Battle in Seattle: The Movie

[gordonzola]

This is likely not a surprise to anyone, but Battle in Seattle is just awful. I saw it last night with smallstages* and it was truly worse than I thought it would be. Sure, some of the action scenes are fun -- and even memorable -- but I think sabotabby put it best before the movie was even released when she wrote that Battle in Seattle "looks like it's going to not just suck, but actually suck the entire universe into an epic ocean of its own fail."

Put it this way, it made This Revolution look intellectual in comparison.



*We thought we might fight about questions of tactics and international strategy but BIS brought us together in outrage. We stand in solidarity with the people demeaned in this movie including (but not limited to): anarchists, activists, consensus facilitators, NGO workers, Africans, pregnant women, TV reporters, Sea Turtles, Teamsters, Mayors, riot cops, and agent provocateurs.

.

Comments

[substitute.livejournal.com]

sea turtles?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

You're right. I didn't mean to capitalize them. All sea turtles were demeaned by BIS.

grocery provocateurs

[mazette.livejournal.com]

Ugh, i just got back from Battle in Rainbow Grocery, the land of people who HATE each other-- do they love their groceries more than life? I think so...
Self-righteous, rude, mean, and nasty! In solidarity with themselves. Do you see this at all?

I let some old man obliviously cut in front of me w/ his two jugs of milk, and this beastly person
behind me wouldn't let the old man leave without pointing out MY benevolence! So embarrassing
and unnecessary. Beware the secret agent enforcers of bad vibes. I hope their olive oil goes rancid.
They probably don't even need the 20% off.

sorrythanks.

[sabotabby]

Okay, now you've made me want to see it.

I still can't believe that other people saw This Revolution.

[sadie-sabot.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it, but I saw your synopsis, so i didn't need to see it!

[villagecharm.livejournal.com]

Ray Liotta is in the movie and he doesn't play some kind of crooked, evil cop? Talk about poor casting decisions. Liotta-as-Scumbag can make any movie worthwhile.

[thisisthenow.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Plus you add in the magic that is Woody Harrelson...well, I don't see how this movie could fail!

[jillbertini.livejournal.com]

I lived through the WTO riots. I didn't think I needed to see it glorified in that movie. Also, it was so weird, because we'd be walking home and see some shit, and then we'd get home and go over to the neighbor's to watch the news on TV, and it was like a totally different reality than what we were experiencing. I had no idea how they were going to dramatize it.

But the sea turtles WERE fantastic.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I had an exactly parallel experience in the LA Riots.

[jillbertini.livejournal.com]

With sea turtles?! ;-)

But yeah, it's so weird to not see your experience that you had reflected in the evening news. I mean, here the news outlets went to the two blocks where shit was going down and made it seem like it was the whole city. I'm betting it was the same for you. Hence my distrust of mainstream media.

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

Bummer.

[sadie-sabot.livejournal.com]

you know, when i saw it I was just so fucking relieved that it wasn't a huge good protester vs bad protester that i couldn't see much else. someday I'll watch it again.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I learned that protesters are either motivated by lust, personal vengeance, or bedtime stories. That's how we can build a movement.

[sadie-sabot.livejournal.com]

personally, during bedtime stories I'm motivated by vengeful lust. It really keeps me moving. Sadly, i think the filmmaker thinks you build a movement with flashing facts on a screen plus Charlize Theron, who is hot and also his girlfriend.

check it out though...what you saw was the result after a major intervention by folks who'd been organizers in seattle. Imagine what it started out as.

[glaucon.livejournal.com]

when the miscarriage scene draws an unintentional laugh, the movie can pretty much call it a day.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to admit that I laughed at the miscarriage scene because I figure almost no one had seen it and I'd look like a monster... but yes, comedy gold.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

weirdly enough, it was one of the three movie choices on the airplane during my trip back from the State in January (or maybe it was to the State, can't remember right now). I was intrigued, and had marginal hopes due to the presence of Woody Harrelson, but yes, it was Very Terrible. Although I kind of enjoyed the subplot of the misguided-then-disenchanted doctor (was he affiliated with MSF?) and the collapse of the negotiations round.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

"Don't you have children!" the MSF doc yelled! probably the best line of the movie.

[smallstages.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot for making sure African kids keep having AIDS, anarchists.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

brotherly vengeance is more important!

[purveyorofchaos.livejournal.com]

They also made medics look like fools. When they showed the street medics rubbing white goo into the eyes of the kids in a lockdown I couldn't help but yell "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG" in the theater.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

OMG, POC you are absolutely correct. Especially when Dexter's Sister all of a sudden becomes a medic out of nowhere. I need to add street medics to the demeaned list.

[kest]

I hear it was filmed in Vancouver.