Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

scichowski I watched this movie for a class I am taking at the University of Texas, and it is a good movie. However, people who use it as proof of US intervention in Latin America should check out the facts behind the movie. No one has ever provided any factual evidence that Mr. Mitrione, the actual person the Santore character is based on, ever was involved in torture. The leader of the Tupamaros, Raul Sendic, was released from prison in 1987, and he stated that torture had nothing to do with the Mitrione kidnapping and murder. He states that it was the riot control tactics Mitrione was teaching the police were the reason he had been kidnapped. He goes on to say that they were not going to kill Mr Mitrione, but keep him indefinitely. However, he and the rest of the leaders were captured, as is shown in the movie. Therefore the leaderless movement had no idea what to do, and killed him. This does not detract from the movie as a great work of fiction, however, obviously it cannot be used as any sort of proof of American injustices.

Claudio Carvalho In the early 70's, in Uruguay, the revolutionary group Tupamaro kidnaps an American trainer of torture and the Brazilian consul, and through the interrogation of the abducted American, the big picture of Uruguay (and other Latin America countries) is reported."État de Siege" is a testimony of the history of Latin America in the 70's, during my childhood and adolescence. All the democratic governments elected by people were discharged through coup d'état by military dictatorships supported by the American government, the police and military forces trained in tortures by American advisors, student and union leaderships destroyed and revolutionary groups unsuccessfully fighting against the dictatorial regime. The fantastic director Costa Gravas exposes this serious wound in Latin America and this denunciation shall never be forgotten by the next generations. This movie remains amazingly real and important, sometimes recalling a documentary. Only this month this film was released on DVD in Brazil, and it is a worthwhile investment. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): 'Estado de Sítio" ("State of Siege")

Joseph P. Ulibas State of Siege (1973) was another classic film from Greek film maker Costa-Gavras. This time the director turns his attention to Latin America. The C.I.A. is running things in South America, one of their fronts is a fake corporation. A group of left wing rebels decide to kidnap the head of A.I.D. Phillip Santore (Yves Montand). During his capture, the rebel leader talks to the captured government official and tries to learn why the C.I.A. is in Uruguay and why they're training the local police in brutal torture tactics. He never learns why they want to suppress left-wing politics because Mr. Santore has become expendable. The American and Uruguay officials don't want to deal with the "terrorists" and don't mind losing one of their own because he can always be replaced. Too bad the rebels don't learn that fact. The military crushes the rebels and to his word, the U.S. Government replaces Santore with another A.I.D. official.Another great film from Costa-Gavras. He utilizes the film techniques that he used in Z and exploits them even further. This film caused even more controversy because the film was based on a true story. Bewarned, the torture techniques that the U.S. advisers teach the Uruguay officials are real graphic and gruesome. It's a shame that this movie has been neglected for so many years. But film makers like Oliver Stone were highly influenced by this movie. Maybe some day State of Siege will be restored and released on video. It's a real hard film to get a hold of.Highest recommendation possible.

zardoz12 A fictionalized account of the early 1970's kidnapping of Daniel Mitrione by the Uruguayan Tupamaro terrorist group, "State of Siege" is almost a mirror image of the director's previous film "Z." Mitrione (here called Phillip Michael Santore and played by Yves Montrand) is ostensibly working for USAID, but in reality - a reality uncovered for the viewer as the Tupamaros hold recorded interrogations - he trains the Uruguayan police and associated hangers-on how to torture suspects electrically, run death squads, and destroy the Tupamoros. Outside of the terrorist safehouse a newspaper reporter witnesses how the US government covers for Santore, the Uruguayan crackdown on dissent, and the aftermath. The repression is carried to rediculous extremes; the police storm the national univercity. As the police enter a courtyard, a PA speaker begins playing a revolutionary anthem. They quicky destroy it, when another speaker then blares out the anthem. That too is destroyed, and then another. Somewhere out of sight another squakbox begins playing the anthem, and the police rush off camera.I call "Etat de siege" a mirror of "Z" because the picture takes place in flashback, the director is willing to hint where the picture is set at the beginning (the car which plays an important part has a Montevideo license plate), and the director is willing to say who is really backing the repression. Most importantly, however, is that the main character is the exact opposite of the politician in the previous film. Santore is willing to use midaeval means to keep South America an apolitical market for American goods and seller of raw materials for US industry, though he hides behind the banner of anticommunism. The politico in "Z" only wanted to keep Greece a non-nuclear power.