Under Siege

Summary

“You’re in the Navy, remember? It’s not a job, it’s an adventure!”

When I was nine years old, an action film called Under Siege starring Steven Seagal played as a Sunday Night Movie on NBC. The few seconds of nudity and all the cursing were removed, but the bones of the film remained. My dad let me stay up and watch it, and as you would guess, I loved it. Steven Seagal’s career essentially peaked with Under Siege. After four action classics (Above the Law, Marked for Death, Hard to Kill, and Out for Justice,) Steven Seagal was paired again with director Andrew Davis whom had already directed him in his breakout debut Above the Law. Under Siege was the big budget film that would show that Seagal was an action movie star presence like Bruce Willis, or Arnold, or Stallone. Under Siege was critically and commercially successful, doing $156.6 million at the global box office against a $30 million budget. For a moment, every hope that people had assigned towards Seagal’s career was realized. And just as quickly, his moment in the spotlight faded. Under Siege earned a sequel that paled in comparison to the original, and Seagal’s directorial debut On Deadly Ground was somewhat bewildering for many fans. In the film Executive Decision, the choice was made to (spoiler alert) quickly kill off Seagal’s character due to Seagal’s arrogant behavior on-set. Word went out that Seagal was difficult and, despite some mid-budget successes such as Exit Wounds, Fire Down Below, and The Glimmer Man, soon Seagal was acting in straight-to-video pictures. My friends and I are fairly obsessed with the first five films of Seagal’s career, finding that they are endlessly rewatchable. While my personal favorite Seagal film is Out for Justice, I think it would be hard to argue that Under Siege was his greatest success and his most well respected film. When I saw the news that Arrow Video was bringing Under Siege to 4K, I nearly leapt for joy. My best friend Jeff came over this weekend so that we could both enjoy the film.

On the U.S.S. Missouri, chief petty officer Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal) works as the head chef for the ship. The U.S.S. Missouri is visited in Pearl Harbor by President George W. Bush who plans to have the ship decommissioned and moved to California. On the ship’s journey, Ryback prepares fifty gallons of bouillabaisse to feed the men and commanding officer Captain Adams (Patrick O’Neal) to celebrate his birthday. Meanwhile, Commander Krill (Gary Busey) informs Ryback that they are flying in some entertainment and a meal specially prepared for the crew for a surprise birthday party. Ryback tells Krill that the Captain does not like surprises and must be informed of any changes to the menu. Krill spits in one of the large pots deliberately provoking Ryback to strike him. Ryback can not be held in the brig without informing the Captain, so Krill has Ryback detained in the meat cooler. He puts a young Marine in front of the cooler door with instructions to shoot him if Ryback attempts to escape. A helicopter arrives carrying a former Playboy Playmate named Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak) alongside the musical entertainment led by headband wearing harmonica playing William Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones) alongside the crew with the catering. The celebration in the mess hall begins well enough with music and food. Krill excuses himself to go grab the Captain. William calls from his microphone for the highest ranking officer in the room to present himself. Once revealed, Strannix draws a pistol and shoots the officer. The caterers and musicians are actually mercenaries and William Strannix is actually a disillusioned former C.I.A. Operative gone rogue. The mercenaries draw machine guns and fire shots to command attention, leading the men to the forecastle of the ship. Meanwhile, Krill terminates the Captain. Hearing the gunfire, Ryback is alarmed. He asks the young Marine to think for himself and investigate but the Marine refuses. Two mercenaries sent by Krill arrive and kill the Marine, but Ryback gets the best of them. Ryback is not any normal chef. He was a highly decorated Navy Seal. While moving through the ship, Ryback bumps into a large birthday cake for the party. To his surprise, Jordan Tate pops out of the cake. Ryback reluctantly agrees to let her tag along as he attempts to free his captured colleagues and take back the ship. Meanwhile, Strannix and Krill have plans for the nuclear warheads on board.

Under Siege is a great action film that I have revisited countless times over the years. The script by J.F. Lawton basically offers up Die Hard on a battleship, and the central idea works. The film is not exactly plausible if one is to think about the convoluted scheme that the villains are trying to pull off, but the inventive acting, strong direction, and well composed score distract from any of the small gaps in logic present in the script. These gaps in logic do not override the many andmirable aspects of the script. The script has a lot of enjoyable moments of light humor along the way, and the action setpieces are well conceived. Director Andrew Davis understood better than many the inherent limitations of working with Steven Seagal as an actor based on his prior experience with Seagal on Above the Law. In his interview in the special features, he explained that with Steven as the main character, it was important to surround him with an exceptional supporting cast. For example, Seagal is actually onscreen in the film slightly less than Tommy Lee Jones. Davis draws great performances out of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey that breathe a ton of life into the movie and keep the film from unraveling. The next picture that Andrew Davis directed was the classic Harrison Ford thriller The Fugitive, so it is not hyperbole to point out his talent as a filmmaker. The picture is well edited and it moves at a brisk pace towards a solid conclusion.

Steven Seagal is an actor that is often cited by critics as lacking acting talent. While I can not disagree with critics in regards to Seagal’s inability to convincingly pull off an accent or his inability to fool the audience into believing he really is the character onscreen, Seagal does have some indefinable quality in his early movies that makes my buddies and I love watching him. Part of it probably comes down to his martial arts expertise that looks very pragmatic and tough onscreen. Seagal will not win any high kicking contests, but when he grabs a bad guy’s wrist, his takedowns look authentic. In the years since Under Siege, his action scenes became more and more lazy as Seagal became less and less athletic. In Under Siege, he is an imposing presence that the audience can root for. Tommy Lee Jones is dynamite as Strannix. Jones leans into the more outrageous and eccentric aspects of his leather jacket-wearing harmonica-playing nuclear extortionist, and the audience wins. Gary Busey is at the top of his form. Erika Eleniak absolutely blew my mind with her beauty when I was a child and first saw her burst out of a birthday cake. I was completely captivated by her cover girl good looks, and she was a perfect partner for Seagal to play off. Damian Chapa, Patrick O’Neal, Raymond Cruz, and Colm Meaney round out the cast. Andrew Davis brings the best out of everyone in the picture to create a memorable film.

I have seen countless action films since my youth of varying quality, but many have failed to leave an impression. Under Siege fills me with nostalgia for what felt like a simpler time, and it remains a favorite of mine. It is etched into the memories of my childhood, but also has been a part of my adult life as I have countless times revisited the film with friends. Steven Seagal would never be as commercially or critically successful again. This was the true peak of his career. As a fan of Seagal’s output during that era, I am beyond pleased to finally see some of his best work updated by Arrow in 4K.

Video

Presented in Native 4K in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, Under Siege looks wonderful in its UHD presentation. The liner notes state:

“Under Siege has been restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with stereo and Dolby Atmos audio mixes. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned at 4K / 16 bit resolution at Warner Bros. / Motion Picture Imaging. The film was restored in 4K resolution and colour graded at Duplitech. All materials sourced for this new master were made available by Warner Bros. QC review was completed by Pixelogic. This new restoration has been approved by Director Andrew Davis. The new Dolby Atmos mix was produced at Warner Brothers by Andrew Davis and Frank A. Montaño.”

Since being released in theaters, Under Siege has never looked better. It gives the viewer the feeling that they are experiencing the film the way it was meant to be seen for the first time on home video. I watched it with childlike wonder. Fine detail is excellent with grain well resolved. The HDR brings out the very best of the film’s palette, and the film’s color timing feels like it stayed true to the source. Warner and Arrow have done excellent work to bring Under Siege to its former glory. When I showed my friend the 4K on my projector screen, he could not stop commenting on how much better it looked (and he has watched this film on the dated Blu-ray with me several times.) The hype is real. If you are a fan of this film, you owe it to yourself to see it in 4K.

Audio

On Blu-ray, Under Siege was presented with a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track which I have listened to several times over the years and always thought it could use a little more oomph. Now, Under Siege has been given a brilliant Dolby Atmos track which brings the film into the 4K era. For those who prefer LPCM tracks, Arrow has also provided an LPCM 2.0 stereo track. I can’t imagine why anyone would choose to watch this film with anything but the Atmos track, which is very well done. Gary Chang’s score sounds great and the action sequences have never sounded better. Fans of the film will be overjoyed.

Supplements:

• Commentary with Director Andrew Davis and Writer J.F. Lawton – this brand new commentary was recorded for this release.
• I’m on a Boat (With a Bomb) – this new interview with Andrew Davis finds the director detailing his two projects with Seagal while explaining his working relationship with several folks out of Chicago. This is a great interview that goes into good detail on several aspects of the production while serving up several entertaining anecdotes.
• One of the Guys – in this new interview with Erika Eleniak, the actress reflects on her career and the film. In a surprising moment she explains that the brief nude scene was not originally in her contract and was requested of her after the film had begun shooting.
• A Tight Ship – supporting actor Damian Chapa reflects on the experience of working on the film.
• The Introvision Files – visual effects supervisor William Mesa goes into great detail about the Introvision process and the visual effects techniques used for the film.
• Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.75/5

Audio – 4.75/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 4.75/5

Under Siege is an action classic that I have loved since I was not even ten years old. I have owned it on every format since I was a teenager. I am happy to report that Arrow Video’s new 4K UHD release is the definitive release of this film up to this point. Steven Seagal is a truly divisive action star that has more than his fair share of critics (which honestly is understandable,) but for many of us who grew up in the Eighties and Nineties he was a big part of our childhood. My friends and I revisit his early pictures often, and we never fail to have a blast watching them. Under Siege was Seagal’s big cultural moment where it seemed like he was unstoppable. Paired with an exceptional director in Andrew Davis and a remarkable supporting cast, Under Siege was Seagal’s greatest commercial and critical success. His career never reached those heights again as Seagal fell from grace into a slump of mediocre projects and ego related incidents. Arrow has done a tremendous job of preserving Under Siege and crafting some excellent supplements. The new Atmos track sounds fantastic. They say that all good things come for those who wait, and I am glad that the wait is finally over. This release earns our highest recommendation.

Arrow – if you are reading this – we want Out for Justice next!