The Last Enemy [DVD]

The first two or three episodes of this series are fantastic, exceptionally gripping, mysterious and well-acted. The picture of a near-future Britain dominated by ID cards, CCTV etc is well-evoked and quite believable, mostly, as an extrapolation of present trends. And the central love triangle is very well-done, it packs a good deal of emotional power, as does the growth of Stephen Ezard from remote ivory-tower mathematician to passionate lover and rebel. The wholer thing feels like an updating of 1984, not only because of the obvious 'big Brother' theme but also because the central character Stephen has a similar trajectory to Winston in 1984--he only becomes a rebel, he only begins to realise the monstrous nature of the system, when he falls in love. It is human emotion not high-flown ideals that drive him.
But as things go on, though the action stays good and the characters are just as good as before, the storyline starts to get more and more preposterous and by the end it just feels like the whole thing had got away from the creators a bit. Ends are not properly tied up, people do things randomly, and there are some truly unbelievable moments, which is rather disappointing, which is why I'm giving it four instead of five stars.
However the end is also very similar to 1984 as it offers really very little hope that you can in fact escape the clutches of Big Brother.

Although this mini-series had its moments, I found it mostly incomprehensible and struggled to interpret what was going on. However, this could be attributed to one of my many shortcomings. In my opinion it was too long but it painted a picture of "Big Brother" Britain which, if not completely true at the moment, could perhaps become reality in the future. Although Robert Carlisle's character was more or less convincing, I found the other characters to be less so. I amazed myself by actually getting to the end of this series.

This movie has a relevant message. It is a great story with a significant conclusion and well worth watching. It covers many issues but the most significant are the intrusion into individuals' privacy and the abuse of the data of them, and a sub-theme of the power of an agency that can cut off an individual's access to the `network', e.g. ATM, etc. It makes a compelling argument against the concept of all embracing ID cards and the underlying linking of databases. This is a really significant movie with a thoughtful and thought inducing ending.
However, the story and its message is one thing; the way the film was produced is another. It is a serious theme with social relevance. However, the producers obviously thought it would be better as an action comic book programme for the lowest common denominator. The acting is a good but bit wooden and extreme. So rather than being in the mode of "Smiley's People" or even "State of Play", it is more like "Batman" it seems to use contemporary production techniques where the audience is treated as idiots with a retention span of about 30 seconds. Whilst some films need to be made like that to pander to those that need rap music in every scene, it is inappropriate with this story. It is the BBC desperately trying to make significant programme accessible to everyone, which it never does because the more cerebral people are not content to watch trivial films or at least those that use these techniques to supposedly keep your attention. I doubt if those for whom these techniques are geared would sit through the five episodes of this programme anyway.
The programme seems to have been made for the soundtrack rather than the other way around. Even scene is dominated by excessive and inappropriate noises: wailing woman, bells, Jewish type music (in a scene in Afghanistan!), the ubiquitous drums to denote a chase (even when there was not one), violins, etc. etc. It is a bit like a school play with everyone making noises in the background for effect - banging tambourines, playing violins in the poignant bit, etc. In this case it is the sound technicians with their synthesisers and database of sounds. However, modern movie making and good acting need none of this unless, of course, the acting or story line is poor - neither was true here.
That particular aspect of this movie really stopped me enjoying it (or sometimes even following the story line). The BBC seemed to have used these techniques a lot recently, for instance in "The Grid" or `The Enemy Within", but they add nothing and, in my personal opinion, actually detract from the story. An example, the main character uses a retinal scanner (boom - a drum crash - why?), a character walks into a pub (another drum crash), a character runs up to a flat (drum music), a woman dies is bed (wailing woman, bells, and the kitchen sink!) in fact any time something happens there is (An apparently compulsory) noise of some type - why? The background noises (not really music) seem to be there because the producers appear to think loud noise is required in almost every scene. This really cheapens the programme - it treats the viewer as an idiot. Maybe it is the `Age of Noise' but it is killing classy film making - not every film needs to be made for 13 year olds.
Nevertheless, it was interesting, if annoying, to watch. But BBC please change your formula for this genre - you do them quite well except for the sound effects. The one benefit of all the jarring noise is that I could not watch more than one episode without a break, and when a rare scene did not have any background noise, the serene quiet made the programme easy and pleasurable to watch.