The Films That Make Us: Enemy of the State
Gillian’s Mom and Bill
Interviewer: Gillian Clark
Interviewee: Bill Clevenger
William (Bill) L. Clevenger is a 50-year-old auto worker who grew up in Kansas City and still resides there. I first met him about 5 years ago, when he and my mother began dating (who coincidentally also works at the same assembly plant in a separate department). Predominately a man of many mysteries, when he’s not stuck in the monotonous, stuffy creature that is an assembly line, he spends his time traveling (often accompanied by our dog), exploring nature, grilling, or with a variety of board games (from the more simplistic Ticket to Ride, to building complex Dungeons and Dragons storylines).
Most of the media he consumes revolves entirely around the concept of the superhero though. In fact, every movie we’ve witnessed together (in theatres and home) has been a superhero movie (most recently Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which we watched with his son and my mother right after our interview). Keeping up with both major superhero franchises is a point of pride for him, and it doesn’t take long around him before an encyclopedia of Marvel characters comes out to be referenced. This is particularly why watching Enemy of the State had a lasting effect on him: it differed so much than what he usually saw in film. We discussed this and what he perceived as the social impact of the film to be in an informal interview in our living room.
Promotional Image for Enemy of the State (1998)
What film did you choose to do, that impacted your life, and when did you first watch it?
The film that’s most impacted my life, I think, is Enemy of the State, and I watched it when it first came out.
(He didn’t know off the top of his head when.)
We can actually look that up…1998 is when it came out.
Yeah, I watched it in theaters, and I’ve watched it a time or two since.
Alright, so, before we get into how it impacted your life, do you think this is an objective opinion? Do you think it’s a good film, basically?
I do think it’s a good film. It’s, uh, outside of the genre I usually watch, but I did enjoy it.
What did you enjoy about it?
Most of the films I watch are purely for entertainment. And this was educational as well. It helped me have a better understanding of the interactions between society and our government.
Were there any parts of the actual film, like the style, that stood out to you about the film?
It was an action movie, it was good. Will Smith, Gene Hackman; but it was a film that made me think, when most of the time I just watched films purely for entertainment.
Do you have any other films that are associated with this film, or is this a really standout film to you?
Yeah, it’s not really part of a trilogy or anything. It’s kind of a standalone movie.
But any other, like the ideas behind it, did you ever seek out any other media with those ideas? Or was that the only time you really saw it addressed?
No, no, not so much.
So, it was standout
It was standout
Other media? Like, about the same topics, the government, surveillance, like music or anything?
No, not so much. I never really pursued it. But it was an interesting aspect that I hadn’t really thought about.
So, you said you saw it in theaters, but how did you find it other than that? Was it like, it’s in theaters, I’m gonna (sic.) go see it?
Yes, just like that, just kind of random, and, again, it was outside of the realm of things I normally watch, but it was really enjoyable.
Did you go with anybody?
I don’t recall.
But Gene Hackman is like, “don’t look up, if you live another 24 hours I’ll be impressed.” You know, and it really changed the way you, most times you don’t even think about satellites above you or things of that nature, you know, and it just changed the way I go about my everyday life. Not that I’m afraid to look up, or anything like that, but it was just a different experience than I normally have in the theater.
A Surveillance Team in the film
So, did you want to talk about like, the fact that it changed your opinion on government surveillance in depth?
Just the fact that the government, had been, as they put it, in bed with the communications companies for decades, and that uh, that before everyone was all worried about surveillance in our homes, now we’ve all got a phone strapped to our hip, we got listening devices that we welcome into our homes now, and it’s kind of a completely different way of doing things then it was in the 90s when the film came out. Back then, it was kind of like, the government is going to be listening, the government is going to be listening, and now we kind of welcome that. We use that type of technology to tell us jokes, or the weather, or whatever and it’s…
Yeah that was in ’98, so it would have been previous being like cell phones as cell phones.
It’s only like 30 years and we’ve got a very different way of viewing the government and technology than we did then. For good or bad.
Do you think, since it impacted you, that it impacted others? Or do you think that we had any movement towards like-?
I think a lot of people are kind of reluctant to invite technology into their homes, but not so much so with our cell phone. I don’t even think they realize they’re carrying around technology in their pocket almost all the time. They’re looking into it, they’re talking into it, you know. I’m not afraid of technology, the movie made me view things differently, but it hasn’t really changed the way I interact. I still go through my life the way I think most people do.
Well, the Gene Hackman character in this movie was a bit of a prepper. He had everything set up, the supplies he would need, in case things ever went wrong. You know, and there’s a lot of people who view the world like that as well. So, aside from the technology aspects, there’s, the film kind of said you know, be ready, because somethings going to go wrong someday. And there was, I never looked at the world that way either. I thought the movie went above entertainment; it was educational.
So, you think the movie went out to create social change? In a way?
I don’t know if that was their intent. But that may have been the result.
Will Smith in Enemy of the State
Do you think it resulted in that? Since we’re kind of in the same position, government and surveillance wise?
I don’t think the movie created much change. When I watched it, I thought, oh, people are going to be afraid to look up, or to have technology in their pocket. And that’s, what I thought was going to happen isn’t really what happened. I mean, it seems like people are embracing technology. And it doesn’t seem like they’re that concerned with if the government or if corporations are listening. Lot of times we invite advertising or whatever that’s customized to ourselves. It doesn’t seem like we worry too much about who’s listening or what they’re deciding based off our thoughts, as we relay them through technology.
So more so it had the potential to impact, and you think it should have.
Yeah, the movie impacted my life, but I don’t know that a lot of people viewed it, and the ones who did, I think a lot of them just dismissed it. There was definitely a warning there, and I don’t know if that’s something we should have heeded or not.
Any final thoughts?
It was a good movie; everyone should see it.
Images Used:
Horton, Nick. “Looking Back at Tony Scott’s Enemy of The State.” Den of Geek, 30 May 2013, https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/looking-back-at-tony-scotts-enemy-of-the-state/.