Alexia Blogs

Here’s a post I wrote some time ago on the viewing of ‘Battle in Seattle’ during the Dublin International Film Festival.

Waking up on a Saturday morning is difficult to do. Waking up early on Saturday morning, even more so. How does one generate the sort of energy to oscillate oneself out of their toasty reveries and into the biting Febuary cold? Why with the carrot of an early morning show at the Savoy for the Dublin International Film Festival to see Charlize Theron and erm, Stuart Townsend in the flesh for a post-movie Q&A session, of course.

Sitting in dark, those first few seconds were pregnant with anticipation. My first movie of the festival. Last year’s showing of the ‘The Good German’ let me down, so hopes were high. As the credit rolled up I knew I was in trouble.. Ooo, World Trade Organisation vs. Hippie protesters. Nice. Perhaps I should have read the programme. I barely know where my movies are on (I had that many), not to mind what they’re about.

‘Battle in Seattle’ is set during the WTO meeting in Seattle in the Winter of 1999. It’s a fictionalised account of the protest, primarily told through the eyes of anti-globalisation protesters. I like to think my politics are fairly liberal. I believe in free, open and liberal international trade. I believe in equal rights for all irrespective of gender, religion, race, sexuality or any other label that we use to create taxonomies of people. I also like to believe that these goals are common to all. Aspirations that humanity ought to reach for, right? Apparently, not. If the nanny-stated ‘Battle in Seattle’ is anything to go by, then there are protesters with lots of bleeding hearts that fight the ‘good fight’ and there’s the rest of us.

Oh yes, our heroes are people on the coal-face that like to rile against authority. Lame attempts at humanising police officers fail miserably. In the scene, where we are introduced to the police officers’ in their natural habitat, gearing up in a changing room, we witness the officers getting a bit mad and punching lockers. Harrelson creaks through the picture and gets to play angry cop who beats on protesters.

The point that the movie leaves with me is that those who fight under a banner that is labeled, do little to move on the consensus. Like those anti-globalisation protesters for example, this film is manna for the agenda. Protesters are heroes. People who sacrifice for things they believe in. They are Jesus figures. The film likes to think that the police are misguided by the heavy, yet invisible hand of commercial power-brokers. Monied heads whose lobbyists and political toys sit in the seats of public administration. Absolutely - society and commerce are tied together. Try to unwind one thread and the other wrestles free as well.

The movie was followed with a lengthy Q and A session. I couldn’t be bothered in asking any hard questions. People were undeniably there for one of two reasons: to give more noise to the anti-globalisation movement or to see an Oscar winner. Neither group was going to pressure the actors into answering real questions or interested in anyone with contrary views asking.

Battle.. is the kind of movie that seventeen teenagers called Daisy or Squeak would like. Most probably members of a left leaning political yoof movement like Young Labour or the Greens, that find it easier to braid their hair or stick up posters for yet another public demonstration than get off their arses and impact change in their community. Yes, let’s write letters to save the sea otter instead of visiting your elderly aunt that has problems leaving the house and is desperately lonely. It’s much easier to feel like contributing to a change when press bites congratulate your movement. Yeah, only bleeding hearts need apply. And yes, that brigade did congratulate and whoop at the end of the movie. I felt sad. Sad for society. Charity and change starts at home with the little things, with generosity and doing things invisibly. I wonder will this cadre ever learn that lesson.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 12:21 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.