State of Siege

Costa-Gavras' movies are often the best examples of how art can be used to educate the audience. And, State of Siege is certainly one of the most ambitious and focused attempts.

The movie is a careful presentation, an expose, on the methods and procedures of law enforcement and state police in Latin America. Furthermore, it paints the picture of a kind of American neo-imperialism or neo-colonialism.

The movie is bold, the movie is courageous, but most of all it is smart and intelligent. That being said the strength of the film is the attention of detail and it's patience. Every situation is set up and for everything, there is a payoff. Nobody does films likes this nowadays, with hundreds of extras, everything shot on location. This is one extreme form of filmmaking, where there is the least amount of shortcuts and trickery. The movie almost feels like a film version of the Grand Reportage of old. A careful mix of investigation and photojournalism. That is why you do not mind being lectured. Because the film is beautiful and has rich texture, you do not mind sitting through police violence, death squad meetings and political corruption. The text of the movie might be heavy but is balanced by the visual style.

It may be at times too smart: some of the scenes may be too wordy and whenever there is action, it is subordinate to the dialog between characters. There is a lot of expository dialog in this film, and usually this a fault, because it goes against "show don't tell". Yet, here it does not harm the argument. The way the situation is laid out in dialog between Santore and his captors is initially dry and infuriating, but as Santore perception shifts it becomes engaging. The other channel of exposition is the reporter who is merely covering the story from the outside. It almost feels as it is the most interesting part of the film given that Santore's plot is rather stale, he gets kidnapped and they talk about it for an hour. The political plot could have been the meat of the movie but unfortunately, it does not go far enough, it is treated as B-plot. However, it still functions for its political themes. My favorite scene is the sequence where all the government ministers climb out of their cars. That is cinema in its purest form. It is complete fiction but it feels real.

You can regret that the movie is not as strong narratively. There is no a lot of action, in terms of narrative. Nothing happens in the course of the movie, only minor events. The story should be the last days of Phillip Michael Santore, but it is not what the movie is about.

For that reason it does not stand at the top of Costa-Gavras' oeuvre. On the topic of government corruption and the police and fascism love story, Gravas' "Z" is the best.