Search - The Last Enemy on DVD

Not Too Far in the Future

A Book Lover | ny USA | 02/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was having a discussion with a much younger person, a college freshman, who was talking enthusiastically about how much she accomplishes on the internet: banking, investing, shopping, updating her information on Facebook. I suggested that she read George Orwell's 1984, Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale and watch the movie The Net. Also to check out what happened during the 2003 North East Blackout when debit cards wouldn't work, computers stopped, cell towers were overloaded so it was hard to make a call and if you needed a card to enter a building, you're out of luck. This BBC drama takes the whole scenario even further to demonstrate the good and the bad of using surveillance technology to protect us as long as we are considered "the good citizens." You don't have to be particularly paraniod to see how many of the things written about in 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale have become matters of course.

This series has excellent acting, plenty of suspense and makes you want to watch it all in one viewing. It's entertaining as well as thought-provoking."

Not For Those Predisposed To Paranoia

MadMacs | Honolulu, HI United States | 06/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An intriguing thriller based on the fear that government can and eventually will endorse a 24/7/365 total approach to control and 'right think' a populace ala Orwell's Big Brother.

As London has become the de facto standard in regards to CCT video, advances in heuristic computer modeling via known association, and biometric recognition software - 'Enemy' drops a brilliant computer engineer into this coming world via the mysterious death of his estranged brother, a well-known and respected field aid worker helping the less fortunates of the world. A brother that may have stumbled into an international cover-up of a possible global pandemic.

Equally terrifying and powerful, this stark well-made BBC production (a standard that we in the US should strive for IMO) has already been added to my library."

More brilliant than that is difficult

Jacques COULARDEAU | OLLIERGUES France | 10/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A series that is a prodigiously well-knit plot, so well-knit that we can wonder what the truth is in the end. It is a lot more than just a rewriting of Big Brother with all the cameras everywhere and the tracking chips in the shoes, belts, or even under the skin. All that is covered up by the imposed ID card which is supposed to concentrate opposition while the necessary software are tested to identify the eyes, the finger prints, the figure and who knows what else of every single person. The new generation of trackers are infinitesimally small molecules injected or simply incorporated in the body of a person even be it only via a drink and then the person is tagged for life, and even beyond. The series here shows how an experiment went wrong, not really wrong but actually came out dirty. A set of these tags were injected to thousands of refugees in Afghanistan in some kind of innocuous medical injection, and that tag had the capacity to recognize the genes of the person and then to kill one particular human family, Arabs in that case. The film on such a point is badly informed since in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan the people are of Indo-European stock and not Semitic, and wrong again if you wonder how such a tracker can make the difference between a Jewish Semite and an Arab Semite? But never mind such details. They were testing a genetic weapon that could annihilate a whole population in a few days, in other words an illegal genocidal genetic weapon. They even doubled up the demonstration by making the only British citizen who got the tag recover within twenty-four hours. So Big Brother is becoming there Big Western War Criminal. And the West wonders then where these middle-easterners and far-easterners find their terrorist ideas. In our security laboratories, and no where else. But the series has another interest. It shows the inside picture of that kind of security experimentation and we find out that there are at least four or five levels and that most people have one foot in more than one level and often in three levels. The last scene is typical. Michael, the NGO worker who was the ultimate guinea pig of the tag is executed on the ship that is leaving Britain by the man who helped all along Michael, his Brother Stephen and his wife Yasim, and we discover that he who appeared to be a freelance fighter to avenge his own daughter is in fact a multiple agent working for the secret and totally undercover circle of the security services of the government. That gives to the series an interesting twinge. Note that tag was also used against illegal immigrant who were infected in a way or another and died within days. Actually the doctor of this experiment manages to find a cure but he is eliminated in due time and all evidence destroyed. The experiment had been a full success. Let's keep that in reserve. The final element is the sentimental level. Michael is officially killed and buried and Stephen comes back from China for the funeral. Yasim, Michael's wife is then ripped between the dead husband and his brother, and the brother is divided between his brother's wife and his brother's widow. One of the side effects of that false death and burial is that Stephen is brought back to England and then will no longer be able to leave, hence will be forced to work for the government. So even the wife torn between two brothers is not really dramatic, certainly not tragic. It is one more level of political plotting. But altogether the series is interesting and even fascinating, British in one word in that genre of political science fiction.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
"

Paranoia plus

R. Miller | Woodstock, Georgia USA | 08/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you like a thrilling conspiracy story then this is the DVD for you. A very compelling movie, it deals with the government's ability to monitor citizens' every movement, financial transaction, what they buy and possibly even deduce their thoughts through a "super computer" program that the British government is attempting to implement. Throw in some shady characters, all with unknown agendas and the threat of a possible biological attack you have several hours of great entertaimnent. Be prepared to sit down and watch this movie from beginning to end because once it grabs your interest you can't wait to see the outcome. Great acting, interesting characters and a well produced DVD make this a very entertaining and worthwhile investment. There are many plot surprises along the way so don't think you have this figured out until the end. One of the best TV dramas I have seen in quite awhile."