Enemy of the State Review

Are you paranoid about America’s state of the art surveillance system? Well, you should be according to Tony Scott’s 1998 film Enemy of the State starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman a film that goes to great lengths to impose its view on the government’s surveillance tactics and invasion of personal rights. In this adventure, an everyman lawyer Robert Clayton Dean played by Will Smith who has a wife and son through an incidental mix up receives video captured evidence of corrupt Senator Reynolds played by Jon Voight killing a congressman. Senator Reynolds goes to any lengths with the aid of his NSA goons to retrieve that evidence which puts Dean’s life in jeopardy. Edward Lyle played by Gene Hackman comes to Dean’s aid as the two share an important personal connection that plays a very important role in the story. This film’s creepy high intense action driven story results in a very satisfying engaging solid film.

The audience’s perception on the American surveillance system is so crucial here as several examples of the government abusing these powers is show with the NSA goons hunting down Dean and using all kinds of despicable technology tactics, that the audience might not initially think would be used. The NSA is certainly not portrayed in a good light here yet the idea presented by the writers is that this is a rogue faction led by the corrupt Senator Reynolds, however the audience’s impression is on the characters followed through the adventure and not the characters they don’t see or the characters who aren’t involved in the story. Will Smith certainly brings an everyman quality to his character and brings great levity to the screen when portraying a man in the wrong place at the wrong time. However the circumstances he finds himself in aren’t completely random because of his personal connection which opens up the possibility for Gene Hackman’s Edward Lyle, an ex NSA agent to come into the fold and attempt to get Dean out of his predicament. The cast does a good job of supporting the theme that the government’s surveillance can be overly intrusive by playing off of its intense tone which also allowed the cast to explore levity to make for an entertaining story all the way around. The cast is built with a high caliber of talent and Will Smith effectively pulls off the hero of the story who doesn’t want to go on the hero's journey that he undergoes in the film, Gene Hackman nails it as a bitter and cynical surveillance nut, Jon Voight is perfect as a slimy corrupt politician, and Regina King does a fine job as Dean’s wife Carla who anchors his character. The strong thematic values in this film complemented with its phenomenal cast allow for good character development to take place.

Dean’s transformation in the film is a well executed journey. He doesn’t change from day to night or anything as radical as that but he finds the courage to do heroic things even though he isn’t himself necessarily a hero, in the beginning, making him the perfect lead. Gene Hackman’s character Lyle is cynical throughout his scenes but he grows adapt to changing circumstances after losing someone close to both him and Dean and like Dean finds the capability to fight back in a situation he didn’t want to be a part of in the first place. The screenplay is solid and finds ways to keep the characters alive and interesting to the audience by keeping conflict alive, by bring dimensionality to the situations and the characters. Dean’s relationship with his wife and kid in the everyman’s world is a solid one to start with but the screenplay complicates it by emphasizing his shared personal connection to Lyle to be a source of anxiety to his wife and a reflection of Dean’s past which makes the story so much more exciting and vibrant. The writers manage to find ways to keep the pace going without letting up while also letting the audience getting to know the characters and enjoy being around them.

Tony Scott’s direction over the screenplay and the added element of the cast brings a page turning edge of your seat type vibrancy to the film. The action sequences are very colorful and engaging and inform you more about the characters’ situations and the plot without wasting time. The story only really lacked in development on the Senator Reynolds character arc and failed to present the image of the honest government with its surveillance against the rogue faction led by Senator Reynolds in the film. Anyways, in the end, I would say Enemy of the State is a great fast-paced engaging film that I would assign a score of 8.5/10.