State of Siege

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Audience Member Critique of "State of Siege" (1972): Sloganeering and Formal Bias The 1972 film State of Siege, while attempting to depict a crisis within the political and social landscape of its time, suffers from numerous structural and conceptual shortcomings. Its character development is excessively shallow and clichéd, with characters defined more by lifeless, slogan-like dialogues than by dramatic actions. This approach prevents the audience from forming a deep emotional connection with the characters, leaving the story devoid of human and psychological complexity. In terms of narrative, the film relies too heavily on dialogue and fails to provide a deeper analysis of the socio-political situations it seeks to portray. It appears that the filmmaker, instead of weaving a multilayered story, aimed to convey a specific message in a direct and unsubtle manner. This approach not only diminishes the film's impact but also renders many scenes artificial and unconvincing. One of the film's noteworthy formal elements is its visual depiction of murder scenes. In these moments, the victims are often shown in long or medium-long shots, while the perpetrators are captured in close-ups. This stylistic choice could reflect the filmmaker's inclination toward empathy with the killers or, at the very least, a focus on their motivations and circumstances. Such a portrayal pushes the victims into the background, placing the killers at the forefront of attention. This technique invites various interpretations regarding the filmmaker's political and ideological leanings. Nevertheless, the lack of balance in the depiction of these scenes and the absence of comprehensive analysis prevent the film from presenting a clear and convincing stance on violence and power. Ultimately, State of Siege is a film that, due to its sloganeering and weaknesses in dramatic structure, fails to achieve lasting resonance. Instead, it serves primarily as a historical document reflecting the political cinema trends of the 1970s. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 12/10/24 Full Review acsdoug D Purveys the tired leftist trope that a handful of Americans can show up and take a country of millions of people where it doesn't want to go. it wasn't true then, it isn't true now, and it is incredibly insulting to the citizens of those countries. Still, a good story could be told from that viewpoint - Oliver Stone's "Salvador" is a an excellent film. This film, however, lacks nuance, all the members of the government are evil incarnate. It makes for a rather dull two hours. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/29/24 Full Review Audience Member Loved it! Such a great dramatic history of covert US interference in repressive puppet regimes of South America Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member State of Siege has the usual rhythm of any other Gavras affair, but fails in comparison to Z and The Confession for its emotional nakedness and considerable lack of tension in comparison. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Neatly put together from realistic events. Another great political thriller, in the vein of corrupted government and the revolutionare "spanish" coffee terrorists. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Costa-Gravas political thrillers are based on true stories. The incident dramatized here is the kidnapping of an American (Yves Montand) who supposedly works for an American aid agency but the plot slowly reveals that he is a CIA (the agency is never aimed) sent to train police and military officials in an unnamed Latin American country counter-insurgency techniques. The kidnapping is undertaken by a leftist urban guerrilla force. The politics of the film are very left-wing. Costa-Gravas is not entirely sympathetic with the methods of the terrorists but the film illustrates how Montand's character and the people he trained have undermined democracy in the country, employing agent-provocateurs, illegal torture techniques, and extra-legal death squads. In the end, the trappings of democracy are done away with and martial law is declared. It is based on events that occurred in Uruguay in 1970 and was filmed in Chile in 1972; in the next year Chile's democratically elected left wing government would be overthrown in a military coup (the subject of Costa-Gravas' later film Missing). Costa-Gravas has always been sympathetic with the oppressed of the world and had previously done over the Greek military junta in Z and the Stalinist thugs who crushed the Prague Spring in The Confession. Its a French film presented in French with English subtitles. If you thought Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger's foreign policy in the Americas was (to quote David Eisenhower) "swell," avoid watching this film. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews

State of Siege

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