Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

kijii Steve McQueen is both the Executive Producer and star of this version of Ibsen's powerful play. This is a diversion from the usual McQueen that I have grown to know over the years, but he is superb, here, as the proclaimed "Enemy of the People." Here, McQueen plays the role of a local doctor, Doctor Thomas Stockman, who discovers that the town's water supply is "poisoned" with chemicals and bacteria from a local tannery, and he is driven to let the town know of this before it is too late. However, his brother, Peter Stockman (Charles Durning), is the mayor of the town and anxious to promote the town for its healthy spa waters. If the spa water supply is cleaned up, it would cost the town extra time and a tax increase would be necessary to pay for the cleanup. This difference between Thomas and Peter sets up a conflict in which neither side can "give in." Both sides vie for support from the town and its voice, the local newspaper. To make matters worse, Thomas's wife, Catherine (Bibi Andersson), and family (two young boys and an older girl who works as a local nurse) are caught in the middle of what may be called "local mob violence" and have no local support and no other place to go...Peter blocks Thomas and his family from either emigrating to America or working in another town in Norway. Thomas is trapped between his discovered truth (that he cannot escape or ignore) and his own family's existence.

bkoganbing Hendrik Ibsen's An Enemy Of The People maybe even more timely today than it was when it came out in the waning years of the 19th century. The story is about a doctor who has just returned home to his native Norwegian village and has discovered that the industrial spill from the tannery has polluted the mineral waters of a creek in the area. The place is getting a reputation for healing waters like Iceland's Blue Lagoon or the mineral springs in Saratoga and the town is thinking about the big bucks coming when they start promoting the town as a healing resort just like Saratoga. Especially Mayor Charles Durning.This version could have been a classic, but for the horrible miscasting of Steve McQueen who wanted to do something different. Seeing McQueen delivering Ibsen's lines as the doctor character all I could think of was that this part cried for a classically trained actor like Richard Burton. And Burton at this time was being cast in a lot of junk way beneath him.McQueen is a scientist and for him the issue is clear, clean up the stream. But gradually people start rationalizing why they should not do it, not the least of which is who's going to pay for it? Durning as mayor who also is McQueen's brother thinks like a politician the same way Dr. McQueen thinks like a scientist.In my area of Western New York we famously saw industrial waste give us the poison of Love Canal. More recently we saw Tonawanda Coke caught disposing their waste in an unsafe manner. People reacted to that as surely as their past lives and occupations dictated they shouldI truly wish someone would give a performance of An Enemy Of The People in Flint, Michigan because that's the example that's uppermost in the minds of today's citizen.I only wish someone like Richard Burton or Al Pacino, possibly even Warren Beatty had done this film.

Kansas-5 Late in his brief career, Steve McQueen, a superstar for his roles in action movies, intensely wanted a chance to demonstrate his abilities in a classical framework. To that end he produced this cinematic version of the Ibsen play about a 19th-Century whistleblower and worked for scale, as did other actors. The script is adapted from the excellent adaptation done by Arthur Miller a half-century ago.The screenplay closely follows the original work and utilizes a minimum of sets with only one exterior shoot. Despite this constriction, this film is truly unforgettable. The acting by McQueen, Richard Dysart, Charles Durning and Bibi Anderson is superb. The cinematography is excellent as well, conveying an almost tactile appreciation of period costumes and interiors of the sort found in Matewan by John Sayles.The examination of the political and emotional whirlwinds described by Ibsen would be topical today.The regrettable part of this enterprise was the inexplicable failure of the studio to release the film in the U.S. DVD versions can be found and used PAL videotape versions are available from the U.K., Australia and other countries that use that format.

jhclues Executive Producer and star Steve McQueen and director George Schaefer bring Henrik Ibsen's `An Enemy of the People' to the screen, giving life and imagery to the powerful words of this Master playwright. First performed on stage in Oslo in the 1880's, the story is every bit as pertinent today as it was when it was written, for the themes of right and wrong, principle and ideal, democracy and commitment are timeless. What must a man do when he knows he is right? How far should he be willing to go, how much sacrifice should be made in the name of the truth? Ibsen contends that there can be no shades of gray when it comes to such matters, that truth is nothing less than absolute, and must be maintained as such; honesty cannot be found in acquiescence to the solid majority. As Doctor Thomas Stockman, McQueen is the embodiment of morality; the good and the just, the voice of reason and truth crying out amid a wilderness of complacency, corruption and complicity, the individual against the masses. It's the strength of the pure against the desperate agenda of the moderates who would conspire and compromise away all that is holy for the sake of self-aggrandizement. This is a stirring and emotional story that exposes the heart of darkness which unfortunately dwells within the human spirit; but in doing so, it also serves to illuminate the magnanimity of that same spirit, as well. The construction is done with precision and the message is unequivocal; simply put, it is a masterful study of the human condition.Ironically, the fate of this movie was ultimately decided by circumstances not unlike those within the story itself. Never released, still unavailable on video and very rarely shown on television (even cable, which seems quite inexplicable), the Powers that Be decided that this was not the Steve McQueen (heavier, with long hair and full beard) the public wanted to see; what `they' wanted (they contend) was a McQueen `with a gun in his hand,' and plenty of action. They decreed that a meaningful drama starring an action hero was somehow taboo. And that reasoning must be regarded now as nothing less than criminal. Because Steve McQueen is brilliant in this role; there is a depth and heart to his Stockman that wrings every bit of strength and truth out of Ibsen's words. Anyone who is lucky enough to have seen this film would agree, I believe, that its unavailability in not only unbelievable, but unforgivable. The wonderful Bibi Andersson also gives an exceptional performance here as Catherine Stockman, a part for which she could easily (and should) have received an Oscar nomination. The supporting cast includes Charles Durning (Peter Stockman), Richard Dysart (Aslaksen), Michael Cristofer (Hovstad), Michael Higgins (Billing), Eric Christmas (Morten), Robin Pearson Rose (Petra) and Richard Bradford (Captain Forster). `An Enemy of the People' is an excellent rendering of a timeless classic by one of the world's master dramatists; the movie itself is a classic in its own right. It took courage for McQueen to venture into this territory, but the result is indeed his triumph; this film deserves to be seen, and hopefully, through the magic of video, some day it will be. I rate this one 10/10.