User reviews

This docu-drama about the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999 is made in the same style as "Bloody Sunday", "United 93", and "Battle for Haditha": it just shows events in real time without comment. We follow everyone here from the ground up; the protest groups, the cops on the street, their commanders, city officials, a news reporter, and innocent bystanders. Maybe the scenes with the news reporter are the least fleshed out, but that's a fairly minor complaint for a movie that is very involving and entertaining and thought-provoking. Woody Harrelson and Charlize Theron are very good, as usual, and Michelle Rodriguez is perfectly cast. One of the big surprises here is Andre Benjamin, from Outkast fame, who delivers a fine supporting performance; he's irreverent but very smart. Ray Liotta is very effective as the mayor, and the film does a great job of seeing the complexities in elected officials as he struggles to please all sides; he is looking for the protesters to behave while also wanting the WTO to address important issues.

The audience I saw this with at the Toronto Festival gave it an ovation that lasted all through the credits. In terms of pure audience satisfaction, this movie was up there with "Juno" and "Body of War" and "Eastern Promises" as the fan favorites.

I was present at the WTO talks in Seattle, as the accredited media officer of an international NGO network. I was therefore at various times both in the main talks building and out on the street.

Before this film was made I was sceptical about whether a Hollywood movie could capture the essence of this important but complex event. In fact, I think it does a good job.

It shows clearly that although a small minority of demonstrators committed significant acts of violence against property, most of the so-called "riot" was the consequence of attempts by the police to clear protesters off the streets. It also shows the work of critics of the WTO in meetings and debates inside the talks. It captures much of the basic case against a "free trade" WTO that disregarded environmental, social and labour considerations and tried to impose the economic hegemony of rich countries on the developing world.

If I have a criticism it is that it is too focused on the (powerful and impressive) street protests and not enough on the solidarity of developing country delegates in refusing to accept a biased settlement imposed by the developed world. That was the single greatest achievement of the Battle in Seattle and the one with the most lasting impact.

By the way, when I was chucked out of the talks I was told that my revoked security pass was the "property of the Corporation", which I gather was the local business coalition dominated by Microsoft and Boeing. Told me all I needed to know.

See this movie if you want to understand where the "anti-globalisation" movement really kicked off and the messy but important case it was trying to make.

"Labour itself is but a sorrowful song, The protest of the weak against the strong."

Frederick William Faber

As a liberal, I empathize with the protesters in the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. And I do empathize. The need for world organizations and big companies to consider the health of poorer countries before appropriating their resources is paramount.

In Battle in Seattle, director Stuart Townsend uses the stock devices of the docudrama: smoothly inter-cutting between scenes of police and protesters and expertly interspersing authentic footage with the dramatized. The feel is as if the audience is participant; the dilemma of how far either side should go in keeping the peace or disturbing it is palpable.

The drama is enhanced by fictionalizing the opposing forces through the lens of policeman Dale (Woody Harrelson) and his wife, Ella (Charlize Theron), both caught up in the escalating violence and too neatly tied to the issues of each side. The challenges of the protesters are also too deftly tied to a romance of the leader and a follower.

This facile mixing of truth and fiction leaves me a bit cold, as if I were the victim of a fraud because the reality of the historic event seems trivialized by clichéd romances and tragedies. I am always dismayed by the Michael-Moore-style loading of the left to the exclusion of the right's point of view: What are the purposes of the WTO? Has it been successful? How? These questions are rarely explored any more than the complicated motives and lives of the protesters.

But the docudrama succeeds in illuminating the WTO and its critics. As history has written, little progress has been made during the intervening decade even though the talks were stopped in Seattle. But as one of the combatants points out, only by small steps and persistence can the battle be won. And so went the Battle in Seattle.

This is a film concerning the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organisation meeting. Protesters had planned in advance to disrupt the meeting seeing the WTO as an unelected, unaccountable, self interest group that continues to put profit before people and denies legitimate scrutiny a voice.

It has a few stories on the go to show what happens to both sides of the argument(s). Woody Harrelson plays a violent cop whose pregnant wife gets caught up and Channing Tatum is here in an early role also as a cop. Ray Liotta plays the City Mayor who is torn between having a successful summit and not wanting to use violence.

There are a number of issues touched on here and the film struggles to be balanced to both sides – using the individual stories to illustrate how both sides do wrong. That could be where it falls down – it tries too hard to be reasonable. The WTO is a self interest group who uses sticking plaster solutions to Global problems as a smokescreen to its bloated ambitions of World trade and the never ending greed engendered by the profit motive.

The acting though is all very good, but it does get a bit over emotional on one too many occasions. In stressful situations – feelings do run high and as such the lapses here are forgivable. Having said all of the above I still thought this was a compelling watch and so can recommend.

The fears of peaceful protesters turning the situation ugly would raise alarm bells for the authorities here. After all, there is little guarantee that there are no bad apples in a barrel, so I guess a more hard-lined stance was adopted to prevent damage of anarchic proportions that would cost us needless millions of dollars in repair bills. Then of course you have the issue about civil liberties versus the need to maintain the peace and the never ending debate on which is more important.

I suppose the key word has always been Responsibility. Granted that there are countless of NGOs both local and international, each with their own political agenda that they want to see through, and coordination amongst all representatives would prove to be a logistical nightmare, especially if some amongst the lot do not subscribe to the non-violent mantra, allowing emotions to get high and out of control and permitting the situation to degenerate into violent protesting. Then the authorities would also get tempted to nip the problem at the bud through applying direct force, and a vicious circle would be created.

A film like this for the local audience might seem a little fascinating, whether through a united front as demonstrated (pardon the pun) could get our own little interests pushed through and heard by the masses. We've come a long way since the last riots experienced in the country, and we definitely wouldn't want to go back to those days. There are avenues to seek redress or you get your message heard, and like scarce resources, there's always the question of wanting more, the never-ending push and negotiations for own own agendas to be met.

Being the directorial debut of actor Stuart Townsend, he presented a neat tale based on the historical protests at the WTO Ministerial Conference in 1999, where the Seattle authorities had underestimated the numbers of protesters in attendance, their tactics, and the strategies adopted. It's a very clear case of being blind-sided, and the panic response as meted out through the police, when stripped away of the uniform, are also humans who have been given the mandate for violence, where primal instincts in a mob at both ends clash, with one side possessing non-lethal tools for crowd dispersion, letting it all rip in order to carry out instructions.

Townsend's screenplay takes a more sympathetic stance toward the protesters actually, where the bulk of the film is spent in highlighting the police violence and the plight of the poor protesters having to endure their rights being stripped away. I would have enjoyed the movie more should it shift from this particular angle, and focused more on the bigger issues like how developing nations feel they're being exploited under WTO, which promises a lot more than the defunct GATT it replaces. Or how through creative drafting of laws would prove to be potential stumbling blocks for poorer countries. Granted there could be no answers to this and definitely not from this film, but these issues were addressed rather fleetingly, and may have given a feeling that they were not as important as the struggles of those who want to make their voices heard.

It had a slick opening credits scene which blurs the line between drama and documentary, and fused into the narrative were also real clips of actual protesting some 10 years ago, which looked really like a carnival with colourful pickets and the chanting of catchy slogans. It had relied on a slew of recognizable names like Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Woody Harrelson, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Carpenter, Andre Benjamin, Ray Liotta, Connie Nielsen, and Channing Tatum, amongst many others, in representing viewpoints from those holding political office, to the police, protesters, foreign dignitaries, right down to the innocent bystander, on how this sequence of events would affect their lives both on the professional and personal levels.

Not a bad strategy of course, but probably biting more than it can chew, most of the characters turn out to be nothing more than a caricature of whatever they're representing, which is a pity because there was a lot of avenue to present that "People Versus Profit" issue which one of the characters had questioned. Instead it chose to play up the more action-like bits, leaving little moments where you can contemplate on the larger issues.

Then again, the title had said it all. It's a Battle, and it did enough to pique one's interest to read more about the event itself, as well as the outcome of subsequent Ministerial Meets around the world. If it's to serve as a platform for general issue awareness, then Battle in Seattle would have met that purpose.

As we settled into our seats in Screen One in the Savoy Cinema, Dublin, Ireland, we wondered how on earth Stuart Townsend could exposit the intricate workings of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to an audience who probably had no idea that it even existed.

We were not disappointed. From the breathtaking opening sequence, to the exhilarating ending, we were on the edge of our seats.

There were some outstanding performances – André Benjamin as Django (from the band Outkast) and Michelle Rodriguez as Lou (best-known in Europe for the TV series 'Lost') in particular were superb as two of the demonstrators. André injected an unfailing sense of humor and light relief into this serious topic, and managed to turn his unusual headgear into a clever statement about endangered species. Michelle gave her character exceptional depth and feeling, and handled a complicated emotional sub-plot with a mixture of both detachment and passion that worked so well on screen.

Charlize Theron played an innocent bystander, Ella, who was trapped in the violent maelstrom, with horrific consequences for both her own character and her character's husband.

During the Q&A with Stuart and Charlize at the end of the movie, an audience member stood up – an employee of the World Bank. She began by saying how cautious she was about coming to a movie about the WTO, but that she had to applaud Stuart for handing such a difficult subject so fairly. Her comments were echoed by a Trade Advocacy officer from a well-known Irish development charity, who congratulated him on creating a movie which managed to be both factually accurate and entertaining.

For anyone who has ever wished that this world was a better place, this movie is a must-see. For everyone else, this is a heart-warming movie about the power of the human spirit to overcome, to work together and to forgive.

(And as a footnote, Stuart gave free passes to the screening to protesters from the Campaign to Save Tara, who are still demonstrating against the construction of a new highway, the M3, in the historical valley at the Hill of Tara in Ireland. Stuart walks his talk.)

I was at the battle in seattle...all 4 days of it....they cant get the days or times right....the gassing didn't start till after 5 pm in the afternoon on N30 not during lunchtime, we didn't march on the jail till December 3rd not December 2nd, and the Broadway and Pine Riots or as we locals call it the city sanctioned gay bashing wasn't started because of a cop flipping out but rather when a few people started shaking the police car with a cop in it...they don't bring up the fact that in the mornings people came downtown with coffee for police and brooms to clean up the mess...they don't talk about the peaceful protest that stayed on the sidewalk in response to said Broadway riots...and they didn't talk about how people were boxed in at 2 am when bars close infront of 3 packed bars. for a movie yeah its a good watch but for a look at the Battle In Seattle they could have done better in getting their facts right

I just came back from watching the film at the Toronto International film festival, and I absolutely loved it. It is brilliantly made and brilliantly acted. Stuart Townsend is a very talented man; he is sure to win a few Oscars before the end of his career. Battle in Seattle is a great work which simply tells the story of the WTO riots in Seattle, without an obvious bias (at least in my opinion). The film also uses real footage during some parts which really help those who were not present during the riots see that the film isn't exaggerating how horrific people's actions were (on both sides). I highly recommend this film for anyone who loves films that entertain and teach.

It's late 1999 Seattle and the World Trade Organization (WTO) is holding a conference on American soil for the first time. The WTO is not well known but it has attracted a vast and varied opposition. Jim Tobin (Ray Liotta) is the mayor. Jay (Martin Henderson) is leading his group, Lou (Michelle Rodriguez), Django (André Benjamin), and Sam (Jennifer Carpenter). He had lost his brother during a protest. Dale (Woody Harrelson) and rookie Johnson (Channing Tatum) are two of the riot police. Dale's pregnant wife Ella (Charlize Theron) is caught up in the battle. Dr. Maric (Rade Serbedzija) is from Médecins Sans Frontières trying to present to the delegates.

I don't know if Dale and Ella are based on real people but it feels too convenient. It seems very fake which takes away Dale and Jay's emotional payoff. The movie would be better if more impartial. Stuart Townsend has a point to make and he needs to set it up better. Maric could do an introduction about the need for medicine. Jay could do an introduction of the lost of his brother. The movie could explain what the WTO did that was so wrong as an intro. It has some compelling action. It gets its points across. It's a fictional docudrama that works more than it doesn't.

This lame film sets a terribly-written fictional narrative against the backdrop of the 1999 riots in Seattle that occurred during the meeting of the World Trade Organization. Director Stuart Townsend, who is also responsible for the juvenile screenplay, concocts ridiculous and melodramatic situations out of a scenario that already had enough dramatic heft of its own without embellishment.

Townsend creates a group of stock characters that includes the beleaguered Seattle mayor (Ray Liotta); a couple of protesters (Martin Henderson and Michelle Rodriquez) whom the screenplay forces into an awkward and unnecessary romance; a reporter (Connie Nielsen) who actually joins the protesters(!) after she witnesses some police brutality (I'm not making this up); and a police officer (Woody Harrelson) and his pregnant wife (Charlize Theron) whose lives are altered dramatically by the events of those few days. These actors are put into narrative situations that a 16-year-old would come up with if he were asked to jot down a bunch of scenarios that he thought would have a dramatic impact on his audience. Therefore, everything is hokey and maudlin to the extreme. The story line involving Theron, in particular, actually made me angry because of its cheap tactics.

A straight-up documentary about the WTO riots would be far more worth your time than this film. Hell, your time would be better spent watching "Dumb and Dumber."

Grade: D

i expected the polarized opinions this film received from some of the commentators here... there's one that said something about '10 years later/very little progress'. something about 'small steps'... but they're wrong. LARGE steps have been taken by the businesses. how many of you know about the limited access corridor being constructed from Mexico to canada through the midwest? a turnpike that will carry goods made outside of US to places nearby this route. the contract was given by bush's people to a very, very wealthy construction firm from spain. the owner is one of the richest men in the world. the materials used to build this turnpike will be shipped into Mexico ports and then dispersed where needed. probably using mostly non American labor.

now maybe some of you will understand part of the point of this movie. there IS no such thing as countries anymore. not with administrations such as the present one. it's big business interest. and if you're a big business the bush's will do business with you. witness the bin laden family, which have been 'buddies' with the bushes from 'way back'... witness grand daddy bush doing business with the Nazis as they began their quest for world cleansing and domination. all this is documented and accessible if you just do a little work looking for it... why not start with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur's(democrat/Ohio) explanation of the corridor on u tube? that'll help make believers out of the skeptics. this isn't some 'quack' with a conspiracy theory.

my location is listed as netherlands. i left the US b/c i don't like what the people in control are doing and this is my way of protest. not paying them with my tax dollars. each of us have to find a way to react to this piecemeal sale of the US...hopefully non violent no matter what the response... the people with the money do, after all, control the militaries. and not just the American one. or you can just not believe...not do ANYthing and be surprised at what transpires... no review of a movie will MAKE you do anything. that's up to you. good luck.

ps remember how easy it would be to check this out. as easy as it was to 'get HERE', internetwise...

This was an insightful and well made, produced, directed and acted movie. The ensemble cast of characters, the intertwining stories and different points of views were aptly handled and deftly managed by writer/director/actor Stuart Townsend (TV's badly underrated and prematurely cancelled re-make series "Night Stalker, of which he was the lead) or Mr. Charlize Theron.

The movie sheds light on the events, and some of the people behind them, that took place in closing days of the 20th century, just as the dawn of a new century and millennium were largely and ominously looming. It is a well deserved recounting of those faithful days.

At times, however, the movie does feel somewhat self-serving, quite subjective and too involved with the message rather than the subject matter and story its trying to tell, and the characters tend to be at times a bit too one-dimensional and stereotypical. A more dispassionate and objective approach would have possibly added more dimension to this film.

Now it is very clear where the director, and I guess, most of the actors involved in the movie, stand on the issues dealt with in this film, namely globalization, fair trade, WTO, poverty, inequality etc. Some might misconstrue this as a heavy-handed, blatant piece of propaganda and dismiss it right away as lefty thrash.

I personally have no problem with the movie, since I tend to agree in principle at least, with the ideals and ideas that people involved in those protests were trying to get across (minus the violence). I remember because I was a university student at the time and our institution was connected and in contact with those events. If I am not amiss, some of our students even travelled to Seattle to partake in the marches and protests.

I am ashamed to say that I myself was never very engaged in these sorts of things, causes or issues, nor have I ever been politically active (except for voting). I am rather something quite worse, namely a hypocrite, because I am informed and aware of all of this, yet choose to do nothing, because of my own laziness and self-contented outlook on life. My contribution to this world so far has extended to being the armchair philosopher/expert. But yelling and protesting from the living room couch, while eating popcorn, does not work when trying to change the world for the better...

Sadly ten years later after the "Battle In Seattle", the world seems not to have learnt anything of value, as it continues its wasteful ways caught in a seemingly perpetual dilemma of staring at the mirage of bliss while teetering ever so slowly on the brink of complete disaster and annihilation.

This is the first feature film written, directed and produced by Stuart Townsend, but all I can really say, is it's a decent attempt.

"Battle in Seattle" is about a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle in November 1999. Townsend gives us the points of view of the protesters, police force, city and national politicians, the public, and the WTO officials. He did a really good job of introducing us to the protesters, police force and the city's mayor, but I was mostly left confused about the representation of the other factors.

At times there was shaky camera work, quick editing, and weird song choices. A headache was slowly forming. My headache was put on hold when the lead protester was on the screen (but unfortunately I can't name the actor because I never did catch the character's name), and also for Ray Liotta's scenes, who was quite effective as the mayor. I'm not sure why there were so many famous actors involved because I didn't get to know many of the other characters.

There was certainly a battle, it was clearly shot in Seattle (or at least looked like Seattle), and "Battle in Seattle" should live up to expectations for fans of historical, political action films.

I was lucky enough to see this film in advance, and it opened my eyes to a few very important issues.

Going in, I'd never even heard of the "battle in Seattle," as I was only 13 years old at the time of the protests. But now that I'm aware of the event, it makes me wonder why the controversies with the WTO aren't still being discussed on a larger scale.

This is something that we should all be concerned about, and Stuart Townsend has done us a favor by introducing the issues in a format that is riveting, informative, and inspirational. If there's one thing Battle in Seattle does best, it's that it fires you up to take action any way you can.

Not to mention the great production values, absolutely stellar cast, and intense action sequences (Intense because they're real! Actual footage was used).

I would highly recommend attending a showing of this film with your family and friends, because these matters are important to us all, and Stuart's presentation of them is nothing short of breathtaking.

I knew very little about this subject before watching the film... I expected to learn a little about it during the film and that was my primary reason for attending the screening at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin. Instead, I was blown away by an incredible story that weaves the events in Seattle with several inspiring and complex characters. In an amazing interaction that muddied the waters between the 'good' and 'bad' guys, this script moves you.

The theater cheered and yelled... an ovation throughout the credits in Austin as well... this movie is powerful and inspiring. I absolutely loved the cast as well as the style of film-making. Great work.

Based on actual events, this really is unnerving. But in a good way. Of course it has some cinematic changes to it (like putting people together we know, where could expect them to have more "space" between them) and other freedoms a movie does take. Really great actors convince you, that this is how it went down.

But it's strong part is that it shows us both sides of the coin. While of course more sympathetic to one side of it, we still get a chance to glance at "the enemy" and how or why decision were made. You couldn't imagine anyone better than Ray Liotta playing the Mayor. And though it is a very moral story, it is a very personal story too. Hopefully it will spark the interest of quite a few people to be more concerned about what happens out there.

On the other hand as movie, it does have a few flaws, because it puts so many people together. And of course one of the best "in-jokes" is a theatre and their "Thanks Seatlle ..." title card/board towards the end ... A nice touch!

I had never heard of this movie until it came on the TV the other day. It would have been better if it had remained that way.

You don't get real idea of what the protesters were protesting about. Very much like the real protesters who were a mish mash of anarchists, drop-outs, ravers/party goers, manic depressives, attention seekers, show offs, chancers, and total dreamers. None of whom have any idea of reality because they cannot use logical thought processes.

Anyway, Charlize Theron spends most of the movie crying in bed ignoring her husband Woody Harrleson who plays one of the riot police officers. I had high hopes for Theron when I first saw her years ago but she sure knows how to pick bad scripts and I do think her career is suffering from it. Woody (like Theron) will have been drawn to the project because of his environmental background and on paper he must have thought it would be a good move to accept the role. He, and Theron are both lucky the movie didn't finish their careers off. Ray Liotta plays the Seattle Mayor. The Mayor seems like a decent trusting guy but is essentially betrayed by the protesters rampage. Liottas performance, as well as Theron and Harrleson were mediocre at best. I don't blame them though. Clearly the director has absolutely no idea how to coax a performance from actors and if I were to hedge a bet I would say the director was personally caught up (emotionally) due to his obvious political views. Nothing wrong with putting your case forward in a movie, but you have to do it right and provoke a reaction from the audience, make them think. This completely fails to do that. The man completely forgot he was making a movie and like most extreme leftists the idea is always better than the reality.

As you watch you will care nothing for any of the characters in the movie. Your constantly hoping something will happen, it never does because quite frankly very little actually happened in Seattle over those few days. A few protesters running around smashing windows will not give anyone the ammunition to make a full 90 minute movie.

Its quite telling that since the movies release two years ago it only has around 40 reviews on IMDb. Just goes to show that no one, not even the protesters give a damn about this movie. They are probably to embarrassed.

The favourable reviews of which there are far to many can only be from a few dreamers and those with an agenda. But seriously, pay them no attention because this is a really bad movie no matter what side of the political spectrum you come from.

Avoid at all costs.