Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...movie does, after all, present the bruising, intricately staged spectacle of New York City brought to a quaking halt by a series of ever more serious bombings--first a bus, then a crowded theater, then a federal building--mounted by that lately easiest-to-despise of all groups, Arab fanatics. A panicked government institutes martial law, which includes internment camps and occasional descents into torture when no one can think of any better solution to a crisis. As a result, there's plenty of (literally) raw material to keep the action fans happy...
...ways that go well beyond the demands of the genre. They give us an FBI agent in charge of the case--played by that paragon of sexy stalwartness, Denzel Washington--whose heroism lies largely in his ability to reconsider hasty conclusions. They provide him with an assistant of Arab descent (a quietly smoldering Tony Shalhoub), caught in a conflict between duty and disgust when the soldiery snatches his son because he happens to match a terrorist profile. They also add to the team a sassy CIA operative (Annette Bening) who knows more about these terrorists than she can tell because...
Last week, after Iraq announced it would halt U.N. weapons inspections, U.S. officials accelerated plans to dynamite Saddam Hussein into compliance. As the Pentagon refined its strategy, Defense Secretary William Cohen and National Security Adviser Samuel Berger hit the road to sell the plan to Arab and European leaders. While they got a frosty public response, officials say the private message was a tacit green light. Result: President Clinton may decide to hit Iraq without a U.N. vote, something that has bottled up attack plans in the past. The strike could come this week...
...Hubbard and Bening, the government is forced to react as more people are killed and the public cries for action. In comes General Deveraux, with thousands of soldiers and tanks, blockading the Brooklyn Bridge and sealing off the entire borough of Brooklyn. Martial law is declared and all Arab men are rounded up and sent to concentration camps set up in the city, similar to the way the Japanese were treated in World War II. Relations flare up between our trio of characters, who are all trying to resolve the crisis through their own means. The film is meant...
Despite a lack of vibrant action scenes, The Siege still manages to keep things interesting. As patience grows short in the city, it seems at first that the city will become Balkanized as Arabs are subject to racial violence, and the police are needed to protect them. Once the Army steps in however, the city begins to bull back together to support the Arab community and to resist what is seen as the heavy hand of the federal government. Those who have decried the film as racist are correct in that yes this is another film about shady Arabs...