Children of the ‘80s received a fair portion of their education through television. If not through “Sesame Street,” “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” or “The Electric Company,” then from other programing you wouldn’t quite expect. The Keatons were the picture-perfect suburban family. Practical science was learned through Angus MacGyver. And, the idealic romantic relationship was certainly not to be modeled after Sam and Diane.
At a time when home computers and the Internet provided more fodder for movie plots than family entertainment, cable television was in prevalent use by Generation X. Movies, in particular, streamed into our television sets at the consent of HBO and a few other providers. The simple lack of choices helped develop a patience to appreciate movies that would otherwise be passed over: See also; “Starcrash,” staring David Hasselhoff.
Wolfgang Petersen’s 1985 film, “Enemy Mine,” an adaptation to Barry Longyear’s 1979 novella of the same name, received plenty of airtime on cable television. It’s the story of two wartime enemies, each determined to destroy one another. Actor Dennis Quaid plays a human space fighter pilot battling against the Dracs, a reptilian humanoid species. He is stranded on an alien planet when his ship crash lands after a dogfight with a Drac played by Louis Gossett, Jr. The two briefly continue their fight on land before learning their best chance for survival involves working together. In time, a friendship, and later, a familial bond is established.
Longyear is scheduled to appear at the Mabee Farm in Schenectady on Saturday, March 21 to discuss his critically acclaimed book from which the movie is based on. The beautiful aspect behind science-fiction stories isn’t so much the fantasy conjured by the environment as it is the building of relationships and characters within the story itself. Pick the two characters up off Fyrine IV, strip off Gossett’s make-up, and place them in a fraternity house in the University of Oklahoma, or town outside St. Louis, and the dialogue could stay intact, for a few moments anyway. The interpersonal struggles between the two left an impression on me that rivals only of the time Mrs. Shea forced me and my third-grade playground rival to each say five nice things about one another, and Mr. Poplaski’s ninth-grade social studies lesson that had us all looking at our own culture with a critical perspective.
The underlying theme of Longyear’s story, unfortunately, is all too common and still needs to be shared until, maybe, we can just appreciate how his story takes us through a journey to another galaxy. The challenge to accept other people and other cultures is not exclusive to the South, or other countries. It has to happen here as well. And, until we all start appreciating the beauty in the differences between us all, we’ll all continue to be the shallow caricatures television portrays as our society.
