Friday, November 20, 1998
State of confusion
Bruckheimer’s newest production capitalizes on audiences’
fears
of government power
By Lonnie Harris
Daily Bruin Staff
Maybe its the coming of the new millennium. Maybe its a result
of the recent scandals plaguing President Clinton. It could be the
lack of serious enemies after the fall of the Soviet Union. For
whatever reason, America has fallen into the grips of extreme
paranoia, constantly looking over its national shoulder for the
big, bad conglomerate looking to control everyone’s daily life.
Whether or not they espouse realistic, believable conceits or
merely function as an entertaining vehicle for espionage fiction,
movie paranoia seems to increase each year as the 1990s press
toward oblivion. The recent summer flick "X-Files" is but one
example of the massive conspiracy and cover-up genre, which also
includes "Conspiracy Theory," "Wag the Dog" and "Men in Black" (the
latter obviously more zany than average).
And where there’s a trend, there’s Jerry Bruckheimer, the
Hollywood producer who, along with late partner Don Simpson, was
part of the producing team with perhaps the best track record in
Hollywood. With films including "Beverly Hills Cop", "Top Gun",
"Risky Business," "The Rock" and this summer’s "Armageddon",
Bruckheimer has always been on top of whatever craze the American
public wants to see in its films. With the release this Friday of
the conspiracy-laden "Enemy of the State", Bruckheimer attempts to
capitalize on the fear of rising governmental power that has
entranced so many Americans.
"Its a real issue. Its certainly easy now to look into any of
your lives and invade your privacy," Bruckheimer says. "A lot of
its illegal, but that doesn’t stop people. Fortunately, most of us
don’t have the things to hide that other people have to hide. But
you just have to have vigilance on both sides. You can’t have
privacy now, because (technology is) just miles above that."
In order to put his vision on screen, Bruckheimer turned to
veteran director Tony Scott ("Top Gun" and "True Romance"). Scott
used several different camera techniques to give the movie a more
eerie, technology-laden look. The result, he hopes, is a
frightening yet realistic portrayal of the immense power of the
United States intelligence community.
"’The Conversation’ was a very dark, unforgiving piece about
paranoia," Scott says. "This is a mainstream movie about paranoia,
but there’s a difference in lightness and darkness. I think it is
an intelligent movie, and it’s a jigsaw puzzle. You watch an
audience and they don’t leave the edge of their seat for two
hours."
The film itself centers around lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Will
Smith), who finds himself (for some unknown reason) being hotly
pursued by government agents, lead by Jon Voight, using all kinds
of state-of-the-art satellite and communications technology. With
the help of former NSA agent Brill (Gene Hackman), Dean must
somehow figure out why the agents are following him and how he can
reassume his life.
Much of the fun of the thriller is in checking out the assorted
gadgetry and paraphernalia used by the NSA in pursing Smith. The
sundry spy equipment includes small bugging devices placed in his
clothing, the use of satellite images to track him down
minute-by-minute, and even carefully-placed microphones used to
record secret conversations.
"In order to gain a sense of authenticity, the production took a
tour of the CIA Headquarters, as well as a limited tour of the NSA.
We got no cooperation, really," Bruckheimer says. "We got a look
inside the CIA, (but) they’re not a factor in the movie. We also
(went) through a lot of pulling strings, (to get) into the NSA.
Certainly they didn’t give you a look … for some reason. And the
technology of the film is 12 years old."
Perhaps the CIA tour was most interesting for the film’s star
(and Hollywood man-of-the-moment) Will Smith, previously unfamiliar
with most of the methods used by secret government agencies for
surveillance. The actor has always been a conspiracy buff, however,
and delighted to espouse some of his more wild theories.
"I’m on the Internet probably nine hours a week," Smith says.
"So I’ve had conspiracy theories forever. I have friends that I
argue with all the (time), about different conspiracies. The one
that I had a small win a few months ago was the Tuskegee syphilis
test. I’ve been saying that for years."
Bruckheimer also enlisted the aid of a former company man,
ex-NSA agent Larry Cox. He worked with the filmmakers, providing
information about some technology (though nothing currently in use,
for purposes of national security) that could prove interesting in
the story. Cox was, however, quick to point out that the movie is
not an accurate representation of the inner-workings of American
government. Instead it opts for a more entertaining and fanciful
depiction of the U.S. Intelligence system.
"What you see in the movie is a way of conducting a surveillance
operation against somebody that’s fairly classical," Cox says. "The
movie comes down hard on the issue of encryption, and that’s what
makes it so timely and so neat. It addresses this issue in a
sinister way. If you could do all these things, what could you do
and how would it look?"
As in all Bruckheimer films, sometimes exploring the issues
takes a back seat to providing two hours of entertainment to a
thrill-hungry audience. For this reason, several chase sequences
and action scenes were put into the movie to give it more of a
fast-paced, adventurous feel.
"Its still a word-of-mouth business," Bruckheimer says. "No
matter how much money you put into advertising, the audiences still
have to enjoy it. I have a fear of failure. You know, I make these
movies and open them up, and three people show up. It happens to
everybody. It just hasn’t happened recently."Photos by Linda R.
Chen
Will Smith stars in "Enemy of the State" as an attorney who
unknowingly holds information about the death of a Congressman.
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