The Siege | 
| Director: Edward Zwick
Actors: Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Bening, Tony Shalhoub, Sami Bouajila
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $34.98
Buy Used: $1.29
You Save: $33.69 (96%)
New (10) Used (52) from $1.29
Rating:  124 reviews
Sales Rank: 93755
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 6305364206
UPC: 086162001307
EAN: 9786305364207
ASIN: 6305364206
Theatrical Release Date: November 6, 1998
Release Date: April 20, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
A high-profile action/exploitation thriller set in the present, The Siege is really a fantasy that extrapolates from major terrorist attacks. Denzel Washington is FBI special agent Hubbard, "Hub" to his friends, whose anti-terrorist task force must track down the terrorist cells responsible for a spate of bombings in New York. His partner is an FBI agent of Arabian extraction (played convincingly by Tony Shalhoub), proving not all Arabs are bad guys--a point the film should be lauded for making again and again. Thrown into the mix is a CIA spy (played almost kittenish at times by Annette Bening), whose ties to the terrorists appear to be at the center of the conflicts. When the bombings escalate out of control, the President institutes martial law, sending in General Devereaux (played with impenetrable countenance by Bruce Willis) with tanks and troops to ferret out the terrorists. Echoes of Japanese-Americans in internment camps ring out as Arabs, including the son of the Arab-American FBI agent, are herded into a stadium. Periodic audio-montages of "man in the street" sentiments anchor the material in the present and show how serious and relevant the material is. But finally what we have is a taut and entertaining popcorn movie, giving itself the humanistic nod when it can. --Jim Gay
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 119 more reviews...
 the story of 9-11 filmed in 1998! June 21, 2009
Ford Prefect (Boston MA area)
I loved this movie when I saw it in the theaters originally, and even more once it's relavence and vision of the future became evident.
10 years before the topics of torture and waterboarding were common place, this movie painted a picture that would in many ways later become a reality. It also makes you think about the different approaches to terrorists and terrorism.
See it with an open mind, and walk away with what might be more questions than answers, but regardless of what you take away from it, there is little chance that you take away nothing. Well written, well acted, well thought out, and when considering when it was made and the topics it comes to cover, it should be required viewing for anyone in politics, political science, news/media, and anyone who consideres themselves politically informed.
Good Thriller in 1998, Unsettlingly Prescient in 2009 June 5, 2009
Abhinav Agarwal (Bangalore, India)
A good movie then in 1998, prescient in an unsettling and unnerving way today, in 2009.
Bruce Willis is very effective as the army general sent in to ferret out the terrorists, to use any and all means necessary, inside the city of New York, and who have already struck multiple times in the city, which is placed under martial law, even as the FBI agents, led by Denzel Washington and Tony Shalhoub, try to use legal and civilian means to gather the intelligence.
The movie is commendable in its attempt to strike a balance and not paint all Arabs and people of middle-eastern descent with the same brush of terrorism. It also tries to portray the two sides of the debate with some thought: on the one hand you have the people who believe that you need to fight terror with any and all means necesary, including torture, while on the other hand you have those who believe torture is not justified. In the middle you have the terrorists, fed on a lethal diet of propaganda and ideology, and you don't have any easy answers.
Bruce Willis as the person who believes in only two shades, black and white, who believes any and all means necessary are justified, including torture, could be prototypical for any number of important people in power today and in the recent past. The implacable nature of the terrorists in the movie is echoed, almost ad-verbatim, by real world terrorists today, where inequities, real and perceived, can be avenged only through terror inflicted on any enemy targets, military as well as civilian.
The similarities with the present day fight against terror seem eerily similar, and this is what makes this movie much more real and effective today than it was in 1998. Anything that seemed far-fetched about the movie in 1998 was no longer so after Sep 11, 2001.
1998 the world seemed a safer place, where 9/11 had not happened, where civilian planes had not been turned into lethal missiles to be used against civilians, where Gitmo did not exist in the popular psyche except as a reference in the movie, "A Few Good Men", Abu Ghraib was something that only the 'other' guys did, and the phrase "with us or against us" used only in the wild wild west movies or as a mocking exaggeration.
GREAT MOVIE, FANTASTIC SELLER & SUPER FAST SHIPPING AAA+++++++++++ February 27, 2009
Jason Young J. Tak (Glendale, CA)
GREAT MOVIE, FANTASTIC SELLER & SUPER FAST SHIPPING AAA+++++++++++. WHAT CAN YOU POSSIBLY ASK FOR MORE? HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
 The Siege's warning May 20, 2008
Dennis W. Wong
It's too bad that this profound, thought-provoking film was released at the wrong time since it fell under the radar due to protests from various Arab & Islamic organizations condemning it for being racist. Since 9/11, all of the points made in the film have come to be painfully true and perhaps Fox should do well to re-release this film to the general public. Washington, Bening, Bruce Willis and Tony Shaloub (for once perfectly cast as an Arab-American FBI agent) are all excellent though Willis jabs at then-President Clinton now seem dated but keep in mind Bruce is a die-hard (no pun intended) Republican!! Superb direction from Ed Zwick keeps us on edge and of course, the ending is a real kicker. I am looking forward to seeing another Washington-Zwick colloboration, this was their last one to date, because all of their films have been top-flight.
Watching "The Siege" Made Me Feel As Though I Was Reliving 9/11 April 20, 2008
J. B. Hoyos (Chesapeake, VA)
"The Siege" made my heart pound faster and my pulse race with fear as I watched scene after scene of terrorist acts take place in Brooklyn, New York. I felt as though 9/11 was happening all over again. Strangely enough, "The Siege" was made several years prior to this darkest day in American history as though it was predicting or foretelling what would one day happen. I hope the terrorists didn't get their ideas after watching this action adventure.
"The Siege" has a stellar cast of mega talent that includes Denzel Washington ("Fallen"), Bruce Willis ("The Sixth Sense") and Annette Bening ("In Dreams"). I normally review horror movies but this is one of the most horrifying movies I've seen in a long time, because it all seemed so real and plausible. The great acting made it that way. Annette Bening was the real surprise. I knew she could act, but I didn't realize how well. I have grown use to seeing Washington and Willis in tough-guy roles but not Bening. She played a great CIA agent who was literally sleeping with the enemy. Washington was a great FBI agent who was genuinely trying to serve and protect his county - the good guy. Willis was an evil, corrupt colonel - a jerk you loved to hate, i.e., the bad guy.
Watching the terrified hostages through the windows of the bus made me want to scream. I felt helpless. Watching people hang from windows of the Twin Towers as they burned made me feel helpless. "The Siege" was almost too real. It made me want to cry.
The plot for "The Siege" was excellent. It was non-stop action with several twists, especially at the end. It told a good moral. We are all Americans no matter what we look like and should be treated with dignity and justice. I recommend this pot boiler to anyone who enjoys good action adventure movies. Be forewarned, there are numerous scenes of grisly, realistic violence.
|
|
|
