Tension builds during The Siege

The Siege Dir Edward Zwick 15 116mins.

IT'S not often that when watching a film the thought "Why hasn't this happened already?" pops into the mind -- cue link with The Siege.

A fanatical Muslim group starts a terror campaign in New York city after one of its religious leaders is kidnapped by the US. Denzel Washington is the FBI man who investigates and through him, and the CIA agent played by Annette Bening, we learn how terrorist organisations act. When one cell, which blows up a bus of innocent people, is wiped out by agents, another springs into action with an even more fiendish plan.

For a country as large and as hated at the US it is incredible that there have been so few terrorist attacks on its soil. The scenario here is very real. If a country our size and as terrorist-aware couldn't keep out the IRA, how does America -- ethnic melting pot that it is -- manage.

Unfortunately, this deep realism becomes coated in a Hollywood veneer a little too easily. Eventually, fanatical General William Devereaux (Bruce Willis) convinces the President that the only way to deal with the problem is to evoke Marshal Law in the Arabic community in Brooklyn. Tanks and troops take to the streets and all Arabs of a certain age, size and sex are rounded up and kept in pens in a football stadium.

Again, this is something that isn't totally beyond belief. After all, a similar fate awaited American Japanese during World War II and less than 40 years ago racial segregation existed in many US states. But it is the ease with which the armed forces rumble on to the streets and the lack of objection from the nation itself and the rest of the world which sets the scene for a cheesey finale that lacks only a labrador puppy in the stomach-churning stakes.

I shall not criticise too much. The Siege, although overtly jingoistic and another step away for Hollywood from what a British audience will swallow, is decent enough as a movie. Tension is built remarkably well. There are scenes that will have you sweating in your seat, particularly one in which a conference is interrupted by a growing crescendo of bleepers and mobile telephones signifying some terrible event.

Denzel is a convincing, intelligent actor who doesn't have to spell out how being a black American working in an increasingly racist environment is making him uncomfortable.

Benning is harsh yet tender as the CIA agent. Others could have played the role, but she brings some of the intelligence and conviction that she found in The American President.

Only Willis seems to be coasting -- he doesn't even seem to have the energy to play himself. It's fortunate that, although his role is pivotal, the amount of time he is on screen is small. When he is around, the pace drags. I'm a Willis convert following Pulp Fiction, but when someone who can command so much money for a role can't be bothered to sparkle, then he or she should be flogged. Jeremy Austin

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.