Enemy of the State **** (1998, Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Tom Sizemore, Gabriel Byrne, Ian Hart, Jake Busey, Scott Caan, Jason Lee) – Classic Movie Review 751

Will Smith and Gene Hackman give outstanding performances in Tony Scott’s 1998 pounding, edge-of-seat conspiracy thriller film Enemy of the State.

Will Smith and Gene Hackman are ideally cast and give outstanding star performances in director Tony Scott’s 1998 pounding, edge-of-seat conspiracy thriller that really is the business.

Will Smith stars in the 1998 film Enemy of the State as lawyer Robert Dean, who finds he is in mortal danger from renegade government agents after he takes possession of a computer disk containing evidence of a political assassination recorded on film by a birdwatcher’s camera.

Dean’s bank accounts are closed, he is fired from his job and his wife is told lies about him having affairs. His only hope of survival is a mysterious former government agent known as Brill (Gene Hackman).

Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Tom Sizemore, Gabriel Byrne, Ian Hart, Jake Busey, Scott Caan and Jason Lee are also in the exceptional cast.

There is excellent work by writer David Marconi, cinematographer Dan Mindel and composer Trevor Rabin.

Tony Scott directs like a man on fire.

Buena Vista Pictures released the film on 20 November 1998 on its Touchstone Pictures label. It was a big hit, grossing $250.8 million on a $90 million budget.

Gene Hackman previously acted in another spying and surveillance thriller, The Conversation (1974). The photograph in his character Brill’s NSA file is of Hackman in The Conversation.

The cast

The cast are Will Smith as Robert Clayton Dean, Gene Hackman as Edward ‘Brill’ Lyle, Jon Voight as NSA Assistant Director Thomas Brian Reynolds, Regina King as Carla Dean Loren Dean as NSA Agent Loren Hicks, Jake Busey as Krug, Barry Pepper as NSA Agent David Pratt, Jason Lee as Daniel Leon Zavitz, Gabriel Byrne as Brill imposter, Lisa Bonet as Rachel Banks, Jack Black as NSA Agent Fiedler, Jamie Kennedy as NSA Agent Jamie Williams, Scott Caan as Jones, James LeGros as Jerry Miller, Stuart Wilson as Congressman Sam Albert, Ian Hart as NSA Agent John Bingham, Jascha Washington as Eric Dean, Anna Gunn as Emily Reynolds, Grant Heslov as Lenny Bloom, Bodhi Elfman as NSA Agent Van, Dan Butler as NSA Director Admiral Shaffer, Jason Robards as Congressman Philip Hammersley, John Capodice as Old Worker #1, Seth Green as NSA Agent Selby, Tom Sizemore as Paulie Pintero, Philip Baker Hall as Mark Silverberg, Brian Markinson as Brian Blake and Larry King as Himself.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 751 derekwinnert.com