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Battle in Seattle | 2008 | R | - 3.5.9

Inspired by true events, the film documents the public protest at the World Trade Organization meetings held in Seattle, Washington in 1999. The protest lasted for five days, as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets. With Charlize Theron, Andre 'Andre 3000' Benjamin, Martin Henderson, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta, Michelle Rodriguez, Channing Tatum, Ivana Milicevic and Tzi Ma. Directed by Stuart Townsend. [1:38]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man and a woman sleep together (it is implied that they had sex), he caresses her face and hair and she gets up (she is wearing a tank top and he is bare-chested).
 A man and a woman kiss. A husband and wife kiss, and a husband and wife hug.
 We see a woman's bare, pregnant belly during an ultrasound exam. A woman wears a low-cut tank top that reveals cleavage.
 A woman talks about wanting to have children but she has no significant other in her life and will have to "find a good sperm bank."

VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - Riot police with clubs begin beating people: a pregnant woman is struck in the abdomen (we see blood and she screams in pain), and we see many people falling to the ground and being beaten repeatedly. A man is kicked by a police officer, and then shot with a rubber bullet. Riot police move toward crowds of protestors and prepare to spray them with tear gas, and they begin to do so -- we see people coughing and gagging and some have their eyes rinsed out with water, and this happens in several scenes.
 A police officer chases a man, tackles him and punches him in the face repeatedly (we see the man's bloody face and swollen eye later). A man is shown with a bloody face after having been beaten.
 A man runs yelling for help while police officers grab him, press him against their car and handcuff him.
 A man breaks the window of a store and two women inside are frightened (no one is hurt). Protestors climb over many buses lined up to barricade an entrance, and then lock their arms together using cement tubes, which we hear cannot be removed unless their arms are broken. A man is physically removed from a building and shoved out the front door. Many groups move into roadway intersections and "lock" their arms together. A woman dangles from a cable secured to a crane and flips upside down; a man helps to right her, and then runs across the crane, slips and nearly falls.
 There are several tense moments when protestors and police riots squads face off. Passengers in a car are startled when a person pounds on the hood of their car.
 We hear that a man's brother was killed during a demonstration. A man yells about the lumber industry and the destruction of forests. We see video of malnourished children and hear about famine.
 A woman puts out a candle using her fingers (we hear a sizzle). We hear a baby's heartbeat and see an ultrasound image on a screen.

LANGUAGE 9 - About 42 F-words and its derivatives, 2 obscene hand gestures, 9 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (coward), 1 religious profanity, 3 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - People drink alcohol at a reception. A woman smokes a cigarette and a woman holds an unlit cigarette.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - GATT, WTO, global trade, curfew, state of emergency, police brutality, famine, human rights, environmental protection, labor unions, corporate greed, democracy, chaos, anarchy, peaceful demonstrations, AIDS, Vietnam, accountability, lobbyists, vandalism, quitting, prohibitive cost of medications.

MESSAGE - We each have the power to make a difference. People should mean more than business profits.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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