In this collection of recommendations, commentary and the usual film trolling, we'll recommend and talk about little seen films. And I do
not mean classic cinema from yester year, as anyone can go onto AFI list and pick classic movies they need or want to watch. This is to recommend that little film that couldn't, the film you have fond memories of, but nobody else even remembers. This is
Films You Probably Didn't See.
In this volume, I dissect and recommend a rather unappreciated science-fiction film from the 80s called
Enemy Mine. It has somewhat of a cult following, as evident by a
Lonely Island sketch that was effectively recreated for SNL, but as time goes on, it sinks farther and farther into obscurity.
Enemy Mine (1985) had a long and difficult production, which included a director swap, a complete re-shoot and budget problems that saw the film delayed into theaters way past its inital release date. Yet, with all of those things going against it, which usually makes for a mediocre, incoherent production,
Enemy Mine surfaced as an unseen gem of the science-fiction genre, albeit flawed and marred by mind boggling studio decisions. No one will mistake it for a masterpiece or even a genre classic, but it would be wise to give it a flyer considering how it is very much different than what is out there.
The film had problems with directors from the start. FOX had tried hard to lure David Fincher, and then went on to try and catch Terry Gilliam for what they thought was a pretty good fit. Gilliam, although intrigued by the project, decided to pass on the opportunity to focus on some film called "Brazil". FOX ended up settling for Richard Loncraine, who went on to direct such classics as "Firewall" and "Wimbledon". Loncraine began shooting
Enemy Mine in Iceland, and apparently got pretty far into production, when he clashed with producers. He left the project. Wolfgang Peterson, then still a young gun following the huge success of "Das Boot" and the mixed success of "The Neverending Story", took over the production. He was able to convince producers to move the production to Germany, where he had previously shot "Das Boot" and "The Neverending Story". And from there, he completely re-shot the entire movie.
The movie opens up with two warring races, humans and Dracs (this ugly looking reptile things). Dennis Quaid's character, a human fighter pilot named Davidge, is fighting a Drac fighter pilot named Jeriba (Quaid calls him "Jerry"), played Louis Gossett Jr. underneath a lot of neat makeup. They crash on a habitable planet with extreme weather and dangerous lifeforms, so they soon settle their differences to survive.
The movie is effectively split into two, with one half focusing on Davidge and Jerry's friendship, as they overcome their differences and learn more about each other's races. The other half happens when by the miracle of science-fiction, Jerry becomes pregnant and dies giving birth to his son. Davidge is forced to raise the son, Zammis, as his own and pass down the few Drac traditions he knows. This is also when a studio mandated subplot kicks in, which I think is the weakest point of the film, where Davidge must rescue Zammis from an (ugh) enemy mine. FOX apparently believed audiences would be confused about the title, which is from the book the film is based on, unless there was an
actual mine involved somehow. The only thing that truly makes this sequence not fall apart is how Davidge must act against his own people to save someone of a race that humans are at war with. On the other hand, the slave mine owners are so dislikeable, you want to see them get their asses kicked no matter what.
The story has a bunch of unique wrinkles, and considering that it's often just two people on screen for large amounts of time, nobody manages to crumble under the weight of it all. It's very much a character-driven film. And it works, because you do want Davidge and Zammis to make it out alive, so that as Jerry explains earlier, they can go to the Drac homeworld to recount his ancestry. There is a touching moment at the end that pretty much caps the movie in good spirits. Dennis Quaid does a solid job carrying the movie, but if I have a real criticism, it's just that it looks like he's playing the same character he played in almost every 80s film (hothead, cocky handsome guy with a heart of gold). This time... in
space!The set design is pretty good, and definitely has more of an 80s fantasy vibe than that of the oft-repeated dirty, Star Wars design that was so prevalent in the 80s. The planet they crash on is diverse, so you will see extreme snow and fire and brimstone and all that good stuff. The most intriguing thing about the planet are the lifeforms; despite the fact that you have two humanoid races with advanced technology, they are pretty much defenseless on this planet. There is one monster tentacle thing in particular that used to scare the crap out of me as a kid.
Wolfgang Peterson adds a very solid film to his resume, but like The Neverending Story, this was never a film that found much of an audience in theatres. It wasn't until the advent of VHS and cable that people got to see this little flick, and during the early 90s, there was a cult following that has shrunk as time has gone on. There are several neat tricks that Peterson does in the film, stuff that he learned from his experiences on "Das Boot" and "The Neverending Story", that show he's a bit more than just a competent director. At times, the film feels like it could happen in a not-too-distant galaxy to that of the Neverending Story universe, because it has a distinct look and feel that is reminiscent of his previous film.
The sound design is pretty good, but the score leaves much to be desired. Maurice Jarre pretty much recycles direct cues from his work on "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" and disguises it in some more recycled garbage from his career. Jarre was a pretty accomplished composer at the time, but it sounds like he was suffering from Elfman-esque burnout, in that everything just started to sound the same. He moved to a more synthetic sound in the 80s, and quite frankly, it makes the film sound like a generic adventure movie from that time period. It's probably the weakest technical aspect of the film.
Overall, it's a solid, entertaining science fiction film that is different than most of the drek released in the 80s and still very different from the drek released nowadays. I recommend taking a flyer on this little seen release, or watching cable listings for airtimes, because this is the kind of film that simply wouldn't be made nowadays. Futhermore, this
is the kind of film I'd support a remake of, because there's still so much to be done with the concept with a more accepting studio and more established filmmaker involved.
Check it out.
