The Whole World Was Watching

by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / October 2008

Against a dreary, wintry Seattle sky, a woman dangles upside down from cables lashed to a crane. Someone shouts, "She’s turtling!" Enter Prince Charming to right her and together they hang an anti-World Trade Organization banner.

So we meet the love interest of actor-turned-film director Stuart Townsend’s fictionalized version of the 1999 World Trade Organization conference protests,“Battle in Seattle.” Townsend seamlessly intersperses archival news footage throughout the film so that the audience often cannot distinguish between them and his filmed sequences.

The protests brought ecology-minded youth and trade unionists together ("Turtles and Teamsters United!"). Some of the demonstrations, however, erupted into acts of vandalism—which facilitated a brutal attack by the police. The film shows that the vandalism was often perpetrated by cops who, disguised as "anarchists" in de rigueur black bandannas, had infiltrated the protests.

In any event, the demonstrations, backed by an alleged threat by the participating labor unions to wage a "general strike," shut the conference down four days later.

Lou, the dangling woman, was played by Michelle Rodriguez, who shows a softer side than the bad girl she’s usually cast as in films and TV. Bearded Martin Henderson is Jay, her rescuer. Both Lou and Jay have personal baggage that not only impacts their relationship, but also their part in the protest.

Jay had organized an independent group of several hundred people interested participating in non-violent sit-ins and similar "direct-action" tactics to obstruct access by delegates to the WTO conference.

To bring an even more human face to this historic, mind-boggling event, Townsend, who also co-wrote the screenplay, cast Woody Harrelson in an uncharacteristic role as a cop, Dale, and Charlize Theron, as Ella, his pregnant wife.

Early, on the first day of the protest, we see them at their obstetrician’s office beaming as they view the sonogram of the fetus (Dale is in street clothes). With Christmas music blaring from shops, Ella then goes off to work in a trendy department store downtown, where she and a friend purr over baby clothes, totally oblivious of what‘s going on a few blocks away. Dale gears up in the police locker room, joshing with his cop buddies as though it‘s just another day at work.

Ray Liotta—happy, he has said, to be wearing a suit for a change—plays Seattle’s liberal Mayor Jim Tobin. On the phone in his office, he reassures callers and TV reporters (one, Jean, is played by Jennifer Carpenter) that he has everything under control. When Jay’s group threads their arms through metal pipes to block off major downtown intersections, the mayor warns his chief of police not to make arrests: "This is a peaceful protest!"

Harrelson and his cadre, in full riot gear, vent their frustrations at their inability to act. WTO delegates cannot drive through the intersections to the Paramount Theatre for the welcoming ceremonies on opening day, Nov. 29, leaving Mayor Tobin and city officials chagrined, facing rows of vacant seats.

The "anarchists," incited by undercover cops, turn the peaceful demonstration into violence and things get really ugly: fires are set, cars overturned, and burned, garbage cans upended or thrown in to the streets, as Nat Cole‘s "Christmas Song" warbles in the background.

Storm-trooper cops start clubbing protesters, shoppers, and passersby. Ella and Jean end up as victims of the melee. Finding that his wife was seriously injured, Harrelson goes beserk in the cop riot.

The governor steps in and on Day 3 orders a curfew and deploys the National Guard. "Seattle looks like Beirut," he says. Due to the chaos, WTO members begin to leave. Yet, Dr. Maric (Serbian actor Rade Serbedzija) of Médecins Sans Frontiéres, who initially was appalled at the protesters wreaking havoc in the streets until he gets what they’re all about, manages to speak at one event. Maric conveys his message that Big Pharma makes millions by depriving the poor and sick in developing countries, of free or cheap medicine. "Don’t people matter more than profit?" he asks, passionately.

After the fact, Seattle Times reporter Jeff Hodson stated, "Many [WTO members] waited hours for their turn to speak. When they did, they railed against globalization, police brutality, the media and a host of social ills. At various times, it felt like a town-hall meeting, political rally and variety show."

There is archival footage of protesters holding aloft banners: Earth First, Greenpeace, AFL-CIO, ILWU, and others. Blue-shirt, hard-hat laborers mingle with gigantic puppets, protesters wearing turtle shells, and some dressed as butterflies, to point up how world trade and globalization not only affects jobs, but also the environment.

One of the most effective shots was when Jean’s anchorman announces from the studio, "Here’s a live report from downtown Seattle." The camera then pans across a group of protesters, duct-tape over their mouths—with Jean silent among them.

About 600 protesters are arrested, including Jean. The potential power of the labor movement is shown when Mayor Tobin gets word that labor officials have threatened a "general strike" in Seattle unless the protesters are immediately released. Whether or not the union bureaucrats actually planned to go through with their threat, Tobin caves in and orders all the prisoners released.

Though the Seattle protests were successful in bringing the injustices of the WTO to a worldwide audience, they caused government and police authorities subsequently to tighten their security methods at demonstrations.

Recently, at the Republican Convention, hundreds of peaceful demonstrators were roughed up and arrested, among them a few journalists. Protesters now are often relegated to a barricaded area, sometimes over a mile from an event, in laughably labeled "Free-Speech Zones." It’s another example of the trashing of the Bill of Rights.