The 1980s was a decade of excellence and excess for science fiction flicks. With existential thrillers, crowd-pleasing blockbusters, and Saturday matinee popcorn fare like “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,” “Flash Gordon,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “The Thing,” “Blade Runner,” “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan,” “The Last Starfighter,” “Dune,” “Terminator,” “Predator,” and “The Abyss” all making the popular genre a pure money-printing haven for Tinsel Town.
But one overlooked sci-fi release launched at Christmastime on Dec. 20, 1985, is director Wolfgang Petersen’s “Enemy Mine.” Set in the year 2092 as an interstellar war erupts, Earthling space pilot Will Davidge (Dennis Quaid) and a reptilian alien Drac (Lou Gossett Jr.) crash land on barren Fyrine IV after an intense dogfight over the hostile planet, where they must set aside their hate to defeat monstrous threats lurking above and beneath the world’s surface.
“Enemy Mine” firmly occupies a particularly small niche in the annals of Hollywood science fiction films in the tsunami of post-“Star Wars” screenplays that flooded studio executives’ offices from Burbank to Buena Park. It’s one that opted for a gentler, more universal humanistic tale of forging friendships in severe adversity, overcoming prejudices, battling together for survival, and the precious nature of life, no matter what your species or what side of the galaxy you were born in.
This original feature is a curious and compelling film, especially if you haven’t seen it in a while. Produced for an estimated $40 million by 20th Century Fox, it was the first English-language project for German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (“Das Boot,” “The Neverending Story,” “The Perfect Storm”) and was based on the 1979 novella written by sci-fi author Barry B. Longyear.
The scaly lizard-like race of the Drac plainly acts as a generic symbol of any misunderstood or aggressive adversary with a culture, agenda, or ideology that happens to clash with our own and feels uncomfortably foreign.
Oh yeah, and there’s the surprise gender-bending twist where it’s revealed that “Jerry” the asexual Drac is pregnant and gives birth to an infant alien later lovingly cared for and raised by Davidge. The notion of found families plays heavily in the plot as Davidge protects the child named Zammis against Scavenger miners and finally returns him to the Drac homeworld.
Released a few days before Santa’s sleigh traversed the skies, “Enemy Mine” was a financial failure, mainly because Petersen had to scrap nearly all of the production when the project’s original director, Richard Loncraine, left the movie when difficult creative differences arose. When all the tickets were tallied, the sci-fi release managed to collect just $12.3 million total worldwide.
After its theatrical run, the film did enjoy a resurrection in video stores and on premium cable services of the day like HBO.
If anything, “Enemy Mine” shares complementary aspects with John Carpenter’s “Starman,” which was released a year earlier in 1984, and one that I consider to be one of his finest and most underrated films. (I might be a bit partial because my uncle, Bill Varney, was the re-recording mixer on it!) Both take an empathetic approach to encounters between Humankind and extraterrestrials and provide noble intellectual ingredients for hope eternal.
It could be slightly hampered by its dated practical visual effects and stage-bound planetary sets, but what it lacks in technical merits, it more than makes up for in emotional complexity, as evidenced by the fantastic performances delivered by Quaid and Gossett Jr.
Hot topics such as race, gender, religion, and the dehumanizing effects of war never go out of style, unfortunately, but during the holidays, the harsh mechanics of the world do seem to pause for a brief, blessed period.
Most notable here is composer Maurice Jarre’s lush synth-heavy score and the exceptional Drac alien makeup by Chris Walas, the creature effects master who’d just wowed audiences with his fantastic “Gremlins” work.
Last summer, news broke that a Disney (Uh-oh!) remake is currently in the pipeline through its 20th Century Studios division from “Star Trek: Picard” showrunner Terry Matalas (“12 Monkeys”). Though it’s a tall order, we can only hope this reboot retains the charm and warmth of the original that’s bravely stood the test of time as a true ’80s treasure.
Sure, it’s a thinly-veiled allegory of America’s frosty Cold War with the Soviet Union that was still brewing hotly in 1985, but those compassionate “love thy enemy” themes can traverse the decades. And if you don’t consider that a beautifully apt message of tolerance at Christmas this year during the rash of turbulent current events, then you don’t know a candy cane from a crowbar.
Enemy Mine isn’t currently available as part of any streaming service, but you can rent or buy a digital version on Amazon Prime Video. Alternatively, you can pick up the physical Blu-ray from Amazon.
