Fundamentalist Siege with Fundemental Issues
Shortly after the police gun down and kill known polygamist and fundamentalist Mormon John Singer (Norbert Weisser) when he pulled a gun on them, fellow fundamentalist Adam Swapp (Kyle Secor) arrives at the Singer land and marries two of the Singer girls, becoming head of the household. 7 years later and feeling like they are being victimized more than ever Swapp and the family declare war on anyone who is against them including Mormon's who don't share their extreme beliefs. As the situation escalates and the local police are unable to deal with the situation the FBI lead by Bob Bryant (Dennis Franz) are called in to take over and with no sight of a resolution are forced to plan an assault of the Singer land.
I'm not sure whether "In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion" is the third or fourth movie in this series which I have watched and in some ways is the weakest so far as there is not much to it. After about 20 minutes of build up as we get to see the Singer family and Adam Swapp become more and more extreme we get the first explosive action as a Mormon meeting house is bombed and the FBI are called in who sweep around the Singer land unaware of the fire power inside the farm house. What we watch is this drama play out over a series of days as Agent Bob Bryant is unable to bring an end to the siege.
The trouble is that there is very little excitement or depth to any of this and we are left as just observers rather than feeling any emotional connection to anyone. The worst thing is that "Siege at Marion" is in fact based on a true story but never manages to bring that true story to life. Neither does it feel like a docu-drama, just a mediocre cop movie from the early nineties which never recreates the atmosphere or immediacy of the situation.
Now that might make it sound like I didn't enjoy this made for TV movie when in fact I did as it was kind of interesting. Plus it also has a reasonable cast with Tess Harper and Kyle Secor doing good jobs of playing Adam and Vickie Singer making them very extreme, but whilst watchable I hoped for more.
What this all boils down to is that "In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion" is a watchable movie made for TV movie from the early nineties but one which despite being based on a true story lacks a lot which would have made it a lot better.
