Battle in Seattle
Battle in Seattle has the streets of Vancouver doubling as Starbucksville and takes a look behind the troubled scenes of the 1999 protest of the World Trade Organization meeting in the Emerald City. Ray Liotta gets his stride back playing Seattle Mayor Jim Tobin who is all for first amendment rights but feels he has outsmarted planned protests to interfere with the global corporate confab. Unfortunately he underestimated the networking on the streets which proved that the WTO wasn’t the only group in town with organization. When the disruption of the city proved too successful his worship started getting pressure from the Clinton White House and reluctantly the constitution went out the window. As batons started swinging and protest signs were hardly visible due to teargas and pepper spray. The story gets personal with a police officer named Dale (Woody Harrelson) and his pregnant wife Ella (Charlize Theron) who inadvertently ends up on opposite sides of the police brutality. This resulting tragedy puts Dale ends at extreme odds with protest ringleader Jay (Martin Henderson) and Lou his love interest (Michelle Rodriguez). Kudos to Outkast’s Andre Benjamin as Django for providing some lighter moments to an intense face-off. The movie effectively makes the point that there are a lot of people worldwide who have issues with the unregulated power of the WTO and that although Seattle was the last place their voice could be effectively heard an impression was made – but will that impression ever have a significant impact.