Enemy Mine

Rating:  

Directed By: Wolfgang Petersen

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr.

Plot Synopsis:

Two Warriors engaged  in a savage, futuristic war between Earth and the planet Dracon, crash-land on a desolate, fiery planet.  At first, the human (Dennis Quaid) and his reptilian, alien opponent (Louis Gossett Jr.) are intent on destroying each other.  But after battling the elements and each other, the two stranded pilots gradually realize that the only way either of them will survive is to overcome their undying hatred.

Review:

Enemy Mine is one of those movies that slipped by me during childhood.  I always would see the VHS box in the video section whenever I’d be browsing the Science Fiction section, but I never gave it a chance.  If I would have been introduced to it then, I probably would have been bored by it, to be honest.  I was too busy watching and re-watching Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Explorers that year.  Enemy Mine would have been over my head.

However, I can now say that Enemy Mine was probably ahead of it’s time both thematically and stylistically.  This was the Art House Science Fiction film of 1985, and I’m surprised a studio backed a film like this.  Even today, a science fiction film with only 2 characters on screen for an hour and 15 minutes wouldn’t be interesting to a major studio.  Look at movies like Sunshine, The Fountain, Solaris and Moon.  Not viewed by the mass movie-going public as popular films.  However, to film geeks like myself those all are masterpieces that should be more profitable than they were.  Enemy Mine is a thought provoking, slow build of a movie that has huge ideas and heart behind it.

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