Battle in Seattle (2007)

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Siskoid
Battle in Seattle isn't quite the story of the landmark protest of 1999's World Trade Organization because the human face it puts in the events are for the most part fictional. And it's not really the story of any of those characters with the protests as background because there are too many to give us more than a thin story. It's not ineffective - you might follow the budding romance between professional activists, or the cops forced to intervene, or the mayor's office, or minority voices trying to be heard at the conference, or the journalist who loses her objectivity, or Charlize Theron's bystander caught in the rioting, and feel invested - but all their stories ultimately feel insubstantial. The quality of the acting probably gives it more weight than it otherwise might have had. The real purpose here is to make people aware of the WTO's evils, but that's accomplished in the frown-inducing prologue and epilogue. The main body of the film does sometimes act as a delivery device for this information, but loses control of its message with questions of whether activism or police action are good/bad. 3 years 4 months ago