The Siege (1998)

After the man (Ahmed Ben Larby) believed to be the mastermind of a terrorist attack is kidnapped by U.S. military, a series of terrorist attacks occur in New York City and begin to escalate. Eventually, the city is put under martial law as the city's Arab population are interned. Filmed three years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the film received mixed reviews when it opened but it is one of those films which viewed today seems all too timely and relevant. Indeed, a possible vision of Trump's America as if we didn't learn anything by the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Directed by Edward Zwick (GLORY), the film raises a lot of complex and pertinent questions which it doesn't answer. It is after all, a piece of mainstream entertainment with big Hollywood stars (Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Bening) and backed by a major studio and entertaining it is. It would be too much I suppose to ask for less cliches and more artistry but for what it is, it's pretty good and eerily somewhat visionary. Willis can't do much with his stolid military patriot but Washington brings a nice fire to his FBI agent and Bening, who has the film's most complex role, does what she can with the poorly written ambiguous CIA agent. With Tony Shalhoub, Sami Bouajila, Chip Zien and E. Katherine Kerr.