in 1989 , director edward zwick began his career with the powerful civil war drama , " glory , " but since then , he has made continuous disappointments , to me at least , with 1994's " legends of the fall , " and 1996's " courage under fire . " those two films weren't bad , just not very good , but with zwick's latest film , " the siege , " he has finally made one . " the siege , " is a modern-day action-thriller that focuses on terrorism that is sweeping through new york city . investigating the matter is fbi agents anthony hubbard ( denzel washington ) and frank haddad ( tony shalhoub ) , who are first hit by the ordeal when a city bus explodes with several innocent people on it . later , a bomb goes off in a broadway theater , killing even more . they soon meet cia operative elise kraft ( annette bening ) , who may very well hold the key to the identity of the arab terrorist . there are some movies that simply don't need to be made , and , " the siege " may very well be one of them . oh , sure , zwick thinks he is making a " meaningful " action film , since he has added lots of exposition scenes in which the audience is basically lectured on the horrors of terrorism , but what he really has made is actually no more substantial than , say , " die hard , " which also starred bruce willis . this time , willis is horribly wasted as a general of the u . s . army , who puts a state of martial law over nyc during the climax . whatever points , " the siege , " earnestly tried to make , were obviously lost in the translation from page to screen , or maybe , zwick never really had anything serious to say in the first place . the role of the arab community is offensively stereotypical , just as women were in the recent , " john caprenter's vampires , " by placing them all in the category of " bad guys . " " the siege , " contains three fine actors---washington , bening , and shalhoub---but washington is stuck with a character that contains not an ounce of even remote development . bening has slightly more to do , and has an intriguing character to work with , while shalhoub pretty much steals the show , even though , again , he has no real character . by the climax of , " the siege , " with washington giving a sermon to willis on the so-called " message " of the story , i felt like i had wandered into a sequel to , " on deadly ground , " in which steven seagal gave a 10-minute speech at the end about preserving the environment . " the siege " is constantly heavy-handed , not entertaining or insightful , and just goes to prove that not even the best actors can save a film that lacks a satisfactory screenplay .
