Production year:1978
Directors:George Schaefer
Screenplay: Arthur Miller, Alexander Jacobs, Henrik Ibsen
Composers:Leonard Rosenman
Camera operators:Paul Lohmann
Producers: Steve McQueen, George Schaefer, Philip L. Parslow
Actors: Luke Raines, Charles Durning, Steve McQueen, Richard Dysart, Bibi Andersson, Richard Bradford, Eric Christmas, Michael Christopher, Michael Higgins, Robin Pearson Rose,
Country: USA
World Premiere: 10/14/1980
US Premiere: March 17, 1978
Film company:First Artists, Solar Productions
Film budget: $2,500,000
Viewer review
I think that several people have seen this film throughout the former Soviet Union. I think there are no more than 20 of them. It's strange to think that one of the legendary McQueen's best acting works was almost invisible. Moreover, as it turns out, many of his fans in the West prefer not to notice “Enemy of the People” at all, as it breaks the stereotype of their idol as the “King of Coolness”.
On the one hand, it is quite clear why the film has been forgotten. Firstly, it was shot literally in the format of a TV show: three decorations and a full pavilion shoot. Second, he wasn't nominated for anything. And then in the same vein.
Despite the participation of such notable actors as acuminous Durning and Bergman actress Bibi Andersson, the film remained McQueen's low-budget adventure. And despite some purely technical drawbacks, it's still a mystery to me why the film got so lost.
After “The Moth”, this is probably Steve McQueen's most powerful acting job. I would even say that he and Moth are on a par. If in the first case it is a film about a difficult (typical of Dalton Trumbo) and distorted but not broken fortitude, in “Enemy of the People” we can see the theme that worried McQueen so much in the last years of his life: the spiritual confrontation between a proud loner and the surrounding reality.
Dr. Thomas Stockmann became not only the hero of Ibsen's play, but also a classic figure of the “bitter seventies”. The original ending, full of military pathos, was slightly adjusted, making the story hopeless. Maybe this militant anti-liberalism didn't give the film a big deal. After all, many, much more politically correct and demonstrative works in the format of a play (“12 Angry Men”, “To Kill a Mockingbird”) have been recognized, although the thoughts and conclusions expressed there are much simpler and more primitive than Ibsen's thoughts about the “majority”.
This is really an unusual, simple, but small masterpiece. McQueen has created a monument for himself that might someday be appreciated. His monument is not to himself, but to a free, strong and brave man who will die when faced with circumstances. But does that stop him?
Rating 9 out of 10
Author DimmcMurfy
http://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/14457/
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