The Siege at Ruby Ridge (1996)

I found this film engrossing but distasteful. No, I don't believe this movie was "made to turn people against the system" and yes, it was a true story but the networks turned it into the 'Movie of the Week", so how much is true and how much is drama is debatable.

The extremes that both the Weavers and the FBI go to in order to make their points and accomplish their missions are unrealistic. The Weavers slowly turn from nice folks--maybe a little fanatical, to guntoting, rabid, white separatists who will greet you with a bullet between the eyes rather than a friendly smile. What was in the air they were breathing in those Idaho mountains? At one point they were model neighbors and at another, they were cussing and picketing their them with their fledgling Nazi kids.

The judicial system is realistic in the beauracratic way of initially handling Weaver's gun charge including the entrapment issue, yet things go horribly wrong in the way things are handled during the seige. How many feds does it take to get one guy off a mountain?

I don't think this movie did either side any justice. The script could have been better written although good work from Quaid, Dern and Dunst. That alone made the film passable.

I don't think this film succeeds in turning anyone against the system--at least no one who is educated enough to understand the way that system works.