Battle In Seattle

Caution/Trigger warning: This post is very political in nature, and may bring up things that may trigger people with PTSD caused by police violence. So if you read this, you are consenting to reading a political post, and if you do not want to read about my political views, then stop here, by me telling you that this movie and my review are not for you...

Battle In Seattle is a 2007 movie based on the protests against the WTO conference in Seattle in 1999. The movie tells the stories of several protesters, a cop (Woody Harrelson) and his pregnant wife (Charlize Theron), the mayor of Seattle (Ray Liotta), as well as other people who were effected by the events including WTO delegates themselves. The nice thing is that this movie tries to portray the everyone involved as humans that were were caught up in a historical event, on all sides of the story, rather than making a good guy and a bad guy. This story tells a very important story about an extremely important event in American History. I have to say, as someone who fought on the streets in NYC during Occupy Wall Street, who went to jail fighting for what I believe in, who had been beaten by over zealous cops, that this movie hit me fucking hard. This movie moved me to tears, this movie was really powerful to me, as it plays out as part drama, and part political documentary. This movie brought me back to the massive protest that I was involved in, the protests, the chants, the violent police, and the power of the people. The chants that they used then are the chants that we also used: "The whole world is watching", "Whose Streets? Our Streets!", "If the people are united, they will never be defeated", "This is what democracy looks like", and many of the other chants that we also used, and it gave me this familiarity. The fact that many people saw the WTO protests as leaderless, as about not having central demands, are the same things that people criticized Occupy for as well. Honestly Occupy was a continuation of the protests that happened in Seattle, in Miami, in Madison WI, in Chicago against NATO, and the massive protests world wide. The protests weren't just about how fucked up WTO is, but also about how our humans rights are sold out to corporate interests, how the healthcare and people's needs are put behind the needs of corporations, how the lives of people are secondary to the profits of corporations, how the police exist to protect corporate interests and private property and not people. The people have power, when we collectively work together to bring change, the people shut down WTO in Seattle, and people's movements have caused many changes, from the 8 hr work day to Occupy successfully ending Stop and Frisk, the people have power, and nothing that the corporate media tells us otherwise will change the fact if the people are united they cannot be defeated. This movie is fictional, but it does bring up good points, it does show that the cops lose control of their emotions, which shows them as humans, and not just violent machines, and I think that is an important thing that some of us forget. The movie also shows how the cops will use people dressed as civilians to infiltrate protesters. The movie also shows how the media focuses only on more radical direct action tactics like smashing windows and creating property damage, rather than focusing on the positive non-violent actions taken by the majority, as a way to sway public opinion away from the protesters and to create sympathy for the corporations who own the media. The movie also shows how sometimes innocent bystanders get caught up in a mass protest by just trying to go home from work, and then end up getting beaten by over zealous cops on a power trip. The movie also shows that anarchists and activists are not just the black bloc folks smashing windows, but that there is serious organization and non violent actions happening. This movie does a great job as showing that the protesters are complex and that action of the people takes many forms, and yes, there were people smashing windows, but there were also people locking arms and shutting down intersections and blocking doorways, there were also people chanting and marching, and singing, and people doing art...that the power of the people is as diverse as the people themselves. About the cops, yes the cops are humans, but they are are humans in the employment of the 1%, they are humans that CHOSE to work as the watchdog for the ruling class, they CHOSE to do a job that protects corporate interests and private property over the people. Cops are the enemy, cops are the bad guys, cops are the reason Seattle got violent, cops are the reason that Seattle got so fucked up for the city, NOT the protesters. Cops don't give a shit about the rights of the people, cops only care about the orders that they are given by their corporate masters. These are things that are learned by a few of the main characters, like when Charlize Theron's character is beaten by a cop in the streets which causes her unborn baby to die, and how when Woody Harrelson's character tries to hug her, and she pulls away, and it isn't until later when he quits his job that she can finally accept him again. I think it is important that his character loses his shit, and realizes that he has lost control, and that the cops have lost control, and there is that moment of humanity when he goes to the jail and apologizes to Martin Henderson's character, who he had chased down and severely beaten. I think in that moment is when Woody's character realized that he was on the wrong side, and that being on the wrong side caused him to lose his unborn child and his wife. So though this movie does play out like a political documentary in a way, it is also a very important drama about humans being pitted against each other. This movie does show that all cops are bastards, and not because of who they are as people, but because of their willingness to follow orders even when they are told to beat and arrest innocent people who are using their constitutional rights, because violating their rights is okay when defending the capitalist ruling class. This movie inspires me, this movie makes me cry, this movie makes me laugh, this move makes me care so much I shake. I don't know how accurate it is, I wasn't there, but I know what it was like in NYC in 2011-2012, and I know what it was like in Chicago against NATO in 2012, and I can say that this movie is realistic enough that it makes me feel things that I honestly wasn't ready for when I started watching it. This movie is fucking powerful, because it is pretty true to my own experiences in a mass protest. I do believe in the power of the people, I do believe that we can build a better world, I do believe in peaceful protest, but I also believe in burning police cars, and I believe in smashing that fucking Starbucks window, I do believe in destroying animal testing labs, I do believe in destroying fur farms, I do believe in the ALF, I do believe in the ELF, I do believe in stopping environmental damage by any means necessary. I do believe that in defense of the earth we must stand and protect her by any means necessary. I do believe in standing up to the corporate giants that rape our people as they rape our planet. I do believe in standing up to and toppling the corporate capitalist patriarchal system by ANY means necessary. So I think I might have talked less about the actual movie, and more about my reaction to the movie, and honestly that is fine, because the plot of the movie is pretty straight forward, as it is just the stories of different people present at the WTO Protests. I know that some of these views I have stated are going to piss some people off, and honestly that makes me sad, but it comes down to this, do you stand for the earth, the people, the animals, the water, and the air, or do you stand on the side of the police and the corporate interests that they protect? Do you support the people and their rights, or do you support the corporate, capitalist, patriarchal system? What matters more, people or profits? If the answer is the latter in any of those questions then you are on the wrong side, and you are part of the problem. I know that is a black and white stance, but that is a stance that needs to be taken, because change must be made, and there is no compromise in defense of the earth and all life that lives upon that earth. Would I recommend this movie? Yes yes yes a million times yes, however if you have been a member of a major protest, then I suggest a bit of caution before you go in, you may have flashbacks and you may experience strong emotions while watching this, and I think that is good. This is definitely a must see movie, and honestly one of the best movies that has come out in a long time. Some criticize it for sensationalism, but I think that it actually calls out that sensationalism, I do just wish that it would slow down and show that anarchists are not just the kids breaking windows, but they are also the folks doing the sit ins, marches, planning meetings, etc. Anarchists are not agents of chaos, but people who believe in a better society where people work together mutually for the commonwealth of all rather than the profit of the one. But again I digress, just watch this amazing movie, it is extremely well done, and definitely worth the watch.