Sci-Fi / Fantasy

The Siege was made and released in 1998, a little less than three years before the 9/11 attacks. There are some things about this film you should know before you decide to see it, if you haven’t already. The film depicts a series of Islamic fundamentalist groups carrying out a series of terrorist attacks in New York City. While none of the plots mirror the actual events of 9/11, there is enough imagery here that you might wish to avoid if you are one of those persons who are still quite sensitive to those horrifically real images. The images here are quite realistic and might be hard to take, particularly for those of you who lost loved ones or witnessed the attack firsthand.

With that said, Fox makes a very unfortunate choice on the back case description of the film. It touts the film of being “eerily prescient” of the 9/11 attacks three years later. It’s simply not true. First of all, it was not anyone’s intent in this film to make some kind of bold prediction. These guys were simply trying to make an action thriller. That it might be more thoughtful than most does not mean that it was intended as any dire warning that went unheeded. In a bit of irony, the film was severely criticized by the group CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations). They were appalled that the filmmakers would suggest that terrorists from the Islamic world would think of using their sacred beliefs as a motivation for such destruction. Again this wasn’t a new prediction. The Twin Towers themselves had been the subject of an Islamic fundamentalist attack years before this film was made. CAIR was merely putting out the line they felt they had to, and the film used a profile that was in no way groundbreaking or “eerily prescient”. The mistake we make with such statements is the myth that 9/11 was somehow the beginning of this whole Jihad thing. It certainly was not. To fault or credit the filmmakers with this idea is ludicrous. The film also correctly makes the point that these actions, just as the real ones, were not representative of the Islamic world has a whole. Most stand against such action, even if they don’t do so publicly and loudly enough. While you might blame them for their silence, and I often have, one has to realize that they are paralyzed by the same fear that the terrorists intended for us. When the Pope remarked that there was a “history of violent tendency” within the Muslim community, the radicals attempted to prove him wrong by bombing Catholic churches and through the brutal torture and murder of nuns. That showed us how nonviolent they were, didn’t it? But, again, these people were just a small number from a relatively peaceful people, many of whom have fought and died to protect this country. The film makes that point as well, and it should not be ignored when handing out the politically correct admonishments.