THE AISLE SEAT - "THE SIEGE"

by Mike McGranaghan

Terrorism is often used as an action movie plot device, but it isn't usually dealt with seriously on screen. The worst consequence of movie terrorism is usually that Sylvester Stallone (or some similar action hero) will go after the perpetrators. Big deal. What about the way it affects the country? That's one of the pivotal questions in The Siege, a film that raises a lot of interesting issues, but unfortunately doesn't know what to do with most of them. I give the movie points for at least trying to handle the issue seriously.

Denzel Washington stars as Anthony Hubbard, the head of an anti-terrorism task force run jointly by the FBI and NYPD. "Hub" - as he is called - is brought in when a group of Arab terrorists holds people hostage on a city bus. He tries to negotiate a trade, but the bus blows up, killing everyone inside. Hub is determined to find out who's responsible. He gets help from an undercover CIA operative named Elise Kraft (Annette Bening) who has shady connections to a man who may have helped the terrorists enter the country. She believes the bombers are planning their attacks in waves, each one more vile than the last, culminating in the fourth (and final) wave.

Meanwhile, several more acts of terrorism occur, which leads the U.S. Army to declare martial law over New York. The operation is run by gung-ho General Devereaux (Bruce Willis). He seems to take great delight in his job, insisting that all Arab-Americans in the city be sent to internment camps until the bombers are found. Hub and Elise are opposed to the idea, realizing what it will mean to innocent Arabs in the city. They try to locate the last wave of terrorists as quickly as possible, for the good of everybody.

The Siege is one of those movies that has good and bad elements in about equal measure. For everything I liked about it, there was something I wished had been stronger. What I liked most was that the movie raises a lot of important questions. With the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings fresh in our memory, it's a good time to consider the implications of both foreign and domestic acts of terrorism. We've certainly had to face them. The Siege not only asks what kind of practices are acceptable in combatting terrorism, but it also ponders the effect of such acts on racial matters.

Despite the protests from Arab-American groups, The Siege is not an anti-Arab film. Yes, the story's terrorists are Arab (inspired, I assume, by the World Trade Center bombers), but a lot of effort is made to show that an entire ethnic group should not be blamed for the actions of a radical few. In other words, the movie says, a few bad apples do not mean the entire barrel is rotten. This is best exemplified by the most interesting character, Hub's partner Frank Haddad (Tony Shalhoub), an Arab-American who despises both the bombings and the internment of blameless people (his son is one of those interned). Frank is a compelling, moral character who gives The Siege a much needed heart. He also represents an important message of tolerence.

The Siege obviously is an ambitious thriller that has some valid issues on its mind. Unfortunately, the movie never really does much more than just raise the right questions. For a film like this to work, the story has to be played for absolute realism. Director/co-writer Edward Zwick (Courage Under Fire) undermines the power of his topic by tossing in a lot of phony "movie moments" including a pointless shoot-out in a garage. I found it hard to stay focused on the issues (which are genuinely disturbing) when the movie kept cutting to generic action cliches or macho standoffs.

And speaking of macho standoffs, I don't know whose bright idea it was to cast Bruce Willis alongside two pros like Washington and Bening. They blow him right off the screen. Willis plays what is supposed to be a serious character in his full-blown smirky-guy style. That kind of thing is fine in a piece of pop trash like Armageddon, but it's very annoying when he's cast as a military leader who is interning innocent people. At one point, Willis even gets to bellow the phrase "I am the law!" at Washington (I was reminded of Stallone using the same line in Judge Dredd). The actor brings zero complexity to a character that demands it. Why not play Devereaux as a committed military officer carrying out a difficult duty instead of as a stereotypical megalomaniac?

Obviously, one movie can not solve the problem of terrorism, nor can it have all the answers. But The Siege still manages to come up just short of its goals. The problem is simply too big to be meaningfully dealt with in a picture like this - a picture that wants to dazzle the audience with high-testosterone action and make them think deeply at the same time.

( 1/2 out of four)

The Siege is rated R for violence, language, and nudity. The running time is 1 hour and 55 minutes.