This journal entry contains spoilers for the movie The Siege.  This means that if you have not seen it and don't want the story ruined for you, read no further. 
    
    When I got to the $2 theater, it took a bit to remember just what story line went with what title.  Some I never did put together; my memory is bad that way.  The Siege did send me a frisson of recognition.  For some reason, I had badly wanted to see it.  When I got inside, the thrill was made apparent:  the poster listed Bruce Willis.
    I've loved Bruno since Moonlighting.  My film literate friends might chuckle and shake their heads, but I'll watch and probably enjoy anything with Bruno in it, even when he's the bad guy, like in The Jackal.  Hell, he could be in Space Babies from Neptune Attack Brooklyn and I'd love it.  This is the part where I'd go into all the features he has that really get me, but you've heard it all before, and so have I.
    The movie was about three things:  human rights, the subjectivity of what is right, and fanaticism.  Nobody in the film thinks he's the bad guy.  Almost everyone thinks that whatever means that become necessary to pull off  "the right thing" can and must be used.
    The protagonist is an FBI guy named Hubbard, played by Denzel Washington.  In the beginning he goes through this business of whether it's right to use any means to get a problem solved, as terrorism sweeps through New York City.  He's faced with a suspect/potential informant and uses an implied threat of torture to get information out of him.  The guy's got scars from cigarette torture, and Hub smokes right in the guy's face, slowly pointing the fiery end at the suspect as he asks questions, in the end giving the cigarette to the guy instead of burning him with it.
    The two antagonists are fanatics.  One is actually composed of several cells of religious terrorists calling for the release of their leader.  The other is General Devereaux, played by Willis, a top Army officer who will stop at nothing to safeguard his country, not even the law.  The terrorists are based in Brooklyn, and it is Brooklyn that gets placed under martial law, with sweeps of the borough to round up Arab males between 14 and 35 who have recently come to the States.  The cells think nothing of blowing up (or trying to) a schoolful of children.  Devereaux thinks nothing of torturing and then executing a suspect, over Hub's vehement protests.  It's all in the name of what is right and good.
    Bouncing around there somewhere in the middle is Elise Kraft/Sharon Bridger, played by Annette Benning.  Nobody trusts her, most especially the viewer, as her trail is a very twisty history involving anti-Hussein activities in Iraq as well as the barracks bombing in Dharahn in '97.  She's CIA.
    I really like Tony Shalhoub in the role of Frank Haddad, Hub's partner and twenty-year citizen of the US.  In the sweeps, his son is taken in by mistake, and Devereaux refuses to release him.  You might remember Shalhoub as Antonio Scarpacci in the TV series Wings.  I didn't know he could do stuff like this.
    I had so many thoughts rumbling around in my head about this as I drove home, but they are driven from me now.  I hate this.  I should start carrying a tape recorder around.
    See, Hub has every reason to turn into a guy like Devereaux.  One of the attacks is on his own New York headquarters.  He is in Washington and Haddad has just gone to lunch when the van bursts through the building and goes off, killing nearly all their friends and comrades.  And yet he places himself in Deveraux's way, finds the last remaining terrorist cell, and eliminates it without doing things the General's way.  He then arrests the General, bringing an end to the siege.
   Yes, the movie has a boo-hoo.  After the sweeps, the populace gather up and demonstrate against the government, and it is everybody.  Blacks, whites, Jews, Russians, Italians, Arabs - huge crowds of sign toters and fist wavers and shouters.  The signs and shouts are in almost every language imaginable.  This protest is the target of the final cell, a one-man suicide bomb.  Once he is overcome and Devereaux arrested, this immense throng begins jumping and dancing in jubilation and victory.  This is what made me cry.  Victory.  Arabs are bouncing and Jews are dancing the hora and everyone is laughing and cheering.  Everyone has achieved victory over those who would divide them in the name of god or country.  I guess you just had to see it to see what I mean.