By Geno McGahee
In 1984, Dennis Quaid was in one of my favorite movies. DREAMSCAPE was a tremendous flick and when I was about 12 years old, I had the opportunity to see it and it was great. I recently saw it again after all these years and it still is a quality film. Quaid would follow up one year later with ENEMY MINE, which would also reunite him with Louis Gossett JR. Can’t place the other film they were in together? Go ahead. Think….
If you remembered that they co-starred in the 1983 JAWS 3-D, you are a true 80’s fan. That shark flick wasn’t as bad as everyone says it is. I quite like it, but it’s not as good as ENEMY MINE, one of the best films for all ages that mixes humor and some dramatic moments. It was the 80s and we were not plagued by CGI. This film used practical effects and models and I really prefer that. It just looks better.
Davidge (Quaid) is an astronaut in the future, fighting a war against an alien race known as “the dracs”. A big firefight ensues and Davidge’s heroism costs him as he chases a drac ship too low and it crashes them both onto a foreign planet. Davidge’s co-pilot dies, but not after a warning. He informs Davidge that his girlfriend is sick of the fat jokes that he’s been saying. Davidge agrees and his friend fades out.
Jeriba (Gossett JR) finds a place near a lake to stay and regroup as Davidge seeks him out with the intent to kill him. The script gets flipped and Jeriba takes Davidge prisoner without knowing exactly what to do with him. They speak different languages and their races are at war. Davidge hates the dracs and Jeriba believes his race is superior. This odd couple has a very rocky start.
Time passes and the two begin conversing with Jeriba learning some of the English language and they are slowly becoming friends, even though they still have their moments of conflict, including a time when Davidge insults Jeriba’s god. Jeriba returns the insult by taking a jab at Mickey Mouse, who he mistook for a human god. The two make up and they begin to trust each other.
Jeriba teaches Davidge the language of the Dracs and the philosophy. The two start to understand that the conflict that the two races have, has little to do with them and more to do with the governments and their propaganda. Sounds familiar. They begin to confide in each other and even save each other’s lives a couple times before something unexpected happens. Jeriba gets pregnant and Davidge laughs and says “don’t look at me.” There is enough humor in this to make you really laugh at times but it really runs the gambit of all emotions. Gossett JR and Quaid do a tremendous job working off of each other.
(Spoiler) Jeriba dies during birth and now Davidge is left with a baby Drac named “Zammis.” Zammis (Bumper Robinson) grows fast and starts to learn about the planet. Davidge warns him of a group of evil people that have drac slaves, but Zammis thinks that there has to be good in the humans because Davidge or “Uncle” is good. He gets captured by this group of human jerks led by Stubbs (Brion James). Davidge gets recovered and returns to his space station but he hijacks a ship and returns to save Zammis, leading to a great showdown.
ENEMY MINE is a fantastic family movie with great performances by Gossett JR and Quaid. This really is a film carried most of the time by two characters and their evolution and growth. Everyone else did a great job in this as well, including the late Brion James, but the two main actors cast for this made this film amazing.
I highly recommend ENEMY MINE. It’s a movie that I loved when I was 12 and now I love it even more than I did then. It’s a great family flick that mixes dramatic, suspenseful and comedic moments into a film that is really an overview of our nature as people and our misconceptions when it comes to other races and the conflicts that we are put into by those in charge. This film had a bigger purpose than to merely entertain and it succeeds across the board.
Rating: 9/10