BATTLE IN SEATTLE

I was lucky enough to see Battle in Seattle at the Opening Night of the Seattle International Film Festival... a make-it or break-it screening, if there ever was one. Let's just say, because of the obvious local implications, the air was electric. As per usual Seattle events, there were folks all gussied up in their finest, mixed with folks in hoodies, jeans and flip-flops. However, unique to this year's event were folks handing flyers like "RESIST The World Trade Organization" (www.realbattleinseattle.org) and unfurling banners that were used in the actual WTO protests-turned-riots in 1999.

As for the movie itself? I'm sure everyone in the audience came prepared for the worst, donning their pointiest Skepticism Hats. Saddled with the dorky name Battle in Seattle and facing what will probably be their most critical audience, the filmmakers and cast in attendance were unsurprisingly nervous. Director Stuart Townsend explained in his introduction to the film that at previous fest screenings, like in Toronto, one or two people in the audience would raise their hand and say, "I was there!" So he asked the SIFF audience: who was there at the WTO protests in Seattle? At least 2/3rds of the audience rose their hand (with the rest were probably still in the lobby drinking $12 glasses of wine). Townsend's response? "Oh, shit."

But I have to say after a clunky start that had the audience twittering (the dialogue and acting, at times, is eyeball-rolling), Battle in Seattle becomes a pretty decent film that is ultimately a rallying cry for activism. The movie has a collage of characters in parallel stories (some overlapping, some not), including Woody Harrelson as a Seattle cop, Charlize Theron as his pregnant wife who gets caught in the downtown melee, Ray Liotta as the mayor (who shows a bit more spine than our real mayor at the time, Paul "I am not a wuss!" Schell), and Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez and Andre Benjamin as out-of-town protestors that arrive ready for action. The characters aren't particularly well-developed or even individually very interesting, and the dialogue is admittedly corny at times (Connie Nielsen has a thankless eyeball-rolling role as a reporter who suddenly gets a conscience), but as the film moves along and the mood gets worse, the overall tension of the big-picture situation believably builds.

There are several scenes of police brutality that will make you wince, both physical attacks and images of peaceful protestors getting sprayed in the face by chemicals while sitting cross-legged in the street. Yikes. The audience audibly gasped in shock at one scene, involving an out-of-nowhere brutal attack on one character. Some original footage is interweaved in the story (at the beginning, this is done quite poorly... a swelling crowd of thousands suddenly looks like a couple hundred, depending on if the actors are in the shot), and thankfully real Seattle sites are used in crucial scenes (we can spot Vancouver a mile away, and much of this film was shot there). It was strange to see The Paramount Theater so prominently used, as I walk by that building every day on the way to work. But I was impressed that they bothered, for the most part, using real, recognizable landmarks, which I know the Seattle audience appreciated.

Did the film deserve its standing ovation from the audience? No. But the movie is not bad, and won't need to be disowned by the city. At one point (I'm paraphrasing from memory here), Andre Benjamin's peaceful "save the turtles" protestor says, "A week ago, no one had even heard of the WTO! Now... well... they still don't know what it means, but they've heard of it!" Battle of Seattle will hopefully serve as an introduction for audiences to explore issues of globalization further. It may not be the ultimate picture that we'll see about the riots (I've heard, for instance, that the documentary This is What Democracy Looks Like is a much better film), but if Battle in Seattle reaches a wider audience, it is certainly a place to start.