallagher
- T. Sean Ferguson
- Script Supervisors
- James Ellis
- 2nd Unit:
- Catherine Gore
- Casting
- Mary Goldberg
- Mary Colquhoun
- Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Craig Haagensen
- Camera Operators
- Michael Caracciolo
- Abe Schrager
- Wayne Paull
- L.A.:
- Clinton Dougherty
- Scott Browner
- Steadicam Operators
- Kyle Rudolph
- L.A.:
- Mark O'Kane
- Digital Visual Effects
- Moving Target
- Visual Effects Supervisors:
- Alan Munro
- Robert Stromberg
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Brian Jochum
- Visual Effects:
- Frederick Toye
- 3-D Model Design/Animation:
- Joseph Conti
- 3-D Modelling:
- Carlos Wambao
- 3-D Textering:
- Jesse Daves
- Digital Scanning/Composites
- VCE Inc
- Digital Scanning/Composites:
- Peter Kuran
- Administration:
- Jacqueline Zietlow
- Co-ordinator:
- Marilyn Nave
- Digital Recording Supervisor:
- Brian Griffin
- Digital Compositor:
- Bryan Cooke
- Editorial:
- Jo Martin
- Additional Digital Scanning
- Digital FilmWorks
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Paul Lombardi
- 1st Unit Co-ordinator:
- Chuck Stewart
- 2nd Unit Supervisor:
- Kelly Kerby
- Shop Supervisor:
- David Peterson
- Foremen:
- Stanley Blackwell
- Wilfred Caban
- Robert Calvert
- Thomas Craven
- Steven Dearth
- Terry Erickson
- Guy Feldman
- Steven Hintz
- Steven Kirshoff
- Randy Krohmer
- Ron Mathews
- Jeff Miller
- Technicians:
- Kurt Ottenheimer
- Daniel Owen
- George Paine
- Rick Peterson
- Scott Roark
- Charles Schmitz
- Steve Shines
- Parry Willard
- William H. Wolf
- Richard S. Wood
- Video Footage Editor
- Terri Belis
- Supervising Art Director
- John O. Warnke
- Art Director
- Chris Shriver
- L.A. Set Designer
- Anthony D. Parrillo
- Set Decorator
- Gretchen Rau
- Storyboard Artist
- Carl Aldana
- Costume Designer
- Ann Roth
- Wardrobe Supervisors
- Donna Maloney
- L.A.:
- Cheryl Beasley Blackwell
- Key Make-up Artists
- Kathryn Bihr
- L.A.:
- Todd A. McIntosh
- Prosthetic Make-up
- Todd Kleitsch
- Key Hair Stylists
- William A. Farley
- Scott W. Farley
- L.A.:
- Carl Bailey
- Title Design
- Moving Target
- Frederick Toye
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific/Mirage Titles and Opticals
- Featured Duduk Performer
- Djivan Gasparyan
- Featured Vocalist
- Nona Hendryx
- Conductors
- Tim Simonec
- Larry Kenton
- Orchestrations
- Tim Simonec
Music Editor- Josh Winget
- Score Recordist/Mixer
- John Kurlander
- Music Programmer
- Paul Haslinger
- Synth Pre-record Engineer
- Mitch Zelezny
- Soundtrack
- "First You Cry" by Buddy Flett, David Egan, performed by Little Buster and The Soul Brothers; "Great Leap Forward" by James Kerr, Charles Burchill, performed by Simple Minds
- Sound Design/Supervision
- Lon E. Bender
- Sound Mixers
- Allan Byer
- L.A.:
- Jeff Wexler
- Additional Audios
- Mark Ormandy
- David Young
- Recordists
- Matt Patterson
- Dennis Johnson
- Re-recording Mixers
- Paul Massey
- D.M. Hemphill
- Sound Editors
- Neal Anderson
- Christopher Assells
- Dino DiMuro
- Hector C. Gika
- Gregory J. Hainer
- Danny Hegeman
- Craig Jaeger
- Patrick Sellers
- Dialogue Supervisor
- John A. Larsen
- Dialogue Editors
- Harry B. Miller III
- Michael Haight
- David Kulczycki
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- R.J. Kizer
- Recordists:
- David Lucarelli
- Bobby Johanson
- Alex Raspa
- Mixers:
- Charlene Richards
- David Boulton
- Editor:
- Donald Sylvester
- Foley
- Supervisor:
- Kelly L. Oxford
- Walkers:
- Jim Moriana
- Jeff Wilhoit
- Recordist:
- J.C. Lucas
- Mixer:
- David Alstadter
- Special Operations/ Military Adviser
- Jeff Beatty
- FBI Consultant
- Jaime Cedeno
- Consultant
- Tim Weiner
- Aerial Co-ordinators
- Dirk Vahle
- Bruce Benson
- Al Cerullo
- Gary W. Farrell
- Cliff Fleming
- 'Big Mike' Harrah
- Craig Hosking
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Joel J. Kramer
- Dialect Consultants
- Wanda Salloum
- Abdul Zohbi
- L.A.:
- Sam Askari
- Pilots
- Tim Orr
- Alan Purwin
- Bill Richards
- Rick Shuster
- Laura Michelle Smith
- Steve Stafford
- Film Extract
- Jesse James
(1939)- Cast
- Denzel Washington
- Anthony Hubbard
- Bruce Willis
- General William Devereaux
- Annette Bening
- Elise Kraft/Sharon Bridger
- Tony Shalhoub
- Frank Haddad
- Sami Bouajila
- Samir Nazhde
- David Proval
- Danny Sussman
- Lance Reddick
- Floyd Rose
- Mark Valley
- Mike Johanssen
- Liana Pai
- Tina Osu
- Jack Gwaltney
- Fred Darius
- Chip Zien
- Chief of Staff
- Victor Slezak
- Colonel Hardwick
- Will Lyman
- FBI director
- Dakin Matthews
- Senator Wright
- John Rothman
- Congressman Marshall
- E. Katherine Kerr
- attorney general
- Jimmie Ray Weeks
- army general
- Amro Salama
- Tariq Husseini
- Ahmed Ben Larby
- Sheik Ahmed Ben Talal
- Mosleh Mohamed
- Muezzin
- Jeremy Knaster
- INS official
- William Hill
- INS uniform
- Aasif Mandvi
- Khalil Saleh
- Frank Dielsi
- Officer Williams
- Wood Harris
- Officer Henderson
- Ellen Bethea
- Anita
- David Costabile
- fingerprint expert
- Glenn Kessler
- fibre expert
- Jeffrey Allan Waid
- video agent
- Tom Mcdermott
- phone bank agent
- Sherry Ham-Bernard
- Hub's secretary
- Joseph Hodge
- landlord
- Joey Naber
- Rashad
- Said Faraj
- Yousef
- Alex Dodd
- Ali
- Jacqueline Antaramian
- Najiba Haddad
- Helmi Kassim
- Frank Haddad Jr
- Ghoulam R. Rasoully
- Frank Jr's teacher
- Joseph Badalucco Jr
- EMT
- Diana Naftal
- injured woman
- Insben Shenkman
- Kaplan
- A.A. Barton Tinapp
- Mayoral
- Neal Jones
- NYPD representative
- Donna Hanover
- district attorney
- Peter Schindler
- Johnson, FAA
- Hany Kamal
- Arab spokesman
- John Henry Cox
- Speaker of the House
- Ray Godshall
- CIA director
- Chris Messina
- corporal
- Gilbert Rosales
- mechanic
- Jim Shankman
- Tariq Husseini
- Matt Servitto
- Jourdan Fremin
- journalists
- Anjua Warfield
- match organizer
- Susie Essman
- protest speaker
- Rory J. Aylward
- lieutenant
- Jeff Beatty
- FBI agent undercover
- Graham J. Larson
- FBI agent
- Arianna Huffington
- Robert Scheer
- Matt Miller
- Capitol Week pundits
- John F. Beard
- Stan Brooks
- Alex Chadwick
- Epi Colon
- Judy De Angelis
- Luis Jimenez
- Sean Hannity
- Ronald Kuby
Daniel Schorr- Curtis Sliwa
- Susan Stamberg
- Mary Alice Williams
- newscasters
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- 20th Century Fox (UK)
- 10,441 feet
- 116 minutes 1 second
- Dolby
- Colour/Prints by
- DeLuxe
- Super 35