|
|
 |
Siege (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (24th July 2009). |
|
The Film
 It’s both eerie and ominous when a film closely mirrors events that have yet to take place, and then when they do all of a sudden the entire tone and meaning of the film becomes that much more relevant. “The Siege” (1998) is one such film, focusing on the actions of the FBI following a series of terrorist attacks on New York City. This was all done a full 3 years before the terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center on Sept 11th, 2001. What’s more striking are the similarities that the film shares with what took place in real life after the attacks. Muslims are shunned, beaten, looked down upon and regarded with hatred much the same way they were during the period immediately following the strike on 9/11. Although we didn’t take it so far as to lock them up in internment camps, they were certainly in the sights of many red-blooded American citizens. According to screenwriter Lawrence Wright, this film became the “most-rented film in America” post-9/11, and with a plot like this it’s easy to understand why. The film begins with U.S. forces capturing Sheik Achmed Bin Talal (Ahmed Ben Larby), a high-ranking terrorist who has been wanted by America. After his capture, a series of bombs are set off in New York City, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives. FBI agent Anthony Hubbard (Denzel Washington) forms an uneasy truce with an undercover government agent, Elise (Annette Bening), and a U.S. Army General, William Devereaux (Bruce Willis) to seek out the terrorist cells responsible for the bombings before they are able to claim more innocent lives. The film vacillates between tackling prescient and contemporary issues along with falling into formulaic territory. The end result is a mixed bag, as some of the film is riveting when viewed with our current knowledge of how our country would respond to a terrorist attack on our own soil. However, there are also plenty of “Hollywood moments” when the plot makes convenient twists intended to ramp up the suspense, a natural decision given the 9/11 attacks had not yet occurred, but it had me wishing the subject had been tackled with a bit more realism. But it does pose some interesting questions. Would segregating the Muslim population have been an effective solution to a perceived internal threat? At this time we all know the answer is a resounding “no”. We never took those measures and still no further attacks occurred, meaning had we done so our relationship with people of Middle Eastern descent could have been irreparably damaged. Denzel Washington is such an enrapturing actor to watch on screen. He’s one of those “comfort actors”, as I like to call them, who give solid, dependable performances in every film they’re in regardless of merit. He does such an effortless job of slipping into the role of an FBI agent that we never for a second question whether or not he could do the job. Hell, I’d hire him to be on the bureau just based on his performance. He sells the drama, the tension, the action, the dialogue… the man is such a capable actor that any film he stars in is instantly elevated because of his involvement. I will admit that he sometimes succumbs to the pitfalls of many seasoned actors, namely that he tends to play “himself” on occasion. Sometimes that can get him in trouble (2006’s forgettable "Déjà Vu" comes to mind), but more often than not he succeeds in making a film at least watchable. That’s more than can be said of many actors. I normally don’t have much of a problem with Annette Bening; I thought she was perfect as a neurotic housewife in 2001’s "American Beauty", but I had a hard time buying her role as a counter-terrorist agent working for the government in this film. She just doesn’t seem right for the part. She isn’t bad per se, but I didn’t like her character’s arc, especially when it drove the film into the previously-mentioned formulaic territory. At least Bruce Willis is here, kicking ass as usual. He knows bringing in the military to control the streets of New York is a bad idea, he even tells our own people that, but once they give the order he wastes no time making the most of his position. In a most-alarming moment of foreshadowing, Willis and his men use brutal interrogation (read: torture) methods in an attempt to extract information from a captured terrorist suspect. This is especially relevant given the controversy over the United States’ use of torture as a method of interrogating suspected terrorists. In this case, however, those responsible are brought to swift justice.
Video
I was pleasantly surprised with the film’s 2.35:1 1080p 24/fps MPEG-2 encoded transfer. Though it doesn’t have that 3-D effect or much “pop”, color reproduction looks solid and skin tones are warm and pleasant. The image is free of debris and digital noise, looking very clear and clean. Black levels are rich and consistently deep, whites are natural and cool. Not a lot to complain about here, but nothing to get excited about either.
Audio
The audio is also quite serviceable, with the film’s English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound track mixed at 48kHz/24-bit providing some good surround sound action. Being a film dealing with terrorists and bombings, there is plenty of activity for your subwoofer. Surrounds also get some good use for ambient noises and crowd chatter. Much like the video, this isn’t something to blow you away but it perfectly suits the film. There are also audio tracks in both French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, Cantonese, Korean and Spanish.
Extras
Fox has only included a theatrical trailer and a bonus trailer. Below is a closer look. The film’s theatrical trailer runs for 2 minutes and 9 seconds. We also get bonus trailers for the following Fox titles available on Blu-ray: - “Broken Arrow” runs for 2 minutes and 28 seconds.. - “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” runs for 1 minute. - “The Edge” runs for 2 minutes and 27 seconds. - “Flight of the Phoenix” runs for 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
Overall
|
|||||
|