Battle in Seattle

i expected the polarized opinions this film received from some of the commentators here... there's one that said something about '10 years later/very little progress'. something about 'small steps'... but they're wrong. LARGE steps have been taken by the businesses. how many of you know about the limited access corridor being constructed from Mexico to canada through the midwest? a turnpike that will carry goods made outside of US to places nearby this route. the contract was given by bush's people to a very, very wealthy construction firm from spain. the owner is one of the richest men in the world. the materials used to build this turnpike will be shipped into Mexico ports and then dispersed where needed. probably using mostly non American labor.

now maybe some of you will understand part of the point of this movie. there IS no such thing as countries anymore. not with administrations such as the present one. it's big business interest. and if you're a big business the bush's will do business with you. witness the bin laden family, which have been 'buddies' with the bushes from 'way back'... witness grand daddy bush doing business with the Nazis as they began their quest for world cleansing and domination. all this is documented and accessible if you just do a little work looking for it... why not start with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur's(democrat/Ohio) explanation of the corridor on u tube? that'll help make believers out of the skeptics. this isn't some 'quack' with a conspiracy theory.

my location is listed as netherlands. i left the US b/c i don't like what the people in control are doing and this is my way of protest. not paying them with my tax dollars. each of us have to find a way to react to this piecemeal sale of the US...hopefully non violent no matter what the response... the people with the money do, after all, control the militaries. and not just the American one. or you can just not believe...not do ANYthing and be surprised at what transpires... no review of a movie will MAKE you do anything. that's up to you. good luck.

ps remember how easy it would be to check this out. as easy as it was to 'get HERE', internetwise...

This is the 1999 WTO conference in a fictionalized format. It's not totally necessary, there are a half-dozen documentaries about the protests in Seattle in 1999. It seems a lot of the content from this movie was directly lifted from the documentary "This is What Democracy Looks Like". There are shots which have been recreated and even quotations by some of the protesters. One for instance is when one of the pro-environment protesters compares the crowds to people coming out of nowhere "like in the Michael Jackson 'Thriller' video" Yet this is a good movie with some wonderful acting. Harrelson and Liota stand out in their roles as a riot cop and the mayor of Seattle. Although I was most struck by Martin Henderson as Jay, a protest organizer whose brother was killed in a forestry protest and has two strikes against him and could spend a long time in jail if he gets arrested again. Having been to protests in Seattle and in Ottawa against globalization I recognized his character as a common person we see in this movement. The romantic plot line with another protester did almost feel forced at times. It wasn't necessary but for the most part this movie wasn't necessary.

If the movie accomplishes anything I hope it will bring younger people who were too young to be politically aware at that time into the fold and fight against corporate and state tyranny.

The movie definitely captured the feeling of these anti-globalization protests and how they represented a multitude of voices from environmentalism to labour leaders. I just wish they had focused more on the anarchists who seemed to be the only ones to get the short end of the stick in this movie. Why not show their story and who they are? Are hippie leftist protesters more interesting. Perhaps next time when someone makes a movie out of the 2001 protests against the FTAA in Quebec City. Battaille en Québec.

I was at the battle in seattle...all 4 days of it....they cant get the days or times right....the gassing didn't start till after 5 pm in the afternoon on N30 not during lunchtime, we didn't march on the jail till December 3rd not December 2nd, and the Broadway and Pine Riots or as we locals call it the city sanctioned gay bashing wasn't started because of a cop flipping out but rather when a few people started shaking the police car with a cop in it...they don't bring up the fact that in the mornings people came downtown with coffee for police and brooms to clean up the mess...they don't talk about the peaceful protest that stayed on the sidewalk in response to said Broadway riots...and they didn't talk about how people were boxed in at 2 am when bars close infront of 3 packed bars. for a movie yeah its a good watch but for a look at the Battle In Seattle they could have done better in getting their facts right

As we settled into our seats in Screen One in the Savoy Cinema, Dublin, Ireland, we wondered how on earth Stuart Townsend could exposit the intricate workings of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to an audience who probably had no idea that it even existed.

We were not disappointed. From the breathtaking opening sequence, to the exhilarating ending, we were on the edge of our seats.

There were some outstanding performances – André Benjamin as Django (from the band Outkast) and Michelle Rodriguez as Lou (best-known in Europe for the TV series 'Lost') in particular were superb as two of the demonstrators. André injected an unfailing sense of humor and light relief into this serious topic, and managed to turn his unusual headgear into a clever statement about endangered species. Michelle gave her character exceptional depth and feeling, and handled a complicated emotional sub-plot with a mixture of both detachment and passion that worked so well on screen.

Charlize Theron played an innocent bystander, Ella, who was trapped in the violent maelstrom, with horrific consequences for both her own character and her character's husband.

During the Q&A with Stuart and Charlize at the end of the movie, an audience member stood up – an employee of the World Bank. She began by saying how cautious she was about coming to a movie about the WTO, but that she had to applaud Stuart for handing such a difficult subject so fairly. Her comments were echoed by a Trade Advocacy officer from a well-known Irish development charity, who congratulated him on creating a movie which managed to be both factually accurate and entertaining.

For anyone who has ever wished that this world was a better place, this movie is a must-see. For everyone else, this is a heart-warming movie about the power of the human spirit to overcome, to work together and to forgive.

(And as a footnote, Stuart gave free passes to the screening to protesters from the Campaign to Save Tara, who are still demonstrating against the construction of a new highway, the M3, in the historical valley at the Hill of Tara in Ireland. Stuart walks his talk.)

I was lucky enough to see this film in advance, and it opened my eyes to a few very important issues.

Going in, I'd never even heard of the "battle in Seattle," as I was only 13 years old at the time of the protests. But now that I'm aware of the event, it makes me wonder why the controversies with the WTO aren't still being discussed on a larger scale.

This is something that we should all be concerned about, and Stuart Townsend has done us a favor by introducing the issues in a format that is riveting, informative, and inspirational. If there's one thing Battle in Seattle does best, it's that it fires you up to take action any way you can.

Not to mention the great production values, absolutely stellar cast, and intense action sequences (Intense because they're real! Actual footage was used).

I would highly recommend attending a showing of this film with your family and friends, because these matters are important to us all, and Stuart's presentation of them is nothing short of breathtaking.