Enemy of the State-You are being watched

Enemy of the State on the surface of it looks like a typical "man on the run" thriller, innocent man framed, chases, high voltage action scenes, and true to form like most Tony Scott movies, it has enough adrenaline pumped up to keep the action fans happy.

You know Jon Voight will be the bad guy, and that is established right at the start, where he as NSA official, Thomas Reynolds, gets one of his hit men to bump off Phil Hamersley( Jason Robards) a senior Congressmen who opposes his bill that would grant immense powers to snoop on common citizens.

The murder though is captured by wildlife researcher Daniel Zavitz( Jason Lee), inadvertently. and not knowing of the explosive information it would contain. Zavitz is tracked down, chased by Reynold's lackeys, and he drops the casette into the bag of Robert Dean( Will Smith), a labor lawyer, with a nice happy family, nice looking home. And soon Dean's life turns upside down, as he is declared "Enemy of the State" for the rather incriminating evidence he has.

His home is ransacked, his professional, private details are all extracted, and he is slapped with a false case of passing confidential information to his ex girlfriend Rachel. Fired from his job, his wife walking out on him and publicly disgraced, Dean is drawn into a nightmare, as he becomes a fugitive on the run. The only person who can help Dean here is an ex NSA agent, who goes by the codename of Brill( Gene Hackmann).

While it has all the action scenes, way Tony Scott narrates the story using jump cuts, tracking shots, satellite camera shots, giving the impression of "You are being watched". One of the best opening credits too, with shots of satellite tracking, spy cams. In fact the way Scott uses the spy satellite to keep driving the narrative, is damn good, giving the impressing "You are being watched". Again the scene where Zavitz is tracked and chased down is superbly shot, with intercutting shots of Zavitz being chased and the satellite camera tracking him down.

What makes this movie even more relevant today, is that whatever is shown, is scarily closer to real life than ever. Considering we live in an era, where all our data is in the control of the State, which can use it against us anytime it feels so.

Gene Hackmann is as brilliant as ever as the surveillance agent, a role that is quite similiar to the one he did in The Conversation, in fact he turns out to be the real hero of the movie. And these are the kinda roles where Hackmann just chews up the scenery. Will Smith does a good job as the protagonist who gets caught up in a nightmarish scenario. Jack Black is equally good as as the communications expert tapping other conversations, and Jon Voight walks through one of those numerous bad guy roles he did in the late 90s and early 2000s.