Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Siege Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 2, 2021

In the world of accolades doled out to films, there's a rather interesting list that is aggregated only once a decade (or so) by the Toronto International Film Festival which polls both critics and "regular" people (yes, critics are irregular) to come up with a menu of "Top 10 Canadian Films". This kind of oddly intermittent assessment began in 1984, with the most recent installment coming out in 2015, and the films selected over the decades have included a number of lesser known standouts as well as better remembered titles like The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Dead Ringers, The Grey Fox , and The Sweet Hereafter. Despite a pull quote from filmmaker Jason Eisener (who is included on the supplementary commentary track on this disc) emblazoned across the front cover of this release proclaiming Siege as "the best Canadian film ever made", it evidently has never made the Top 10 list under either this title or its alternate moniker Self Defense, though of course there's always hope for the list due in another three or four years. This is yet another film that has at least a tangential connection to a "ripped from the headlines" element, in this case a long running strike by the police force in Halifax. Siege documents the efforts of a bunch of apartment tenants who therefore find themselves in dire straits when a group of murderous right wing agitators first wreak havoc in a gay bar and then come after an escapee from that fracas who has hidden out in the apartment building.

Those with an interest in some of the history underlying this tale can do some internet research on what evidently was quite a newsworthy 1981 strike by police in Halifax, though that said, the whole police strike aspect is almost a "McGuffin" used simply to propel a plot that is actually supposedly set in some indeterminate "future", and which is kind of like a weird combo platter of elements lifted from Dog Day Afternoon and Assault on Precinct 13, with maybe just a soupçon of Wait Until Dark thrown into the mix for good measure. There are some eerily prescient aspects to Siege in terms of the Canadian version of a "well ordered militia" taking over "control" from the absent official constabulary, with a bunch of goonish types invading a gay bar to harass the patrons. When a bartender is inadvertently killed, head honcho Cabe (Doug Lennox) decides the only sensible thing to do is to eliminate any and all witnesses. Some fast thinking on the part of one of the hostages, a kind of nerdy guy named Daniel (Terry-David DesPres), allows him to escape, which then propels the rest of the plot dynamics as Cage and his acolytes attempt to take out Daniel, which of course ends up with the bad guys trying to take out the people Daniel is hiding out with.

There is no doubt that Siege, which (in its theatrical version) begins with some archival news video of the actual strike by police in Halifax, might have been just as visceral without the strike situation at all, since the tension could have been sustained just as easily since events play out relatively quickly, so that even if there had been police on assignment, it might have taken them a while to get there and get positioned to spring into action. That said, the fact that a ragtag bunch of innocent bystanders is sucked into a night of violence leads to some surprisingly angsty moments, and in that regard, Siege is not above letting at least one extremely sympathetic character fall prey to being a victim.

This is another interesting effort that has an undeniable exploitation angle, but which manages to rise above its smarmier foundational elements to deliver some real chills. The film is well paced and offers generally believable performances. If it succumbs to a few hoary tropes, including a bad guy who of course springs fitfully back to life after everyone assumes he's dead, it still manages to create a claustrophobic and frightening environment of "regular" people forced to fight back against an oppressor when there's no official police presence to be found.

Siege Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Siege is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states that this was "scanned in 2K from the original negative recently discovered in a Nova Scotia archive". Though the negative may have been located in an archive, it may not have been curated especially carefully, at least as evidenced by some occasional damage which includes a pretty rough looking opening few minutes featuring a ragged production masthead (kind of ironically given the crazed killer aspect, for a company called Manson International) and some badly damaged credits. Things improve markedly after that, though, with a natural looking palette and some appealing fine detail levels in close-ups. There are some recurrent deficits in fine detail in the second half of the film in particular, though, when vast swaths of the proceedings are bathed in deep blue tones and shadow definition can be negligible. Grain resolves rather well throughout the presentation, especially considering how dark so much of the film is.

Siege Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Siege features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix that comes close to a bit of breakup in some of the pulsing synth and electronic effects featured in Peter Jermyn and Drew King's score, but which delivers dialogue without any issues whatsoever. Some of the archival news accounts feature audio that can sound just a tad bright on the high end when compared to the bulk of the presentation. There are a surprising amount of sound effects in the film, often mixed with the kind of quasi-electronic score, and those sound fine as well. Optional English subtitles are available.

Siege Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Co-Director Paul Donovan and Filmmaker Jason Eisener


• Extended Cut (HD; 1:33:00)


• Trailer (HD; 1:08)

For those who take packaging into account, Severin Films has released Siege with a slipcover. The keepcase insert also features a reversible cover.

Siege Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Siege is surprisingly effective despite some of its more cliché ridden aspects. Jason Eisener may be one of the few who thinks this is "the best Canadian film ever made", but my hunch is many folks will easily think Siege is better than they expected it to be. Technical merits are generally solid, and Severin has provided two good supplements with the commentary and extended cut. Recommended.