Enemy of the State (1998)
★★★★½
They just don't make Hollywood movies like this anymore.
In spite of the plot-holes and some dated technology inconsistencies, Enemy of the State holds up much better than many other technophobia takes made in the '90s. In fact, I dare to even say that it was so far ahead of its time that made Snowden's leaks look like Wikileaks.
I think when it comes to movies, particularly Hollywood movies like Tony Scott's, there needs to be a certain level of suspension of disbelief. When one pokes around too much and says, "When the movie shows the surveillance camera rotate around the shopping bag, it lost me," I just think he's missing the forest for the trees. I've seen maybe four Tony Scott films by now (Top Gun, Domino, Crimson Tide and this film), and in spite of certain dated misses like Cruise's cruising in the air force, I thoroughly enjoyed Crimson Tide for the kind of dramatic blockbuster it tried to offer between the two big names, Denzel and Hackman. I liked what Scott has to offer in terms of blockbusters, a nice balanced of adrenaline action thrills with enough intelligence and cleverness (nitpicks about its dated references aside) to keep audience both entertained and thinking. That's the ideal kind of film for me. Check out my top favorites list; they are all movies like this, entertainment with enough smarts. Emphasis on "enough." Unlike many critics of this film, I don't demand for the unreasonable, especially when I know how difficult it is to make damn good entertainment.
But with that aside, let's get on talking about the actual film. For starters, this was easily one of Will Smith's most underrated performances. Technically, he didn't do anything here that he hadn't already done in Independence Day (another favorite of mine), but I feel that the role of an average but good man who's just trying to get home to the kids is an ideal casting for Smith, considering his squeaky-clean background. I think Bob Chipman said it best in his video defending Independence Day, that Will Smith was your average action star; he says cool lines while doing cool things and he's nice but not a wuss. And growing up with Smith myself, I could always get behind the idea of him being an action star in spite of the fact that black action stars weren't a thing in the '90s, certainly not black rappers, a career still associated with the term, "gangster" back then.
And if you've seen footage of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, particularly that one famous scene where Smith really acted the hell out of, the famous "Why didn't he want me, man?!" scene, it makes a lot of sense when you see Smith being just as good in a dramatic role like this. The man might be an action star, but he's also compelling enough as a dramatic actor starring alongside the heavyweight of Gene Hackman.
It's appropriate that we should see Hackman in this film, considering that he starred in yet another movie about government surveillance back in the '70s, The Conversation. And thinking back to that film just makes me realize how much Scott's works entertained me, specifically his works that hearken back to '70s political thrillers about government conspiracies and national paranoia. On a similar note, The X-Files was also portrayed in such a style, and it too received the rather unfair backlash in later years that it's become "dated." Watching The X-Files for the first time recently and having seen this film today, I just don't really share the same resentment or frustration. I had a really good time, and maybe that's enough to ask from a movie.
There are a number of reasons Scott's films work on a level many newer works from the likes of Michael Bay don't. Other than just describing them as "smarter films," there's just a bigger emphasis on the human element. While not completely devoid of the occasional lewd humor, Enemy of the State places its focus on making us care about the characters and their principles. There have been a number of favorite movies of mine that, in spite of their cheesy plot, have excelled greatly because of their excellent character writing, one of which being the aforementioned Independence Day. When you have great relatable characters with values you might care about, I think most of the other stuff hardly matters because they're the connection with your audience, the windows to your story. And I found the idea of a simple man who's just trying to do the right thing having his whole life torn apart, it's just a compelling story that hooks you from the start.
The other reason is just the style of action Tony Scott is famous for. Scott knows how to film action efficiently with its tight frames and fast-paced movements, but he also knows how to utilize the music score just as well. There's a thing I've missed from Bruckheimer-produced blockbusters of old that you just don't see anymore, that big dramatic score hamming things up, making what might already be an intense scene an even more exhilarating experience, just this super-serious music blasting away. Yes, it's cheesy, but it also feels larger-than-life, amplifying these events unfolding on-screen that's a matter of life-or-death for the characters. That same dramatic style can be found in Crimson Tide, where two soldiers played by legendary actors opposes one another on a decision that might decide the start of WWIII.
That's just the kind of overdramatic epic I would go to the movies for, to escape from my boring mundane life for a moment for such an epic adventure on the big-screen. And I think Tony Scott nailed that Hollywood blockbuster experience perfectly for us to escape to these thrillers and confronted by thought-provoking subjects that would have us discussing among ourselves long after the movie was over.
To make a long review short, it's like it doesn't even matter if its accusations about the NSA and government surveillance are completely accurate or not; it matters that it's just accurate enough to make us think and feel excited and be thoroughly entertained by antagonists that mirror the fears and paranoia we face in real life, even now in 2020. That's movies for you.
