Movie review: ‘Under Siege’

FloridaGator80
A promotional photo from the movie “Under Siege.”

A good seaborne action film isn’t easy to bring to the big screen: There’s a limited environment in which to pursue the action. You can find oceangoing thrillers such as “Juggernaut” (click here to read my review) or the Frank Sinatra caper film “Assault on a Queen” (click here to read my review) that rely on cruise ships, or, in the case of Sinatra, a submarine and a cruise ship. However, unlike those, the Steven Seagal effort “Under Siege” has a U.S. Navy battleship as its stage and therefore gives this movie a boost from the beginning scenes. Seagal, in real life, is as odd as a duck in the desert, does his arguably best action work in this one. I like “Under Siege” immensely and it offers action at its best.

‘Under Siege’
(1992; 103 minutes; rated R; directed by Andrew Davis and starring Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey)

GREAT ACTION FROM SEAGAL, ET AL

(NOTE: I expanded and reorganized this review with additional opinion and trivia and the updating of links on March 19, 2019. I again expanded the review on April 21, 2025.)

Steven Seagal is a step down in action films from Arnold Schwarzenegger since he isn’t as good relating to audiences through violence, but it isn’t a big step and he knows how to ring the cash register through storylines of honor, integrity and some serious kicking of bad guys’ butts. In “Under Siege” you get it all as he saves the day aboard a hijacked U.S. Navy battleship and it’s easy to watch and fun.

It’s easy for Seagal to have a commanding screen presence because of his 6-foot-4 frame, a projected Zen-like demeanor and the fact that the audience knows he’ll stomp the bad guy and not have to drop a load of f-bombs doing it. “Under Siege” is a great vehicle for him and he’s surrounded with a wonderful supporting cast headed by a post-motorcycle crash Gary Busey and the always excellent Tommy Lee Jones.

In “Under Siege,” Seagal plays “Chief Petty Officer Casey Ryback,” who’s aboard the U.S.S. Missouri as a cook for shadowy reasons that become clear as the film moves forward. The story happens at the 50th anniversary remembrances of the attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941), where the ship takes part in ceremonies and is then headed off for decommissioning. So, this explains several plot issues about the ship and its mission still having nuclear armaments aboard.

Hijackers led by Jones as “William ‘Bill’ Strannix,” who is a former CIA agent marked for death by that agency and now a mercenary, take over the ship aided by Busey, who plays “Cmdr. Peter Krill,” who is the ship’s executive officer. Busey, who is Seagal’s chief antagonist, believes he’s neutralized his nemesis before the hijacking, but Seagal gathers a ragtag group and manages to save the day. It’s a story about hijacking nuclear weapons and all the supporting cast put their best foot forward to press home the actual acting necessary to make this kind of movie watchable.

Let me first take a look at your main two actors …

  • A promotional photo from the movie “Under Siege.”

    Seagal doesn’t do anything special here as he’s his usual screen self: calm, collected and speaks with a funeral home-tone of voice. He has the good looks and smooth demeanor that make you forget that his acting is quite wooden, but, like in an Arnie film, it isn’t really a problem. He knocks off the violence with aplomb and that makes up for his glaring deficiencies as an actor. Seagal has also been in a string of action films including “Above the Law,” “Hard to Kill” and “The Glimmer Man.”

  • A promotional photo from the movie “Under Siege.”

    The other side of the acting coin is the Oscar-winning Jones (for “The Fugitive”), who also has three other nominations. He plays “Strannix” to the max: the former CIA dude acts off the wall crazy to throw the military off the scent of his true purpose and along the way manages a range of emotions only an actor of his caliber could attempt much less accomplish. He’s volcanic, edgy and motivated. Great work. Jones is most famously known for his roles in the “Men in Black” franchise as well as “No Country for Old Men” and “Man of the House.”

In an interesting note about Jones, he was one of Ryan O’Neal’s dormitory friends at Harvard in “Love Story” and in real life was a Harvard dorm buddy of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore – and Jones has a bachelor’s degree from that prestigious university.

Now, as for some of the rest of the cast …

  • A promotional photo from the movie “Under Siege.”

    An Oscar and Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Busey is cast perfectly as “Krill,” who is a psychotic hiding in uniform and very convinced of his own competence and infallibility. Busey spins from one facet of his character to another with gleeful abandon and you just look forward to seeing what he’ll do next. His funniest scene is where he’s dressed up as woman with heavy makeup and after reading his less than flattering fitness report from the ship’s captain, says in exasperation to Jones, “Do I look like I need a psychological evaluation?” Busey was the title character in “The Buddy Holly Story” (click here to read my review) and earned both nominations from it. He has been the partner of Keanu Reeves in the surf-cop-action film “Point Break” (click here to read my review). Don’t forget: Busey was also one of the racers in “The Gumball Rally” (click here to read my review).

  • A promotional photo from the movie “Under Siege.”

    The female lead here is Erika Eleniak as “Jordan Tate,” who, like the actor was in real life, is a former centerfold who does the one of the best popping-out-of-a-cake scenes ever in cinema. Eleniak has a role that would stretch an actor of depth and she gives it a go, but isn’t just quite solid here. It’s not her fault … she’s just not a good actor, but she is watchable and not just for being beautiful. Such an ability on-screen makes for a better performance than most other actors can achieve. Eleniak gives it her all in this one and, at best, she is endearing and better than in her better-known work on TV’s “Baywatch” and in movies such as “The Beverly Hillbillies” (she’s “Elly May Clampett”). Eleniak’s first movie appearance was in her pre-teen, pre-Playboy days as “Pretty Girl” in “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

  • A promotional “still” photo from the movie “Under Siege.”

    The sleazy good guy in “Under Siege” is Nick Mancuso as “Tom Breaker,” who was Jones’ control officer in the CIA and tried to have him killed. Mancuso is part of the military team around a conference table directing the effort to retake the Missouri. He tries to do a good job of being the bad-good guy (he even smokes), but Mancuso’s effort falls flat. His delivery is nothing special and he doesn’t convey anything but a series of muddled emotions that makes it obvious any other actor could have done a better job. Mancuso was also in this one’s sequel, “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory” in a prolific career of more than 154 credits spanning six decades since the first on a tee-vee episode in 1974.

  • A promotional photo from the movie “Under Siege.”

    Dale Dye as “Capt. Nick Garza” and Andy Romano as “Adm. Bates” are the two ranking officers at headquarters. Both do such a great job that you know they could go onto any Navy base and start ordering sailors around and no one would question their authority. Dye has been in “Saving Private Ryan” while Romano was in “The Fugitive” with Jones. Romano died at 86 in 2022.

  • Finally, Patrick O’Neal plays “Capt. J.T. Adams” and he’s in command of the ship (albeit briefly). O’Neal doesn’t have much to work with and is gone before you know it, but he does a solid job with the little given to him. O’Neal was also in “In Harm’s Way,” “The Way We Were” and “Under Siege” was his final big-screen effort (he had one more TV movie role) before his death in 1994 at 66 of complications from tuberculosis and cancer. He had a prolific career with 120 acting credits spanning five decades beginning in 1951.

Both the good guys’ team as the bad guys’ squad have multiple good performances and offer too many nice turns to single out any one, two or even five. Just know that the foundation work by these actors help keep the film on track.

The showdown scene between Seagal and Jones is impressive for both Seagal’s fighting moves but Jones’ truly superior acting ability that comes through clearly even in an action scene when he’s fighting to the death.

It is completely surprising, but “Under Siege” was nominated for two Oscars. One was for sound and the other for best effects and sound effects editing. Wow. A Seagal film nominated for an Oscar. Well, it has also snowed in Miami in 1977 in case you were wondering the odds.

“Under Siege” was very, very solid at theaters and was the 13th ranked film at the box office in 1992 with $83.5 million in domestic ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Worldwide, “Under Siege” made $156.5 million on a budget of $36 million, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film of the year was “Aladdin” at $217.3 million and the best-grossing military genre film was Tom Cruise’s “A Few Good Men” with Jack Nicholson (it brought in $141.3 million). Here are the other two films from 1992 that I’ve reviewed for this blog:

Assorted cast notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Seagal’s middle name is Frederic; Busey’s birth first name is William and his nickname is “Barry Goosey;” Eleniak’s middle name is Maya; O’Neal’s middle name is Wisdom; and Mancuso’s full birth name is Nicodemo Antonio Massimo Mancuso.
  • O’Neal, who projected a dashing and sophisticated presence with many characters, was born in Ocala here in my home state of Florida. Ocala isn’t a hotbed of thespian talent, or so I would image about this once rural town in north Central Florida.
  • At one time, the film was going to be called “Dreadnought,” after early 20th century British battleship that became the name of a class of battleships. Sigh. I guess someone thought that was smart. Well, it doesn’t take hindsight to see how the final title is far superior.
  • Bernie Casey has a small role as “Cmdr. Harris” and is better known as “Bill and Ted’s” history teacher in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
  • Moviegoers noted that Seagal doesn’t sport his usual ponytail in this one – the U.S. Navy doesn’t allow it (or at least didn’t when the film came out in 1992).
  • The U.S.S. Alabama, which has been a museum at dock at Mobile, Ala., was used for the action scenes, although the Missouri does appear in aerial views. In a side note: the Alabama is a South Dakota-class battleship, while the Missouri is an Iowa-class Follow each link for a Wiki explanation of each class of ship.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The narrator in the opening sequence is Don Marsh, a former KTVI/KDNL News anchor in St. Louis. He was doing a special series on the Missouri when he was noticed reading news copy. He was asked to narrate for the movie.”

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