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'Battle In Seattle' Examines the WTO

By Cole Smithey
Maui Time | September 11, 2008
Battle In Seattle

A searing fictionalized telling of America's most recently effective public protest at 1999's WTO convention in Seattle, writer/director Stuart Townsend's debut feature makes a point of tracing the WTO's global stranglehold to its post WWII roots. Just as significantly, the filmmaker designs a gripping narrative that give personalized voice to people placed at diametric odds by a system that is, and was, bigger than any particular arm of political, military, protest, or civilian scope. The ensemble piece finds Woody Harrelson playing an active duty cop whose pregnant wife (well played by Charlize Theron) suffers brutality at the hand of a policeman in riot gear. Michelle Rodriguez plays Lou an environmentalist activist teamed up with non-violent protest leader Jay (Martin Henderson) as they plan and execute protest strategies that prove unpredictably effective, if not without tragic consequences. Battle In Seattle is a poignant depiction of a dire fight for justice that found traction over a period of several days, in a story that was misrepresented by the American media. Here then, is a closer view of those events and motivations of the people involved.

(THINKFilm) Rated R. 98 mins. (B+)

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Tags: Stuart Townsend, Battle In Seattle

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