Enemy Mine Thoughts

I just watched Enemy Mine. I thought it was a good movie. It made me feel a lot of emotions. Rage for the injustice of the system and those who perpetuate it. The film stumbles in quite a few ways. But its accomplishments are extremely noteworthy. I feel like this film, warts and all, deserves some more praise. I deeply admire how the film sets out to talk about bigotry and exploitation.

This film, with its alien designs and focus on such issues, reminds me of Oddworld. That is a very good thing. The effects and performances in the film are magnificent! I love how the alien life looks! They have that three-eyed turtle thing.

I have a few problems with the movie. That this film had trouble behind the scenes is evident. I find it hilarious that they had to include a mine to appease people who thought the title would be confusing without a literal mine. The film has little interest in exploring complicity within greater systems. Willis’s character is great. However, there’s a surprising lack of attention given to how he has indeed changed. His beliefs were monstrous and he never really grapples with the fact that his past self was monstrous. That his past life was a lie. He never looks in the mirror and says “I was so wrong.” He never has to confront himself. There are some great nuances in the film, but the point stands. Additionally, the plotline where the humans believe him to have turned traitor is not explored. Instead, he just gets away easily. You could draw a parallel between Willis and the human mine workers. Both were prejudiced against Dracs. Willis held the belief that inevitably leads to such exploitation. This parallel is thought-provoking. However, it seems that the movie is content to just say that the mine workers are evil and that Willis is good; with minimal focus on the systems that created them. In the latter part of the film, I found that Willis made stupid decisions (not restraining the guards, not securing the area before checking on Zammis). It can partially be excused by the desperation the character is feeling; the need to get to Zammis as fast as possible. Nonetheless, his stupidity was still frustrating. He didn’t do anything to alleviate the humans’ concern about him. It just luckily happened that they let him go and then he consequently stole a ship.

At the end, three of Willis’s former colleagues show up to help him. There is no attention given to how they might feel. How would they feel? They are helping Dracs, their sworn enemy. If they do not regard the Dracs as monsters, shouldn’t this bring to mind intense mental dilemma? They unfortunately face a general lack of coverage. That Willis’s colleagues help him instead of being a hindrance presents an optimistic perspective on human nature. I feel this optimistic approach is a cop-out, of which prevents more interesting conversations about humanity. But it is the lack of coverage that ultimately makes the component of his colleagues showing up lesser. I can picture an alternate ending where they follow him and start killing Dracs. He is forced to fight his former friends; in this, he is confronted by mirrors of his past self. Both the audience and Willis see how far he has changed. I’m reminded of two movies that similarly feature optimistic endings; Get Out and Promising Young Woman. This positivity placates rather than drives conversation.

The film evokes the concept of two warring sides, neither in the right. However, in this case, while not explicitly confirmed, it seems that humanity was in the wrong. Instead of gray-versus-gray, it’s more black-versus-white. It’s just an interesting note.

The film had a magnificent scene where Zammis asks Willis what the difference between humans and Dracs is. He has the innocence of a child. Innocence that will be ruined by the cold world. It’s like the scene in Attack on Titan. Sasha innocently asked Onyankopon “why are you black?”

I’ll be reading the book to compare.