The Last Enemy

Dom Robinson reviews

The Last Enemy Distributed by

Universal Pictures UK

• Cert:
• Cat.no: 8251714
• Running time: 309 minutes
• Year: 2008
• Pressing: 2008
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 30 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Widescreen: 16:9 (1.78:1)
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: 2*DVD 9
• Price: £24.99
• Extras: Deleted Scenes, The Making of The Last Enemy, Photo Gallery, Outtakes, Playback trailer
• Vote and comment on this programme:
  

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  Director:

  Iain B MacDonald

  (TV: Bodies, Doctors, The Last Enemy, Mansfield Park, Teachers)

Producer:

Gub Neal

screenplay:

Peter Berry

Music:

Magnus Fiennes

Cast:

Stephen Ezard: Benedict Cumberbatch
Yasim Anwar: Anamaria Marinca
Michael Ezard: Max Beesley
David Russell: Robert Carlyle
Eleanor Brooker: Eva Birthistle
Barbara Turney: Geraldine James
Patrick Nye: David Harewood
George Gibbon: Christopher Fulford
Bryan Holland: James Lance
Andrew Wilcox: San Shella
Andrew Batz: Tom Fisher
Professor Lawrence Cooper: Paul Higgins
Professor John Moreton: Nick Sidi

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The Last Enemy is a political thriller set in the near future, a future that sounds a perfectly feasible one the way so-called Great Britain is going, it being one of the most populated in the world by CCTV cameras.

In this future, not only have ID cards been discussed at length, but they’re in full force and when you’re asked on the street to present yours to the heavily-armed police and you don’t have it, then that in itself is a criminal offence.

Whereas the Oyster card in London can track your moments around the Tube network, your ID card in The Last Enemy is how you gain access across all of the transport system – and not only that, but also it acts as a keycard to your house or flat. Yes, this is State Control that the Nazis would be proud of, that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe would be proud of, and it’s here, in Britain.

At the centre of all this is “T.I.A.” – Total Information Access, a national database so large that it contains all of your personal details, your medical history, your employment history, etc. And given how much of a cock-up Labour have made regarding this kind of thing, with systems that don’t work, despite being billions of pounds over budget, to get something operating on an even larger scale is, quite frankly, scary.

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Benedict Cumberbatch talks about
the show on Breakfast (15th Feb 2008) The plot centres around four members of the public, starting with Michael Ezard (Max Beesley, someone who I never had much time for prior to Bodies on BBC3 but he proved his worth there), a soldier working out in Afghanistan, and who is killed as his truck goes over a landmine before the opening credits have even begun. His brother, Stephen (Benedict Cumberbatch (above), excellent as the disabled professor in the drama Hawking in 2004), comes back from Beijing for the funeral, very surprised to find there are scores of mourners both by the graveside and at the wake. He’s surprised because Michael never had much time for him and he never got the chance to bond.

In addition, there’s Yasim (Anamaria Marinca), Michael’s widow, who didn’t attend the funeral but whom Stephen meets once he stops off at their flat. She has her own reasons why she wasn’t there. To complete the quartet is the ever-wonderful Robert Carlyle as David Russell, a man of whom we know little at first but Carlyle more than earns his paycheque for this superb five-part drama. In fact, you may wonder why he appeared in a TV drama when he could earn a fortune abroad in the movies, but he confirmed in the Radio Times at the time that he prefers to work over here and do diverse pieces such as this. More power to him and let’s hope there’s many more, even more so if we could get the same cast back together for something new.

It’s difficult to go into much detail beyond what I’ve explained above but the nature of the drama prohibits that. However, rest assured that while many Tv dramas come and go, only a select few have a solid cast, solid writing, solid direction, consistency and, importantly, a satisfactory conclusion. The Last Enemy is one of those dramas and I loved it from start to finish.

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David Harewood talks about
the show on GMTV (21st Feb 2008) The programme is presented in anamorphic 16:9 and looks very good, although given the way it’s been shot, dark colours left onscreen for more than a few seconds exhibit signs of pixellation, so the encoding isn’t as perfect as it could be. Still, the majority of the time it’s not noticeable so it’s not a reason not to buy this disc. The sound is in Dolby Surround only, as does everything you’d expect from a thriller with all the right noises sounding normally (I’ll say no more so I don’t accidentally give away any of what happens).

At first I thought there were no proper extras as such, as the only one on the first disc is a Playback trailer which is just a promotion for titles from Universal’s TV strand such as Airwolf, Columbo, Miami Vice, A-Team… And I was about to write that this TV show is worth the price of the ticket alone. However, if you check out disc 2, you’ll find:

• Deleted Scenes (3:51) : Neither chaptered nor titled, these four scenes are presented in 16:9 letterbox format, as are all the extras. Without spoiling things, I would’ve put back the second one for sure. The fourth one would’ve been a nice addition, but might’ve given things away, somewhat, as to the overall outcome.

• The Making Of The Last Enemy (28:34) : Writer Peter Berry tells us a bit about the plot and then there’s plenty of on-set footage during the filming. It’s reasonably entertaining but does go on a bit.

• Photo Gallery (3:32) : There are 30 pictures here, the time being given because it plays music in the background while changing images every few seconds, with a new chapter.

• Out-takes (4:12) : The cast burst into fits of laughter while recording, which seems at odds with the seriousness of the piece but it’s good for a laugh.

The main menu features the closing theme plus an animation featuring the main characters which is intriguing at first, but should have only occurred once rather than been stuck on repeat, as it does get a tad irritating if you leave it running in the background while, say, you’re typing a review…

There are only 6 chapters per episode which is very disappointing, as while most of the five run for an hour, the first runs for about 85 minutes and a rule-of-thumb should always be at least one chapter every five minutes. There’s not even a separate one to mark the start of the closing credits, which is also a must. It’s also a shame there are no subtitles, either.

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FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008.