- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,067
When it comes to movies, all one needs to say is "Allegory" and I'll go out of my way to watch it. I'm a sucker for a story with a message, from the pretentious once to the weird ones to the actually fairly good ones. Enemy Mine is an interesting one, but there are some flaws in the films making that make Enemy Mine hard to really comprehend in terms of meaning and even genre.
The story begins in a poorly edited space backdrop where a narrator explains that apparently humans are at war with a reptilian and asexual (Make note of that, it's important.) alien race known as the Drac who claimed squatters rights to half the planets in our galaxy, but instead were just given lazers and so now... we have war. Our narrator, Will Davidge, played by Dennis Quaid goes down in his fighter planet and crash lands on a mysterious planet. When he comes to, he realizes that he is not alone: A Drac Fighter has also gone down. Davidge goes to find the Drac, and tries to kill him but is instead found out and captured by the Drac, who does not speak English but reveals his name is Jeriba Shigan played by Louis Gossett Jr. A meteor storm approaches, and they quickly learn that to survive the harshness of the planet, they must work together. This begins "Part 1" of the film. The film seems to be divided into two distinct parts. Part 1 details how Davidge & Jeriba, dubbed "Jerry" by Davidge, cross the language barriers and learn each others cultures, work together, and eventually become friends. Davidge even begins to learn the Drac religion and study it. He soon learns that there are other humans on the planet, but is in no rush to find them because he knows they are "Scavengers," violent humans who enslave Dracs and force them to perform labour. He also soon learns that Jeriba, is pregnant. (As I said, make note of the fact that dracs are asexual because I didn't and found myself going WTF? when I first saw this scene.) Jeriba dies in the birth, and Davidge must raise the baby Drac, known as Zammis, himself.
This is where Part 2 begins. The message has suddenly shifted from the state of mankind, war, and the pressures of survival and etc. to slavery and racism, as Davidge grows close to the young Drac Zammis, but Zammis is soon found by Scavengers and Davidge is thought dead and returned to an orbital space station owned by the military he served in for his funeral. Instead he wakes up and escapes the space platform in one of the stupidest things one could do in such a place (Breach open the wall and let the vacuum of space in before the airlock cycles!) just to escape back to the planet and find Zammis and ultimately ends up setting the enslaved dracs free of the scavengers. One scene during this bit seemed really stupid to me, one of the main slave drivers is thrown into a rock crusher and we see in graphic detail him getting split in half, his leg getting snapped off, and later vague blobs of his mutilated body coming on the track below, yet SOMEHOW HE SURVIVES WITH ONLY HIS EAR GONE. :facewall: I rewound the scene twice to make sure it was the same guy, the same one who gets torn into itty bitty pieces is the one who somehow comes back 3 seconds later with only an ear gone, and surely enough, it WAS the same guy. This is easily the dumbest part of the movie and defies logic, but ignoring this particular piece of silliness..
I liked Enemy Mine. I think it had a good message and despite some scenes coming off as fairly low budget and sometimes even a little silly or illogical, it's well made and entertaining. It has a good sense of humour and although the design of the Drac seems a bit generic, their cultural aspect is well developed and the way they act is very believable, just a testament to the abilities of Louis Gossett Jr. a far underrated actor, imho.
It's not perfect, but it is a very good film.
8.3/10
The story begins in a poorly edited space backdrop where a narrator explains that apparently humans are at war with a reptilian and asexual (Make note of that, it's important.) alien race known as the Drac who claimed squatters rights to half the planets in our galaxy, but instead were just given lazers and so now... we have war. Our narrator, Will Davidge, played by Dennis Quaid goes down in his fighter planet and crash lands on a mysterious planet. When he comes to, he realizes that he is not alone: A Drac Fighter has also gone down. Davidge goes to find the Drac, and tries to kill him but is instead found out and captured by the Drac, who does not speak English but reveals his name is Jeriba Shigan played by Louis Gossett Jr. A meteor storm approaches, and they quickly learn that to survive the harshness of the planet, they must work together. This begins "Part 1" of the film. The film seems to be divided into two distinct parts. Part 1 details how Davidge & Jeriba, dubbed "Jerry" by Davidge, cross the language barriers and learn each others cultures, work together, and eventually become friends. Davidge even begins to learn the Drac religion and study it. He soon learns that there are other humans on the planet, but is in no rush to find them because he knows they are "Scavengers," violent humans who enslave Dracs and force them to perform labour. He also soon learns that Jeriba, is pregnant. (As I said, make note of the fact that dracs are asexual because I didn't and found myself going WTF? when I first saw this scene.) Jeriba dies in the birth, and Davidge must raise the baby Drac, known as Zammis, himself.
This is where Part 2 begins. The message has suddenly shifted from the state of mankind, war, and the pressures of survival and etc. to slavery and racism, as Davidge grows close to the young Drac Zammis, but Zammis is soon found by Scavengers and Davidge is thought dead and returned to an orbital space station owned by the military he served in for his funeral. Instead he wakes up and escapes the space platform in one of the stupidest things one could do in such a place (Breach open the wall and let the vacuum of space in before the airlock cycles!) just to escape back to the planet and find Zammis and ultimately ends up setting the enslaved dracs free of the scavengers. One scene during this bit seemed really stupid to me, one of the main slave drivers is thrown into a rock crusher and we see in graphic detail him getting split in half, his leg getting snapped off, and later vague blobs of his mutilated body coming on the track below, yet SOMEHOW HE SURVIVES WITH ONLY HIS EAR GONE. :facewall: I rewound the scene twice to make sure it was the same guy, the same one who gets torn into itty bitty pieces is the one who somehow comes back 3 seconds later with only an ear gone, and surely enough, it WAS the same guy. This is easily the dumbest part of the movie and defies logic, but ignoring this particular piece of silliness..
I liked Enemy Mine. I think it had a good message and despite some scenes coming off as fairly low budget and sometimes even a little silly or illogical, it's well made and entertaining. It has a good sense of humour and although the design of the Drac seems a bit generic, their cultural aspect is well developed and the way they act is very believable, just a testament to the abilities of Louis Gossett Jr. a far underrated actor, imho.
It's not perfect, but it is a very good film.
8.3/10
