State of Siege

Costa-Gavras' movies are often the best examples of how art can be used to educate the audience. And, State of Siege is certainly one of the most ambitious and focused attempts.

The movie is a careful presentation, an expose, on the methods and procedures of law enforcement and state police in Latin America. Furthermore, it paints the picture of a kind of American neo-imperialism or neo-colonialism.

The movie is bold, the movie is courageous, but most of all it is smart and intelligent. That being said the strength of the film is the attention of detail and it's patience. Every situation is set up and for everything, there is a payoff. Nobody does films likes this nowadays, with hundreds of extras, everything shot on location. This is one extreme form of filmmaking, where there is the least amount of shortcuts and trickery. The movie almost feels like a film version of the Grand Reportage of old. A careful mix of investigation and photojournalism. That is why you do not mind being lectured. Because the film is beautiful and has rich texture, you do not mind sitting through police violence, death squad meetings and political corruption. The text of the movie might be heavy but is balanced by the visual style.

It may be at times too smart: some of the scenes may be too wordy and whenever there is action, it is subordinate to the dialog between characters. There is a lot of expository dialog in this film, and usually this a fault, because it goes against "show don't tell". Yet, here it does not harm the argument. The way the situation is laid out in dialog between Santore and his captors is initially dry and infuriating, but as Santore perception shifts it becomes engaging. The other channel of exposition is the reporter who is merely covering the story from the outside. It almost feels as it is the most interesting part of the film given that Santore's plot is rather stale, he gets kidnapped and they talk about it for an hour. The political plot could have been the meat of the movie but unfortunately, it does not go far enough, it is treated as B-plot. However, it still functions for its political themes. My favorite scene is the sequence where all the government ministers climb out of their cars. That is cinema in its purest form. It is complete fiction but it feels real.

You can regret that the movie is not as strong narratively. There is no a lot of action, in terms of narrative. Nothing happens in the course of the movie, only minor events. The story should be the last days of Phillip Michael Santore, but it is not what the movie is about.

For that reason it does not stand at the top of Costa-Gavras' oeuvre. On the topic of government corruption and the police and fascism love story, Gravas' "Z" is the best.

Yes, a Costa Gavras movie is always recognizable, as a Yves Boisset one, the ONLY two French directors who dared speaking of political actual facts which other directors were afraid to talk about. In France, it's not like in America, where film makers are free to speak of everything, see for instance ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN or EXECUTIVE ACTION, speaking of Watergate file or JFK assassination...In France, if you except Yves Boisset or Costa Gavras, no one, even today, would dare to speak of this. OK, I admit that Costa Gavras, in this film, doesn't talk of French events, nor as he did for Z, but when he made UN HOMME DE TROP or SECTION SPECIALE, that was directly related to French history. The Costa Gavras scheme is here the same as in Z. He uses an event to emphasize the political dimension just afterwards. Even in using a thriller topic, see Z for instance...I would have loved seeing Costa Gavras directing a film about war in Algeria and OAS organization. I don't think he did. I won't repeat what the other users told about this one, but I repeat, you deal here with a typical Costa Gavras' feature, which I could tell the director's name without seeing the opening credits.

What is most significant about this movie is how few have seen it. Only 66 people have voted on it here whereas over 700 have voted on Z, its counterpart and also a fine movie. 'State of Siege' follows the realities and deceptions concerning the CIA involvement in South America. The movie is uplifting and depressing, humorous and appalling. Viewers are forced to meander through contrasting elements deeply personal and highly political. I saw the film once when it was first released and have not been able to find it since, yet I remember virtually every scene. It would be wonderful to restore it to full circulation.

this movie lacks a bit of focus , but the photography , the music , the concise dialogues make it quite an experience , maybe the only thing that does not convince me is the fact that we see a French -speaking latin-american country , anyway anyone who wishes to know about what happened in almost all south america , will find a great movie. I would like to point the fact that this movies was censored for being very radical due its left-wing tendencies .

Both political act and historical testimony, this magnificent film by Costa Gavras must be shown to the younger generations and even be part of history lessons! It is a real immersion in the fight between the far left activists of Tupamaros in Montevideo in the 1970s against an authoritarian and repressive state apparatus. Above all, it describes in detail the parallel structures set up by the American services under the disguise of assistance and without any legality, like death squadrons as they will be called in other Latin American countries. The methods are shown in all their brutality: violence, torture and arbitrary assassinations. The film's script is based on actual events, only the names have been changed. Yves Montand's performance is all the more impressive when you consider his political commitment against fascism and arbitrariness. Other excellent cast include Jacques Weber, Renato Salvatori and Jean-Luc Bideau.