Enemy of the State (M)

Cast: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Jason Robards, Lisa Bonet, Jason Lee, Gabriel Byrne, Regina King

Director: Tony Scott


Not only is Big Brother watching us, he's keeping tabs on everything we buy, eat, who we sleep with - our entire existence.

So if you think you're just being paranoid, get smart, because they really are after you. That's the slickly packaged message behind Enemy of the State.

While the Big Brother theme may be well trodden, Enemy of the State heralds a scary new sophistication - proof that with contemporary technology anything is possible and everything is probable.

A congressman (Robards) is murdered for not backing a privacy bill which would give Government agencies greater spying powers.

It appears to be the perfect crime, orchestrated by Reynolds (Voight), a big wig with the National Security Agency. But things come unstuck when birdwatcher Zavitz (Lee) discovers he unwittingly caught the killing on film.

The action kicks in at this point as Reynolds and his crew of NSA computer nerds cotton on to Zavitz's find and proceed to erase him in one of the film's many dramatic chases.

However, Zavitz plants a copy of the video on an old college mate flashy attorney-on-the-rise Dean (Smith), who is oblivious to the exchange. But innocence is no defence and Dean becomes the next NSA target.

With the rapidity that state-of-the-art technology permits, Dean is smeared, fired, his wife kicks him out and he's living on borrowed time.

His only hope of getting his life back rests with a mysterious underground information broker and ex-intelligence agent known only as Brill (Hackman).

Enemy of the State shows institutionalised information-gathering taken to the extreme: no court orders are required to tap phones, or to bug Dean's pager, fountain pen and shoes. But surveillance does not stop there - it's carried on from hundreds of kilometres up in the atmosphere.

The blockbuster team of director Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Days of Thunder and Crimson Tide) have succeeded in creating an intelligent, fast-paced thriller. It also manages to be a character-driven film set against the world of surveillance and espionage.

While more recognised for his comic roles Smith makes a plausible Everyman, a person innocently going his own business whose life is so easily destroyed through electronic interception. Cunningly it all happens without him ever meeting the enemy.

Hackman portrays with ease the grizzled, disillusioned ex-NSA agent who has gone underground. He burns with hostility which is gradually broken down by Dean and circumstances.

The film's characterisation extends to the baddies - even the computer nerds have personalities.

Set against Washington DC at Christmas, the cheery decorations and fairy lights provide a perfect backdrop for the action which goes on largely unobserved by a naive public.

This is an action film which does not rely heavily on guns blazing or violence to maintain its high-octaine pace. It just doesn't let up.

Be prepared for a cup of tea and a lie down afterwards. And maybe take something for the paranoia…
- Naomi Larkin, Weekend TimeOut

Pictured: Will Smith as Dean