Battle in Seattle (2007) on Netflix
Thousands of activists arrive in Seattle to protest the World Trade Organization conference, the first on American soil. Mayor Jim Tobin promises no arrests if the protests stay peaceful.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.6/1015,618 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes56%
Trailer
Plot summary
In late November 1999, Seattle hosts the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference, the first such meeting on American soil. Thousands of activists arrive to oppose it, arguing that the body widens the wealth gap between rich and poor, while the WTO says its work reduces hunger, disease and death. Its five days are seen through fictional characters: demonstrators, police officers, a television reporter and Mayor Jim Tobin, who has pledged that peaceful marches will bring no arrests and no tear gas. Inside the conference, delegates from poorer nations and from Doctors Without Borders press the same concerns the protesters raise outside, and are largely ignored by the organization's senior figures.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Battle in Seattle (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Stuart Townsend could not find a studio willing to finance his script for the 1999 WTO protest film in the early 2000s, and spent a year retuning it, until a fifteen-minute proof-of-concept film he made by splicing together three documentaries won him the green-light to start filming.
- The anarchist collective CrimethInc. attacked the film as a sensationalised account of the 1999 protests, bringing out a pamphlet, "And What About Tomorrow?", which argued the film made the events look like an isolated spontaneous uprising in which a small fringe group of black bloc anarchists stole the show.
- Activist David Solnit, who called Battle in Seattle a sanitised, Hollywood-style version of the story, set up a website and co-wrote a book giving his own account of the 1999 protests.
- Susan Sarandon was rumored early on to be cast as a reporter who sympathises with the demonstrators and clashes with her editor, but she was unable to take part in the production.
