Ausnahmezustand (1998)

Ausnahmezustand: Directed by Edward Zwick. With Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis, Tony Shalhoub. The secret U.S. abduction of a suspected terrorist leads to a wave of terrorist attacks in New York City, which leads to the declaration of martial-law.

“This was a very strange film. Strange, because it had so many of its facts right for 9/11. Right city, right jihadists, right plot.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd the militaryu0026#39;s answer to the terrorist threats? Go in, plunder, pillage, torture, abuse and kill the bad guys. Moral? If we stoop to their level, we are no better than the enemy. The real irony is, Denzelu0026#39;s character had the CHARACTER to do the right thing. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOddly, and presciently, Bruce Willisu0026#39; general was about to do all the wrong stuff, and with a little help from Denzel, decided not to resort to all the things we really have resorted to. This movie is notable for several reasons, but the uppermost is showing us the future we shouldnu0026#39;t take, but took anyway. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe irony is not lost. What is confounding here is how much of this originally semi-corny movie got right. Washington, Benning, Shaloub, and Willis, all deliver in a big fashion, with some pertinent warnings. The road not taken was the moral. How scary that in the long run, when presented by a much larger threat, we one-upped this movieu0026#39;s punch line in reality. How much stranger can you get than that? u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis was a fairly realistic portrait of the underworld, the intrigue, the terrorism, and gave us a scary view of our future. Hopefully, next time a movie like this one comes along, we might be better served by taking it more seriously.”