Review – The Siege

Here’s a busy little film. We’ve got all kinds of things going on here: international terrorism, civil rights violations, racism, inter-agency conflicts in the U.S. intelligence community, crosses, double-crosses, and triple-crosses until you can barely keep track of it all. The result, not surprisingly, is a muddled mess of a movie. Though I agree with the film’s overall message (to the extent that it could be discerned), I thought it was a bit heavy-handed. Further, the characters’ motivations were frequently less than clear, particularly among the supporting cast. For example, it’s never made completely clear whether the sinister general played by Bruce Willis is engaged in a deliberate plot to subvert the Constitution or whether he merely takes advantage of a bad situation. Overall this isn’t a terrible film, but it probably would have been better with a little less ambition. Mildly amusing