The Enemy Within

Just catching up on some oldschool flicks. The story plot was interesting got me thinking, about the military aspect of this. What really was to go down if some crazyness like this ever where to happen right now in this current era we are in.

The mid-1990s were HBO's heyday as Clintonesque liberals and they took it upon themselves to present this sort of viewpoint in nearly all of their productions. This one is no exception.

It's saved by the fact that it's a tremendously literate story from the great screenwriter Rod Serling, and it has Forrest Whitaker in top form. The typical HBO heavy-handed preachiness is kept to a minimum here and the intrigue is maximized, of course with some rather tough to fathom plot maneuvers concerning the Soviets, in this case as allies of a sort.

It's not as fine a film as the original Seven Days in May, but it's not a waste either and it's always good to see Whitaker in his usual good form with Sam Waterston doing more subtly nuanced acting than he's allowed to do on Law & Order.

I have seen the original Seven Days in May no fewer than 15 times. I know, I need to get a life. However, the original cast of Lancaster, Douglas, March, Gardner, Houseman, Duggan, etc. was pure magic. The tension was palpable,and the chemistry was awesome.

That being said, The Enemy Within was a light, or lite, version of the original. Could there be more of a mis-casting than putting poor old Jason Robards as the Joint Chiefs Chairman. He looked like he had oatmeal drooling on his bib. Don't get me wrong, he was a very fine actor, and perhaps he could have pulled it off when he was twenty or thirty years younger.

The rest of the cast with the exception of the sultry Dana Delaney was weak. The plot was John Kerryesque nuanced. The ending was farcical.

I enjoy the idea of remaking fine older movies. Perhaps George Clooney can pull it off, as he did with the remake of Failsafe. However, The Enemy Within comes across as a poor man version of a classic thriller.

Most remakes of an already successful movie are bound to be faulted for their alleged pale-by-comparisons that are all too common when comparing two movies . But since I have copies of both , I'd like to give my support for this updated remake .While it may be faulted for lacking some of the ingredients of the original , it should be commended for adding some components that the original did not have . In the original, Jiggs Casey apparently has no family but does have a somewhat platonic relationship with the former lover of the turncoat general . In the remake , Colonel Casey(whatever happened to "Jiggs", LOL ?) has a son that he is trying(somewhat unsuccessfully) to connect with . His son figures in one of the more dramatic scenes involving a Russian Agent . The VP is murdered along with a female employee of the WH staff . Although there are no meetings in parking garages or plots to kidnap the POTUS at a secluded lake there are plenty of suspenseful moments . I did feel that too much of the original dialogue was inserted in the sequel that didn't fit in with the remake as well as it did original . But overall, I thought this movie was worth looking at . It should be looked on as an update rather than a cheap rip off of the original .

A tepid updated remake of John Frankenheimer's 'Seven Days In May' with even for cable television has that television movie sheen about it despite a starry cast.

Colonel Casey (Forest Whitaker) discovers his boss, General Lloyd (Jason Robards) with the Secretary of Defence Charles Potter (Josef Sommer) plan to remove President William Foster (Sam Waterston) from office and replace him with Vice President Kelly, who is more willing to increase defence spending. They wish to initiate constitutional somersaults to make the move less like a coup.

Colonel Casey only has days to get sufficient evidence to protect the president and gets help from the Russians.

The problem here is the president is so weakly presented. The Attorney General is killed and he launches no forensic investigation.

On the other hand General Lloyd and Charles Potter are a charmless bunch of fascists who make Richard Nixon look like a pussycat. There was no way people were going to follow them.

The film was well acted by Forest Whitaker but lacked drama and tension.