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.
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.