Review of Battle in Seattle (2007) by Johnny M — 02 Apr 2010

It's quite hard to write a review on a movie that covers issues so close to my heart, but I think it did a fairly good job. To my shame I have to admit I don't know as much as I probably should, and certainly could about the WTO protests in 1999 (I was only 9 at the time), but the little I did know was reflected in the film, and I'm hoping that the rest that I didn't, and was covered by the film, will be proven to be accurate after further reserch.

On the downside I feel while the portrayl of what being in a protest, and the police tactics used to both disperse and divert attention away from the issues are very accurate, believe me I've been there, I know, they could have done with making the script a little less hollywoodized, the main characters (specifically the activists) come off a little too much as "perfect little protestors". Also I feel lengethening the movie by say thirty minutes through extending the scenes where protestors and police clashed would have far improved the accuracy (and ok, also the spectacle). I say this not because I felt there wasn't enough "action", but more because they felt very fleeting, which really is not the reality, quite often police will charge blocks of protestors over and over again, and even end up backing them into a position where they can neither disperse or avoid confrontation even if they wanted to (and believe me by that point a large section of that block usually woild be more than happy to do both of those things), I doubt seattle was much different in that regard so I was a little dissapointed that wasn't reflected in the movie. Again it just made the clashes a little glorified and hollywoodised where as the reality is that they're almost always drawn out and grueling experiances, not all that fun at all... well unless you enjoy that kind of thing, which many people do.

But those are the only downsides to the film, and on the whole as a piece of entertainment, and for educational value, I can only give this movie a firm reccomendation to anybody who is yet to watch it.