Hardly anyone seems to have noticed that Enemy Mine is virtually a space-age remake of Hell In The Pacific. Instead of an American and a Japanese soldier marooned together on a remote island, we have a human and an alien marooned together on a remote planet. Nonetheless, Enemy Mine is a nicely done film which features some pretty amazing sets and locations, awesome lizard-man make-up, and a fairly thoughtful (albeit sentimental) storyline.
In the future, the nations of Earth have finally found peace with each other and begun to channel their energies into the exploration of space. However, whilst navigating the star systems claiming planets and moons as colonies, the Earthlings discover that another race exists in the universe known as the Dracs, from the planet Draco. It isn't long before the humans and the Dracs are engaged in a full-scale space war. The film opens with a spaceship battle between a squadron of human fighters and their Drac opponents. Human pilot Davidge (Dennis Quaid) crashes his spaceship on a desolate, uninhabited planet whilst pursuing one of his foes, but before the crash he manages to cause enough damage to the other spaceship to make it crash also. Eventually Davidge and the Drac, Jeriba (Louis Gossett Jr), find each other on the surface of their new temporary home planet. Initially, they hate each other and spend most of their time trying to kill each other. But as it becomes clearer that they are stranded, with no apparent help en route to rescue either of them, they realise that they must put aside their differences in order to survive. After several, years, the Drac (being of an asexual species) gives birth to a baby son, but dies during the labour. Davidge is left to raise the baby Drac, Zammis (Bumper Robinson), but things take a turn for the worse when some cruel human scavengers arrive and set up an illegal mine on the planet, using captured Dracs as slave-miners.
The best part of the film is the exploration of Quaid and Gossett's relationship, how they initially hate and distrust but gradually come to appreciate and understand each other. The make-up used to transform Gossett into this lizard-like alien is absolutely incredible. Later, when Gossett's character dies and his baby son takes his place, the bond between human and young alien becomes genuinely touching. The film is less enthralling during the more action-orientated scenes, as well as the scenes set aboard the human space station. The opening spaceship battle is stilted and unconvincing; the scenes where Davidge is reunited with his fellow humans after years stranded on the unfamiliar planet are done too hurriedly and make little impact on the story. The film's climax, in which Davidge tries to rescue his young Drac friend from the scavengers has flashes of gruesome excitement but is another scene that seems to have been put together in great haste (the ending feels really sudden and under-developed). However, purely for its lovely middle section - which has more to do with issues like tolerance and teamwork than science fiction - Enemy Mine remains a commendable film.
In the future, the nations of Earth have finally found peace with each other and begun to channel their energies into the exploration of space. However, whilst navigating the star systems claiming planets and moons as colonies, the Earthlings discover that another race exists in the universe known as the Dracs, from the planet Draco. It isn't long before the humans and the Dracs are engaged in a full-scale space war. The film opens with a spaceship battle between a squadron of human fighters and their Drac opponents. Human pilot Davidge (Dennis Quaid) crashes his spaceship on a desolate, uninhabited planet whilst pursuing one of his foes, but before the crash he manages to cause enough damage to the other spaceship to make it crash also. Eventually Davidge and the Drac, Jeriba (Louis Gossett Jr), find each other on the surface of their new temporary home planet. Initially, they hate each other and spend most of their time trying to kill each other. But as it becomes clearer that they are stranded, with no apparent help en route to rescue either of them, they realise that they must put aside their differences in order to survive. After several, years, the Drac (being of an asexual species) gives birth to a baby son, but dies during the labour. Davidge is left to raise the baby Drac, Zammis (Bumper Robinson), but things take a turn for the worse when some cruel human scavengers arrive and set up an illegal mine on the planet, using captured Dracs as slave-miners.
The best part of the film is the exploration of Quaid and Gossett's relationship, how they initially hate and distrust but gradually come to appreciate and understand each other. The make-up used to transform Gossett into this lizard-like alien is absolutely incredible. Later, when Gossett's character dies and his baby son takes his place, the bond between human and young alien becomes genuinely touching. The film is less enthralling during the more action-orientated scenes, as well as the scenes set aboard the human space station. The opening spaceship battle is stilted and unconvincing; the scenes where Davidge is reunited with his fellow humans after years stranded on the unfamiliar planet are done too hurriedly and make little impact on the story. The film's climax, in which Davidge tries to rescue his young Drac friend from the scavengers has flashes of gruesome excitement but is another scene that seems to have been put together in great haste (the ending feels really sudden and under-developed). However, purely for its lovely middle section - which has more to do with issues like tolerance and teamwork than science fiction - Enemy Mine remains a commendable film.