Enemy
of the State demonstrates in depth how terrorism and
other high crimes can be fought, using the technology of electronic
eavesdropping, communication satellites, and computer hacking,
thus making privacy obsolete. Although most filmviewers will
doubtless assume that the high-tech gadgetry is yet another
Hollywood fantasy of director Tony Scott (of Crimson
Tide and Top Gun fame), in fact Big
Brother technology does exist, is used, and the potential
to track the movements of ordinary citizens is in the hands
of government as well as those in the private sector who have
manufactured devices that can be used to invade our privacy.
Anyone, the film demonstrates, can be caught up in a surveillance
nightmare, and those controlling the technology depicted in
the film can also fabricate news stories to discredit us,
freeze our bank accounts, and plant electronic bugs on our
person and in our homes. Also nominated for the best film
in the categories of democracy and human rights, Enemy
of the State highlights a more insidious reality than
the hypothetical of The Siege, yet both films
serve as wake-up calls to remind us that assumptions about
our civil liberties and democratic freedoms cannot be taken
for granted. MH
I
want to comment on this film
