Review: Battle in Seattle

Writer-director Stuart Townsend mobilizes a fine ensemble cast for a worthy cause: dramatize the five days in November, 1999 when protestors monkeywrenched the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Helped by nineteen producers, overcast Vancouver locales, and Seattle street chaos as shot by video activists, Townsend threads several stories. Humanizing the tumult may yield little political insight, though. Seattle’s mayor (Ray Liotta) addresses a gathering of protestors: “Be tough on your issues, but be gentle on my town.” But street-blocking cadres and black-masked window-breakers soon upstage the peaceful marches that police intel forecast. Tear gas and clubs come out. Mass arrests come next. A cop (Woody Harrelson) and his pregnant wife (Charlize Theron) face the violence first-hand. A TV reporter (Connie Nielsen) gets her consciousness, if not her ratings, raised. Protestors deal with tactical and romantic issues. Anarchists in the film reject media attention, and this film respects that by marginalizing them here too. A prologue and epilogue offer hard-hitting briefings on the interlocking agencies and the impact of their international policies. One sign reads: “Visualize Corporate Collapse.” “Battle in Seattle” only visualizes empathy with diverse players, without advancing their causes. As if admitting to a mission unaccomplished, one protestor cracks: “A week ago people didn’t even know what the WTO was—now they still don’t know—but they know it’s bad.” For a nonfiction take, look for “30 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle” (2000), a video made by off-duty TV cameraman Rustin Thompson. With Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jennifer Carpenter, André Benjamin, Rade Serbedzija, Ivana Milicevic and Channing Tatum. 99m. (Bill Stamets)