Battle in Seattle (2007)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Stuart Townsend

Writer:

Stuart Townsend (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 May 2008 (France)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

The whole world is watching

Plot:

Activists arrive in Seattle, Washington en masse to protest a meeting of the World Trade Organization. Riots and chaos ensue as demonstrators successfully stop the WTO meetings. |

Plot Keywords:

World Trade Organization | Seattle Washington | Activist | Protest | Political Activism

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Martin Henderson	...	Jay
Michelle Rodriguez	...	Lou
Woody Harrelson	...	Dale
Charlize Theron	...	Ella
Jennifer Carpenter	...	Sam
André Benjamin	...	Django
Ray Liotta	...	Mayor Jim Tobin
Connie Nielsen	...	Jean
Channing Tatum	...	Johnson
Isaach De Bankolé	...	Abasi (as Isaach De Bankole)
Rade Serbedzija	...	Dr. Maric (as Rade Sherbedzija)
Ivana Milicevic	...	Carla
Tzi Ma	...	Governor
Joshua Jackson	...	Randall
Christopher Jacot	...	Michael

Also Known As:

Bataille à Seattle (France) [fr]
Batalla en Seattle (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]
I exegersi (Greece) (DVD title) [el]

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some violence.

Runtime:

99 min | USA:98 min

Country:

USA | Canada | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:PG | USA:R | Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:M | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Redwood Palms Pictures

Goofs:

Anachronisms: There are numerous changes to the Seattle skyline since the time of the riots. 1) The Kingdome should be present but isn't 2) Qwest Field is shown but didn't exist at the time 3) The new City Hall is featured in a shot but it wasn't built yet 4) There are several changes to the downtown retail core, and 5) Many buildings have been added and deleted from the Fourth Avenue scenes.

Quotes:

Django: Teamsters and turtles together! Come on, Teamsters and turtles together!

Movie Connections:

Edited from Trade Off (2000)

Soundtrack:

Fake Empire

Small Steps

"Labour itself is but a sorrowful song, The protest of the weak against the strong."

Frederick William Faber

As a liberal, I empathize with the protesters in the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. And I do empathize. The need for world organizations and big companies to consider the health of poorer countries before appropriating their resources is paramount.

In Battle in Seattle, director Stuart Townsend uses the stock devices of the docudrama: smoothly inter-cutting between scenes of police and protesters and expertly interspersing authentic footage with the dramatized. The feel is as if the audience is participant; the dilemma of how far either side should go in keeping the peace or disturbing it is palpable.

The drama is enhanced by fictionalizing the opposing forces through the lens of policeman Dale (Woody Harrelson) and his wife, Ella (Charlize Theron), both caught up in the escalating violence and too neatly tied to the issues of each side. The challenges of the protesters are also too deftly tied to a romance of the leader and a follower.

This facile mixing of truth and fiction leaves me a bit cold, as if I were the victim of a fraud because the reality of the historic event seems trivialized by clichéd romances and tragedies. I am always dismayed by the Michael-Moore-style loading of the left to the exclusion of the right's point of view: What are the purposes of the WTO? Has it been successful? How? These questions are rarely explored any more than the complicated motives and lives of the protesters.

But the docudrama succeeds in illuminating the WTO and its critics. As history has written, little progress has been made during the intervening decade even though the talks were stopped in Seattle. But as one of the combatants points out, only by small steps and persistence can the battle be won. And so went the Battle in Seattle.