Enemy Mine (Wide Screen) > Reviews > Our real enemy is ourselves. The human race.

Author's product rating:   

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Story
Characters / Performances
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Advantages:	A nice easy on the mind, film to watch .
Disadvantages:	None, unless you really hate sci - fi .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is a review on a film that I believe was quite underrated when it was on general release and now it has been produced on DVD, I thought I would bring it to your attention.

Although it is a science fiction film, and may have limited initial appeal for you ladies, please bear with me during this review and listen to what I have to say. The film actually does have some quite touching, and extremely funny moments at times and I think the plot is quite unusual for a film of this type.

The film also has a very important moral, one we would be advised to follow on this Earth, and one that although we preach a lot of, we have difficulty practicing.
The film involves judging, in this case aliens, rather than people, and eventually overcoming their differences, and changing that initial judgement of each other.

THE CAST.
The cast generally involves only two people. Dennis Quaid, (The parent trap), (Jaws 3), and more recently, (The Rookie), and (Traffic), as the human.
Louis Gossett junior, (The deep), (The iron eagle films), and more recently, (Dangerous relations), as the alien.
There are a few other people in the film but these appear mostly around the beginning and end of the story.

THE DIRECTOR.
Most of you would have heard of the director, Wolfgang Peterson. He was originally a very well known director in Germany where he started his quite distinguished career. He was most well known for his television mini-series, “Das boot”. This was then made into a film which gave him his reputation, and took him to America. He then made his name with some box office smashes, such as, (Air force one), (Outbreak), (Line of fire), and of course more recently (Perfect storm).

THE MUSIC.

Another huge personality in the form of Maurice Jarre was responsible for the music, past scores have included, (Ryan’s daughter), (Doctor Zhivago), (Dead poets society), and the all time favourite, (Lawrence of Arabia).

So you can see, quite a formidable team came together to make this quite unusual but I believe very good film.

THE STORY.

It is always a problem for me to explain a story or plot without giving too much away, but I will endeavour to interest you in the film without going into to much detail.
The film begins some time in the future with a space station from earth, coming under attack from the Dracs. These are reptilian in appearance, although they are bipeds, and Earths deadliest enemies. The space station releases some fighter ships to intercept and destroy the attackers. A bit like the dogfights from the battle of Britain, but much more advanced.

After a few early battle scenes, a friend of Quaid gets destroyed, and he, by now enraged, goes in pursuit of the attacker. He manages to damage the alien ship, driven by Gossett.
Unable to get back to his ship, Gossett heads for a nearby uncharted planet, closely pursued by Quaid. The alien ejects as they head for the planets surface, and Quaid collides with the alien ship. They both crash land. Quaid then sets out to find the alien escape pod.

The film then shows them playing cat and mouse as they both attempt to outwit each other.
Both have minor victories and losses.
The film progresses and after initially being intent on destroying each other they realise after battling the elements and some other haphazard surprises that the only way to survive is to overcome their hatred of each other. How and if they do that is what this film is all about.
There are some very funny moments as they try to communicate, and also some very touching moments, with a big twist in the middle.
The ending I can say nothing about, because I don’t want to spoil it.

MY CONCLUSION.

Now I realise that this is all really down to taste, but I have now watched this film three times, and I will watch it again. I found it unusual as a science fiction film because the plot was so different from the usual plots involving these types of films.
The acting was good. I enjoyed the morals of the story, and the interactions and fundamental differences in culture that related them to us.
The special effects are good.
Overall I really enjoyed this film and I would recommend it to anyone.

TECHNICAL DETAILS.

Rated 12. Although there was very little real violence, no sex, and very limited swearing. There may be a problem with smaller children as there are a few scary bits.

Released 1985. DVD released 2002. Twentieth century fox.

Availability. All large stores, Smiths, HMV, MVC, etc.

Price. Expect to pay about £6.99 at the moment, although you can buy it as part of a deal, if you search around. (3 for £15)

Running time. 103 minutes.

Languages. English, French, and Italian.
Subtitled. Yes. Too many to mention.

DVD special features. Theatrical trailer, 2 still galleries, Extended scene (German audio, but with English subtitles), Scene access, and interactive menus.

Enjoy. Regards…….Tony