The Siege is not a badly-made movie, but the whole premise it's based on falls apart about two-thirds of the way through. There's a big disconnect between a rash of terrorist bombings in New York and an Army takeover of the city. I just didn't find it believable that a US president would allow the military to take over the largest US city, discarding all pretenses of constitutional rights within 24 hours, for the sole purpose of finding 20 suspected terrorists. This is something the FBI could accomplish much more effectively, and without shutting down a whole city. In fact, the Denzel Washington character correctly points out that the Army's round-em-all-up methods will only make the job of finding the terrorists that much harder. What does the Army really know about surveillance and investigating terrorists, anyway? This is what FBI agents are trained for, and the movie itself seems to be leading in that direction until the Army is abruptly thrust on the scene. Once again, Hollywood has taken a rather simplistic, and often erroneous, view of the US government for the sake of "shocking" us about its seemingly omnipotent powers. If Hollywood really wanted to raise red flags about federal intrusions on the freedoms of Americans, they should make a movie solely about the powers of the FBI itself or the IRS. Stirring a bunch of claptrap about the CIA, NSC and the Army into a movie like this just doesn't hold water.
The flawed premise of The Siege aside, it is watchable and fairly entertaining, at least for the first two acts. There is some real tension in the early bus explosion scene. Annette Bening is captivating to watch, and is fortunately spared the lame dialogue that Washington and Willis must utter later on. The Siege does raise important questions about how far we as a society should go in infringing on personal freedoms for the sake of ensuring personal safety. I would recommend it on that basis.
The flawed premise of The Siege aside, it is watchable and fairly entertaining, at least for the first two acts. There is some real tension in the early bus explosion scene. Annette Bening is captivating to watch, and is fortunately spared the lame dialogue that Washington and Willis must utter later on. The Siege does raise important questions about how far we as a society should go in infringing on personal freedoms for the sake of ensuring personal safety. I would recommend it on that basis.