Battle in Seattle

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Grant H The movie does a good job of mixing documentary footage with a compelling story. Anyone who's been to a protest, will recognize themselves in this film. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/30/23 Full Review georgan g This movie helps you understand what big demonstrations are about. Activists are shown as caring about the people of the world. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member The film depicts the protest in 1999, as thousands of activists arrive in Seattle, Washington in masses to protest the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999. Protesters believe the World Trade Organization contributes to widening the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, while the WTO claims to be fixing the disparity and decreasing world hunger, disease, and death. The movie takes an in-depth look at several fictional characters during those five days in 1999 as demonstrators protested the meeting of the WTO in Seattle's streets. The movie portrays conflicts between the peaceful protesters and people committing property destruction whose actions were widely covered by the media. Although the protest began peacefully with a goal of stopping the WTO talks, police began teargassing the crowd after it refused to clear the streets and the situation escalated into a full-scale riot and a State of Emergency that pitted protesters against the Seattle Police Department and the Washington National Guard. Rotten Tomatoes consensus was that the film, though "Well intentioned and passionate, this docu-drama about the 1999 WTO protests is heavier on politics than character development". New York Magazine called the film "a triumph", while Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and described it as "not quite a documentary and not quite a drama, but interesting all the same" and compared it to past political films like Medium Cool. According to EW.com, the film "sounds like a bad TV movie: a drama based on the protests that halted the 1999 World Trade Organization summit in Seattle. Yet Stuart Townsend re-creates it all with stunning passion and skill". Despite director Stuart Townsend's stated intention of portraying the events of protest accurately, the film was criticized by anarchist collective CrimethInc. for what they saw as its sensationalistic portrayal of events. In a pamphlet titled "And What About Tomorrow?", the collective allege that the protests were characterized in the film as an isolated spontaneous uprising in which a "small fringe group" of black bloc anarchists "stole the show", whereas CrimethInc. contend that "anarchists were involved in all different aspects of the protests" including nonviolent organization and Food Not Bombs, and credit the adoption of anarchist direct action tactics with the success of the uprising. A review published by Anarkismo praised the film as "clearly well-researched", citing the pacing and general narrative as quite accurate, but criticized the presentation of anarchist politics as one-dimensional and a caricature. "Battle in Seattle" is loosely based on the protest activity at the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, but suffers from not having the look and feel of authenticity and the different characters are not fully connecting the dots to my mind. I had hopes that the city itself would play a bigger part in the scenery, but it didn´t really. Ok cast with Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Connie Nielsen, Ray Liotta etc, but you don´t really believe in their characters. They´re just too stereotypical and vague. And the acting is not fully convincing either. "Battle in Seattle" is not a must see. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review victor o Actor/Director Stuart Townsend puts forth a project that is a reflection of his political views in a movie which despite his best efforts and a decent cast, is a monumental failure. It is about the 1999 World Trade Organization protests. I was indifferent to these protests when they happened and after watching this movie made me disgusted at those protests. People with passions running wild create chaos and those that want to do right are silenced. I hated this story. Despite such great actors like Woody Harrelson, Connie Nielsen and Stuart Townsend's girlfriend Charlize Theron. Nobody could have salvaged this mess. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Great acting. Especially from Harrelson and Liotta and plot. The execution I thought was faulty. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Average film which flattened out towards the end. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Battle in Seattle

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