Steve McQueen's 'An Enemy Of The People'

Click on the title to get the juice... Film 1. The Hunter (1980) 2. Tom Horn (1980) 3. An Enemy of the People (1978) 4. Dixie Dynamite (1976) 5. The Towering Inferno (1974) 6. Papillon (1973) 7. The Getaway (1972) 8. Junior Bonner (1972) 9. On Any Sunday (1971) 10. Le Mans (1971) 11. The Reivers (1969) 12. Bullitt (1968) 13. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) 14. The Sand Pebbles (1966) 15. Nevada Smith (1966) 16. The Cincinnati Kid (1965) 17. Baby The Rain Must Fall(1965) 18. Love With The Proper Stranger (1963) 19. Soldier In The Rain (1963) 20. The Great Escape (1963) 21. The War Lover (1962) 22. Hell Is For Heroes (1962) 23. The Honeymoon Machine (1961) 24. The Magnificent Seven (1960) 25. Never So Few (1959) 26. The Great St.Louis Bank Robbery (1959) 27. The Blob (1958) 28. Never Love A Stranger (1958) 29. Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 30. Girl On The Run (1953) TV 1. Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959&60) 2. Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-61) 3. Trackdown (1958) 4. Tales of Wells Fargo (1958) 5. Climax! (1958) 6. The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1957) 7. West Point (1957) 8. Studio One (1957) TV 9. The United States Steel Hour (1956) 10. Goodyear Television Playhouse (1955)	An Enemy Of The People The Original Aspect Ratio of this film is 1.85:1. Best available homevideo format is VHS (OOP) 1.33:1 pan and scan tapes. Some fans have TV taped versions which are in the correct 1.85:1 format.
	The Story
	Based on a play written by Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People tells the story of a naive and honest doctor's fight to save the people of the small town he lives in from slow death caused by a polluted water system which is also poisoning the town's lucrative tourist springs. He must battle the money minded people who run the town, as they attempt to silence his voice. Enemy has been presented much as it would have been on stage, and you should watch it as though you were watching a live theatre production. This is part of the beauty and courage of the film.
	The Studio was against it
	This film recieved only limited release before Warner Brothers withdrew it from circulation. The reasons were a mixture of financial and image concerns. They felt that the film would be unsuccessful and that the McQueen image was not properly suited to this type of production. They did not even have the confidence to market it on its own strengths, such as in the case of the US Movie poster campaign, which utilized images from previous McQueen films surrounding one image of his character from Enemy. The film fared better in the Japanese and UK poster campaigns, where the film was allowed to stand alone.
	US OneSheet movie poster.	Japanese movie poster
	Steve McQueen himself fought hard for the success Enemy, touring it through Universities and even doing public talks on the film to students. His efforts proved noble but ultimately unsuccessful at the time. Perhaps in this age of home theatre Enemy will eventually get a decent release.
	Is it any good?
	And so the ultimate question is asked... Is Enemy any good? I will start by saying that Enemy is vastly better in it's correct widescreen presentation, which captures a much more intimate emotional presence than the pan and scan version can achieve. If you are looking for the McQueen of the blockbuster movie vein, then you might be dissapointed. Steve is wearing granny glasses and a large beard. If you don't enjoy 'intimate' stage plays you will probably be dissapointed. There are no big screen style action scenes, or special effects. Enemy is a good effort at transferring a stage play to film, but not a great success. McQueen's performance is good, and that of the support cast ranges from good to excellent.
	A two minute clip from the film can be viewed HERE