Console best movie i've ever seen.

ShangLuda Admirable film.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

kijii Steve McQueen is both the Executive Producer and star of this version of Ibsen's powerful play. This is a diversion from the usual McQueen that I have grown to know over the years, but he is superb, here, as the proclaimed "Enemy of the People." Here, McQueen plays the role of a local doctor, Doctor Thomas Stockman, who discovers that the town's water supply is "poisoned" with chemicals and bacteria from a local tannery, and he is driven to let the town know of this before it is too late. However, his brother, Peter Stockman (Charles Durning), is the mayor of the town and anxious to promote the town for its healthy spa waters. If the spa water supply is cleaned up, it would cost the town extra time and a tax increase would be necessary to pay for the cleanup. This difference between Thomas and Peter sets up a conflict in which neither side can "give in." Both sides vie for support from the town and its voice, the local newspaper. To make matters worse, Thomas's wife, Catherine (Bibi Andersson), and family (two young boys and an older girl who works as a local nurse) are caught in the middle of what may be called "local mob violence" and have no local support and no other place to go...Peter blocks Thomas and his family from either emigrating to America or working in another town in Norway. Thomas is trapped between his discovered truth (that he cannot escape or ignore) and his own family's existence.

bkoganbing Hendrik Ibsen's An Enemy Of The People maybe even more timely today than it was when it came out in the waning years of the 19th century. The story is about a doctor who has just returned home to his native Norwegian village and has discovered that the industrial spill from the tannery has polluted the mineral waters of a creek in the area. The place is getting a reputation for healing waters like Iceland's Blue Lagoon or the mineral springs in Saratoga and the town is thinking about the big bucks coming when they start promoting the town as a healing resort just like Saratoga. Especially Mayor Charles Durning.This version could have been a classic, but for the horrible miscasting of Steve McQueen who wanted to do something different. Seeing McQueen delivering Ibsen's lines as the doctor character all I could think of was that this part cried for a classically trained actor like Richard Burton. And Burton at this time was being cast in a lot of junk way beneath him.McQueen is a scientist and for him the issue is clear, clean up the stream. But gradually people start rationalizing why they should not do it, not the least of which is who's going to pay for it? Durning as mayor who also is McQueen's brother thinks like a politician the same way Dr. McQueen thinks like a scientist.In my area of Western New York we famously saw industrial waste give us the poison of Love Canal. More recently we saw Tonawanda Coke caught disposing their waste in an unsafe manner. People reacted to that as surely as their past lives and occupations dictated they shouldI truly wish someone would give a performance of An Enemy Of The People in Flint, Michigan because that's the example that's uppermost in the minds of today's citizen.I only wish someone like Richard Burton or Al Pacino, possibly even Warren Beatty had done this film.

MartinHafer I can understand the studio's apprehension to show this film in the States. After all, it lacks the story elements that are supposed to make a film marketable. The only thing it does have is fantastic writing (from a play by Henrik Ibsen) and a story that has a lot to say about human nature and the destructive power of the people.This story is set in Norway in the 19th century. A town is anticipating becoming rich as a spa town and there is a minor unanticipated glitch. The doctor who works for the spa owners (Steve McQueen) had the water tested and has found it's filled with harmful bacteria which is the result from runoff from a nearby tannery. At first, most of the folks he tells seem appreciative that this was discovered. But over time, selfish self-interest turns the town into a lynch mob and the power of the majority turns out to be a dangerous thing.This story is a HUGE change of pace for McQueen and it is relatively slow paced. But it also is brilliant and incredibly insightful...and packs a very, very strong emotional impact as you watch. Exceptional and well worth seeing...even if it is among McQueen's least known films.

jv-5 It's too bad this little film got pulled from release before anybody got a chance to see it. It's quite good, actually. Steve McQueen -- known more for his rugged, action-packed roles -- is superb as a village doctor during the late 1800s who must speak up against an injustice taking place...even at the cost of his career and reputation. If you notice "An Enemy of the People" being shown on TV, do yourself a favor and see it. You won't be disappointed.