SnoopyStyle
It's late 1999 Seattle and the World Trade Organization (WTO) is holding a conference on American soil for the first time. The WTO is not well known but it has attracted a vast and varied opposition. Jim Tobin (Ray Liotta) is the mayor. Jay (Martin Henderson) is leading his group, Lou (Michelle Rodriguez), Django (André Benjamin), and Sam (Jennifer Carpenter). He had lost his brother during a protest. Dale (Woody Harrelson) and rookie Johnson (Channing Tatum) are two of the riot police. Dale's pregnant wife Ella (Charlize Theron) is caught up in the battle. Dr. Maric (Rade Serbedzija) is from Médecins Sans Frontières trying to present to the delegates.I don't know if Dale and Ella are based on real people but it feels too convenient. It seems very fake which takes away Dale and Jay's emotional payoff. The movie would be better if more impartial. Stuart Townsend has a point to make and he needs to set it up better. Maric could do an introduction about the need for medicine. Jay could do an introduction of the lost of his brother. The movie could explain what the WTO did that was so wrong as an intro. It has some compelling action. It gets its points across. It's a fictional docudrama that works more than it doesn't.
Tom Dooley
This is a film concerning the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organisation meeting. Protesters had planned in advance to disrupt the meeting seeing the WTO as an unelected, unaccountable, self interest group that continues to put profit before people and denies legitimate scrutiny a voice.It has a few stories on the go to show what happens to both sides of the argument(s). Woody Harrelson plays a violent cop whose pregnant wife gets caught up and Channing Tatum is here in an early role also as a cop. Ray Liotta plays the City Mayor who is torn between having a successful summit and not wanting to use violence.There are a number of issues touched on here and the film struggles to be balanced to both sides – using the individual stories to illustrate how both sides do wrong. That could be where it falls down – it tries too hard to be reasonable. The WTO is a self interest group who uses sticking plaster solutions to Global problems as a smokescreen to its bloated ambitions of World trade and the never ending greed engendered by the profit motive.The acting though is all very good, but it does get a bit over emotional on one too many occasions. In stressful situations – feelings do run high and as such the lapses here are forgivable. Having said all of the above I still thought this was a compelling watch and so can recommend.
sychonic
One has to applaud the interest in making a movie of something like the riots in Seattle in 1999. A hodgepodge of protest movements, environmentalists, anti-global trade people, anarchists, third-world trade protesters, and the list goes on.The makers of this obviously have a point of view, and that is of course, very sympathetic to the protesters (or whatever the term might be). Though, here and there, they seem to show some even handedness.I'm sure all know that basic story: The WTO, a world trade organization attempting to liberalize trade among nations around the world in order to raise all living standards (or so they claim). They seek to meet in Seattle to discuss the next steps in "global trade." Problem is, there are a lot of folks who really don't like the idea, not at all. So, as in the very first scene -- Democracy and the WTO are not at one with each other.The makers obviously favor the protesters, of course, but give some sympathy for the police and politicians of Seattle who are trying to preserve some sort of comity and sanity while an international meeting takes place in their city. You can tell they want the prestige of such a meeting, and want to keep a blow up from happening.They didn't get their wish.There are some mawkish and foolish subplots littered around here and there, fictionalized of course, but the central point is not badly done: Protesting in this day and age, in a time of plenty, for those who are protesting in the name of those who are in poverty.This is not a spoiler in the least, but anyone who has eyes and cable network TV knows, these protests, and the ones that followed, and will follow even form now, have achieved and will achieve nothing. Knowing that, gives a strange flavor to the movie -- that all they are doing, means nothing.No matter how much the Hollywood folks would like to think otherwise, and probably would, if they knew how much it would impact their pocket books.
the___force
If you like socialism, this is the movie for you; a boring exercise in leftist propaganda. A badly acted, badly made movie that will only appeal to people who actually support these nonsensical protests against capitalism.What's so annoying about these pseudo-documentaries is that they are so in line with the politics of Hollywood. Who, when they read the description of this movie, did not immediately realize that it is just another propaganda piece by the elites in Hollywood, designed to propagate their personal political agenda.I thought art was about being radical, not about blind conformity to the prevailing philosophy of the time. Will we ever have a mainstream movie about an abortion protest?Never. That would be TRULY radical. When are the people on the left going to realize that they are no longer counter-cultural? Their ideas are boring and non-compelling, which is why movies like this never succeed in spreading their ideology. Let's move on.
AD
