Seattle ‘Battle’ plays out on the big screen

Just got back to my friend Bruce’s house after seeing the opening-night film of the 2008 Seattle International Film Festival, “Battle in Seattle.”

Based on the anti-WTO protests of 1999, the film is an earnest look at what went down, from the viewpoint not only of the protestors but of the police, the Seattle mayor (Ray Liotta as Jim Tobin) and even members of the media (Connie Nielsen as a television reporter).

Earnest, though, doesn’t necessarily mean successful. “Battle in Seattle” is done in much the same way that “Bloody Sunday” was, Paul Greengrass’ riveting look at the violence that marred a peaceful protest in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1972. Only where “Bloody Sunday” did a good job of portraying all that led up to that incident, “Battle in Seattle” takes short cuts and then, at various moments, lapses into melodrama.

Nielsen’s character, for example, does a turn-around that is as unaccountable as it is unbelievable. The characters played by Martin Henderson and Michelle Rodriguez, both of whom are supposed to be main protest leaders, have a convenient moment in jail that wouldn’t pass muster in a Screenwriting 101 class. Same for a moment between Henderson and Woody Harrelson as the cop who’d just finished beating the crap out of him.

Though director Stuart Townsend tried, he wasn’t able to make many of the characters into fully developed beings. Neilsen, for one, remained merely a symbol.

The crowd, though, loved the film. Of course, many in the audience claimed to have been present at the protests. So director Townsend, was playing to people prone to like whatever he’d done – as long as he had the correct politics. Which, of course, he did.

That much became clear after the film was over, when the principal cast members – Henderson, Rodriguez, Andre Benjamin and Charlize Theron – joined Townsend and SIFF artistic director Carl Spence on stage to answer questions. Most of the comments were as congratulatory as they were self-absorbed, and some of the answers were embarrassingly naïve.

Only Theron refrained from taking a talky political stance, which seemed refreshing. If only others had followed her example.