The Siege Information

The Siege is a 1998 American thriller film directed by Edward Zwick. The film is about a fictional situation in which terrorist cells have made several attacks on New York City. It stars Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Tony Shalhoub, and Bruce Willis.

Plot

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Anthony Hubbard (Washington) and his Lebanese-American partner Frank Haddad (Shalhoub) are told of a hijacked bus, fully loaded with passengers and containing an explosive device. The bomb turns out to be a paint bomb and the terrorists manage to escape. The FBI receives warnings to release Sheikh Ahmed bin Talal.

Hubbard eventually comes into conflict with Central Intelligence Agency agent Elise Kraft (Bening). Hubbard takes a terrorist suspect into custody and arrests Kraft. Afterwards another terrorist threat is made and an MTA bus is bombed. When the FBI captures a man named Samir Nazhde he admits to signing the visa application of one of the suicide bombers in the course of signing many applications for student visas in his job as a lecturer. However, Kraft insists that Samir is not a terrorist and that his continued freedom is vital to the investigation.

The terrorist incidents begin to escalate. A crowded theater is bombed and later the FBI's New York City field office is destroyed with over 600 casualties.

In spite of objections, the President of the United States declares martial law and the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, under Major General William Devereaux (Willis), occupies and seals off Brooklyn in an effort to find the remaining terrorist cells. Subsequently all young males of Arab descent, including Haddad's son Frank, Jr., are rounded up and detained in Yankee Stadium. Haddad resigns in anger. New Yorkers stage violent demonstrations against the army and the racial profiling of the Arabs and the Army fights to maintain control. There are reports of Army killings.

Hubbard and Kraft, now revealed to be an agent named Sharon Bridger, continue their investigation and capture a suspect, Tariq Husseini. Using torture, Devereaux's men kill Husseini in the course of the interrogation. Afterward, Bridger tells Hubbard that Husseini knew nothing of value because of the principle of compartmentalized information and, sickened, she finally tells Hubbard what she knows. It is revealed that she herself provided training and support to militants opposed to Saddam Hussein's regime, working with Samir to recruit and train the followers of the Sheikh. After the US cut their funding and left them exposed, she took pity on the few of them who had not yet been slaughtered by Hussein's forces, and arranged for them to escape to the United States, ultimately leading to the present situation as they turn their covert and bomb making skills on the country that now holds their Sheikh. She and Hubbard compel Samir to arrange a meeting with the final terrorist cell. Hubbard convinces Haddad that he needs his help and Haddad returns to the FBI.

A multi-ethnic peace march demonstrates against the occupation of Brooklyn. As the march is getting under way Hubbard and Haddad arrive at the meeting place, but Bridger and Samir have already left. Samir reveals to Bridger that he constitutes the final cell while in another sense he says, "there will never be a last cell." He straps a bomb to his body which he intends to detonate amongst the marchers. Hubbard and Haddad arrive in time to stop him leaving but Samir shoots Bridger in the stomach as she struggles to stop him. Hubbard kills Samir but despite their best efforts he and Haddad can only watch as Bridger succumbs to her wounds after managing to recite certain lines of the second half of The Lord's Prayer and concluding with "Insha'Allah" – the Arabic phrase "God Willing".

Hubbard, Haddad, and other FBI agents, raid Devereaux's headquarters to arrest him for the torture and murder of Husseini. Deveraux insists that under the War Powers Resolution the authority vested in him by the President supersedes that of the court which issued the arrest warrant. He then commands his soldiers to aim their guns at the agents, resulting in a Mexican standoff. Hubbard reminds Devereaux that the civil liberties and human rights which he took from Husseini are what all his predecessors have fought and died for. Devereaux finally submits, and is arrested. Martial law ends and the detainees are freed, including Haddad's son.

Cast

• Denzel Washington as FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Anthony "Hub" Hubbard
• Annette Bening as CIA officer Elise Kraft / Sharon Bridger
• Bruce Willis as U.S. Army Major General William Devereaux
• Tony Shalhoub as FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad
• Aasif Mandvi as Khalil Saleh
• Sami Bouajila as Samir Nazhde
• Ahmed Ben Larby as Sheik Akhmed bin Talal

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes awards the film a score of 45% based on 60 reviews, thus branding it "rotten".

Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of four, writing that director Edward Zwick does a good job with crowd scenes, but criticizing that it is clumsy.

Bruce Willis won the Razzie Award for Worst Actor for his performance in the film, as well as for Armageddon and Mercury Rising that same year.

Box office

The film grossed $40,981,289 in North America and $75,691,623 in other territories on a budget of $70 million.

Controversy

When the film opened, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee came out against the film. Its spokesman Hussein Ibish said "The Siege is extremely offensive. It's beyond offensive. We're used to offensive, that's become a daily thing. This is actually dangerous." He thought it was "Insidious and incendiary" because it "reinforces stereotypes that lead to hate crimes." Ibish acknowledged that Arab terrorists did, in fact, bomb the World Trade Center in 1993, but said that Arab and Islamic groups are upset by "the very strong equation between Muslim religious practices and terrorism. ...[Thanks to this film] Every time someone goes through the Muslim ablution, the ritual washing of hands everybody does before they pray five times a day, that image is the announcement to the viewer of the presence of violence." Echoing such criticism the Council on American-Islamic Relations protested the insinuation that "Muslims have total disregard for human life." The groups were "faxing and calling news organizations on a regular basis" to voice their concerns.

Director Edward Zwick had met with Arab Americans, who suggested that the story be changed to mirror the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, when Arabs were immediately assumed responsible. This idea was rejected. Zwick noted that The Siege's villains also include members of the U.S. government, and dismissed the criticism, saying, "Anytime you talk about issues that touch on religion of any kind, you can anticipate this kind of reaction. Should we only present every group as paragons and monoliths of virtue? The movie inspires to engender this kind of dialogue. I happen to come from the school that thinks that movies should not only make you uncomfortable, they might make you think. ?You can anticipate any kind of reaction in these times in which sensitivity seems very high in the culture. I have a friend who says, if you've not offended somebody, you're a nobody. ?How does it feel to be a lightning rod? It gets the blood going. I think it's better than being universally ignored. In a culture where there seems to be so much to talk about, it's good to be talked about."

"What the movie is most deeply about—it's about our own latent possibilities of repression, stereotyping and prejudice," says Zwick. "To see Americans rounded up in the streets, to see Americans put into stadiums, to see people held without habeas corpus—to have their rights violated in such a way is such a chilling and just terrifying thing to see—that is what one takes away, I believe, from this film."

In a September 2007 interview, screenwriter Lawrence Wright attributed the film's failure at the box office to Muslim and Arab protests at theaters playing the film, but also claimed that it was the most rented movie in America after the September 11 attacks.