It's not just another action flick, although there are shootings and explosions. But -- well, look here. The most effective explosion of all is off screen. The FBI agents in New York have just thwarted an Arab terrorist bombing and they're celebrating in an uptown nightclub, getting smashed and dancing. Denzel Washington (FBI) and Annette Bening (CIA) are slow dancing and a tender moment of accommodation is coming up when we hear a rumble on the sound track. The music stops. The rumble grows louder and the room begins to shiver physically. A few glasses shatter. The hanging decorations sway. But it isn't an earthquake at all. It's another terrorist bombing that has just obliterated a soiree involving New York's Who's Who.
That's a pretty good directorial decision. And it's not the only one, although there are no self-indulgent displays of directorial pryotechnics either.
The story is straightforward. There are a couple of cells of Islamic terrorists operating out of Brooklyn. (Atlantic Avenue has to be seen to be believed.) A couple of increasingly disastrous bombings prompts the president to impose martial law under the war powers act (?). The general in charge of the army is an unyielding but not insensible Bruce Willis. For most of the film he stands at parade rest, squints, and snaps out orders. But he's not a military robot. He's wise. When he is asked at a conference if the army can be mobilized to occupy the city, he points out that the army is a broad sword, not a scalpel. Yes, he can impose order on the streets but only at great cost. He begs, he "implores" the committee to reconsider using the military in a role for which they were never trained.
There's a lesson in the film too, though I'm not sure it's the one the producers were aiming at. Most of the Moslems we see are peaceful and law abiding, but they're increasingly angry at their treatment by the police and by Christians as they become victims of hate crimes. (We can be thankful that the movie was mostly wrong on that point.) But there are a handful of fanatics who manage to find passages in the Koran to justify their bloodshed.
The point is that every charter document -- the Koran, the Bible, the Constitution -- must by its nature be vague and ambiguous enough to be interpreted differently under different circumstances. That's why they last so long. If they weren't subject to contradictory interpretations they'd go out of date pronto. Imagine if one of the Ten Commandments read, "The Fed Will Never Raise Interest Rates Above Six Percent." Or the Constitution simply said, "No private ownership of guns -- period." The Koran has the same ambiguity built into it. I know Moslems who are devout, who pray and read the Koran regularly, who find nothing but joy and comfort in it, and who hate sectarian conflict as they hate all violence. It's unjustified to think of the Koran as only sanctioning warfare against infidels. Like most charter documents it sanctions pretty much whatever you want it to.
What an interesting movie. Denzel Washington, no bleeding heart, hears Willis discuss varying ways of extracting information from a suspected terrorist who is sitting naked in the torture room. There's beating, of course, and there's electric shock and sleep deprivation, and then of course there's cutting "but that can get messy." Washington is horrified and shouts at the General that if they use torture on their helpless prisoner they're throwing away the Constitution and the terrorists win. Interesting point. Arguable but interesting.
Worth seeing. It's heartbreaking to notice the twin towers in the background of some shots. (This was 1998.)
That's a pretty good directorial decision. And it's not the only one, although there are no self-indulgent displays of directorial pryotechnics either.
The story is straightforward. There are a couple of cells of Islamic terrorists operating out of Brooklyn. (Atlantic Avenue has to be seen to be believed.) A couple of increasingly disastrous bombings prompts the president to impose martial law under the war powers act (?). The general in charge of the army is an unyielding but not insensible Bruce Willis. For most of the film he stands at parade rest, squints, and snaps out orders. But he's not a military robot. He's wise. When he is asked at a conference if the army can be mobilized to occupy the city, he points out that the army is a broad sword, not a scalpel. Yes, he can impose order on the streets but only at great cost. He begs, he "implores" the committee to reconsider using the military in a role for which they were never trained.
There's a lesson in the film too, though I'm not sure it's the one the producers were aiming at. Most of the Moslems we see are peaceful and law abiding, but they're increasingly angry at their treatment by the police and by Christians as they become victims of hate crimes. (We can be thankful that the movie was mostly wrong on that point.) But there are a handful of fanatics who manage to find passages in the Koran to justify their bloodshed.
The point is that every charter document -- the Koran, the Bible, the Constitution -- must by its nature be vague and ambiguous enough to be interpreted differently under different circumstances. That's why they last so long. If they weren't subject to contradictory interpretations they'd go out of date pronto. Imagine if one of the Ten Commandments read, "The Fed Will Never Raise Interest Rates Above Six Percent." Or the Constitution simply said, "No private ownership of guns -- period." The Koran has the same ambiguity built into it. I know Moslems who are devout, who pray and read the Koran regularly, who find nothing but joy and comfort in it, and who hate sectarian conflict as they hate all violence. It's unjustified to think of the Koran as only sanctioning warfare against infidels. Like most charter documents it sanctions pretty much whatever you want it to.
What an interesting movie. Denzel Washington, no bleeding heart, hears Willis discuss varying ways of extracting information from a suspected terrorist who is sitting naked in the torture room. There's beating, of course, and there's electric shock and sleep deprivation, and then of course there's cutting "but that can get messy." Washington is horrified and shouts at the General that if they use torture on their helpless prisoner they're throwing away the Constitution and the terrorists win. Interesting point. Arguable but interesting.
Worth seeing. It's heartbreaking to notice the twin towers in the background of some shots. (This was 1998.)