Crimson Tide (1995) [Unrated Extended Edition] + Enemy of the State (1998) [Special Edition] – DVDs|Crimson Tide – Blu-ray Disc

CRIMSON TIDE
***/****
DVD – Image A Sound A- Extras B+
BD – Image A Sound A Extras B-
starring Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen
screenplay by Michael Schiffer
directed by Tony Scott

ENEMY OF THE STATE
**½/**** Image A Sound A- Extras B+
starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Regina King
screenplay by David Marconi
directed by Tony Scott

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. I had expected, on receipt of this pair of Tony Scott sagas, to be discussing a formally advanced director with nothing much going on upstairs. But the films' unfolding induced a melancholy sort of nostalgia I hoped I'd never live to feel, for Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State are Clinton-era end-of-history numbers that speak to a time of stasis, when it was believed that you had to trump up a crisis in order to have a movie. Their subtexts of total disbelief–that we'd ever be in war mode (Crimson Tide), that we'd ever have to worry about government surveillance (Enemy of the State)–seem whimsically complacent now that both premises have proved to be vaguely prescient and not much fun at all. And though the '90s were economically stagnant and loathed by most who lived through them, I can now sadly envision some American Graffiti clone in which this was the last thing glimpsed before everything fell apart.

Crimson Tide, the stronger film, depicts the clapping of the lid on Pandora's Box. It shows the consequences of a Zhirinovsky-esque Russian dingbat making nuclear overtures: not only the deployment of nuclear submarines, but also the tête-à-têtes between the men who run them. In this case, Capt. Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) is part of the Reaganite (if not Nixonian) old guard that strikes first for deterrence's sake, while Lt. Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington) is the Clintonian waffler who waits for a reason to do ill. Pairing them up is asking for trouble, and after a tussle with a Russian sub, the two find themselves without a working radio and half an order about whether or not to launch. Ramsey is sure the enemy is fuelling its birds, meaning they should nuke 'em 'til they glow; Hunter wants a full message before they do something disastrous. It's 1995–how do you think it'll shake down?

It's intriguing to watch Scott and superproducers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer pull a 180 on their standard-bearer hit Top Gun by standing with Hunter. Ramsey–the hotshot adrenaline junkie–winds up in the brig after soldiering on without the agreement of his second number, but that just occasions a mutiny bent on launching the torpedoes. This results in Hunter's own trip to the brig–until a counter-mutiny ends in a Mexican standoff on the bridge. So the film is ultimately about putting a cap on hostility, an aversion of crisis rather than a direct engagement. It's not revealing much to say that Ramsey is the heavy and that nuclear holocaust is avoided, because it's part and parcel of the fact that nobody can believe in Ramsey's relevance. The older man's day is done; American belongs to the soft-spoken Hunter and his gentle responsibility.

Deprived of the windows and sunlight that provided an excuse for chiaroscuro, Scott proves surprisingly low-key throughout. Though he's endlessly creative at bathing the cast in red, blue, or green light, he's mostly dealing with dialogue and enclosed spaces, from which the film benefits enormously. Too, Michael Schiffer's screenplay is by far the most credible of any Simpson/Bruckheimer opus, and while Quentin Tarantino annoys with his uncredited insertion of Silver Surfer and Star Trek references, he's mostly to the side of the big talk and the well-matched lead performers. Despite the obviousness of what's going to happen, the film places belief in the story and the theme instead of picking it all apart in the editing room–which is to say, its total belief in the deflection of disaster plays as true as opposed to expedient. Nobody in 1995 could believe anything this dire could happen in the West, and the struggle to express that comfort permeates the movie.

If Crimson Tide experiences threat from without as fantastic, Enemy of the State is similarly complacent towards threat from within. Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) is the unwitting lawyer whose life explodes once he's slipped a videotape of a political assassination: having done the deed to ensure a surveillance-powers bill is passed, rogue NSA man Reynolds (Jon Voight) is eager to retrieve the evidence. Thus various spooks invade Dean's privacy, bug his clothing, and follow his every move by satellite. This might be a damning statement on government powers were it not for two things: one, the film's choice to depict the race to debug as a rollercoaster ride; and two, that the attack on civil liberties is not seen as business as usual. The extraordinariness of the incident–both in terms of a daydream and as a social practice–is paramount, meaning it soothes more than it disquiets.

Dean's persecutors perhaps torment him, yet as their actions sanction the run-and-chase format of most Hollywood schlock, one doesn't experience it as anything beyond the standard holiday from reality. Even when Dean meets up with disaffected NSA dropout Brill Lyle (Hackman again, essentially reprising his role in The Conversation), the character doesn't have a point of view–he's just a neat guy facilitating neat plot twists in the pursuit of a happy conclusion. And that conclusion is easy to believe since the naughty elements are restricted to one jerk and his crew of supplicants. We aren't asked to expect top-down oppression, only the manipulations of moustache-twirling exceptions: though the film poses at asking hard questions, it wimps out on offering an actual critique.

Although it's expertly-made trash, the movie doesn't have the punch that lifted Crimson Tide into the ranks of cracking good entertainment. Smith, however affable, is fatally miscast next to the stronger presence of Hackman; it's like asking Cary Grant to do Stanley Kowalski. And Scott is unrestrained this time, meaning more insane cutting and indulgence in pointless élan–though there have been and will be worse instances of his formalist aggression. Furthermore, Enemy of the State doesn't have much of an interest in its own conceit, nor does it have to: whatever you might have heard about cynicism in the '90s, we were convinced that nothing critical was happening, and the adrenaline jolt of paranoia seemed like a good idea. Less than ten years later, we breathe the tainted air of the post-9/11 atmosphere, and it transforms even a sausage like Enemy of the State into a lost paradise compared to the uncertain fear of the new world order.

THE DVDs
Hollywood's Unrated Extended Edition reissue of Crimson Tide on DVD is pictorially flawless, save a touch of edge-enhancement. The 2.35:1, 16×9-enhanced image is razor-sharp and outstanding in fine detail; colours are deep and vivid without oversaturating and the whole thing fairly rings like crystal. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is good, too, if curiously subdued for a Scott/Simpson/Bruckheimer opus, with mostly atmosphere and music going through the surrounds. In fairness, the film is more about shouting than it is about shooting and exploding.

Extras begin with three deleted scenes: a very slightly expanded movie-trivia-on-the-bus sequence (Curt Jurgens figures in heavily); a TV interview with the Zhirinovsky clone; and some nail-biting before the penultimate hearing sequence–nothing worth preserving. "All Access: On the Set of Crimson Tide" (10 mins.) is basically a gag reel wherein the cast tells straight-faced jokes. It's the boys having fun, but it's still kind of an interesting deflation of what one imagines is intensive labour. Finally, "The Making of Crimson Tide" (19 mins.) is a stolid but dependable making-of that's a little light on information though not the glad-handing insult that many of these things are. Most interesting feature: the model work on the submarines. Trailers for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Remember the Titans: Director's Cut, Eight Below, and Glory Road begin on startup.

Touchstone's Special Edition reissue of Enemy of the State only slightly misses the bar set by Crimson Tide. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is prone to detail loss in areas of deep black, but it's a petty complaint considering the lustre of the image. While the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is likewise less complicated than one would expect, you'll feel the surround channels as a chopper goes camera left to camera right, in addition to a delightful surround experience during the climactic shootout.

Enemy of the State's supplements include two throwaway deleted scenes: an extended version of Smith's encounter with a mafia secretary; and a scene where Scott Caan gets bitten by a dog. "The Making of Enemy of the State" (29 mins.) is a reasonably thorough featurette that has its share of hyperbolic cant but still manages to transcend the everybody-was-lovely classic one expects. Special care is taken to establish the grounding in real surveillance tactics and claims to be true to the demographic makeup of the NSA. "All Access: The Showdown" is footage of the filming of the climactic shootout sequence, in which actors shoot each other over and over again and fall down in turn. I lost interest after a while, but it's a necessary corrective to Hollywood glamour. The film's trailer plus trailers for Crimson Tide, Con Air, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Annapolis, Glory Road, and "Grey's Anatomy" Season One complete the package. Originally published: June 19, 2006.

THE BLU-RAY DISC – CRIMSON TIDE
by Bill Chambers Crimson Tide makes its Blu-ray debut in a stunning 2.40:1, 1080p transfer. The disc contains only the theatrical cut but those extra seven minutes were nothing to write home about and are definitely worth the sacrifice for the HD upgrade. The last but certainly not least entry in an unofficial Bruckheimer trilogy to take shape on the format, this is the best-looking and arguably best-sounding of the three (the other two are The Rock and Con Air); gone is any trace of smear in shots flush with darkroom-red light, while the anamorphic photography gains untold focus and depth. (I feel almost too familiar with Gene Hackman's pores now.) If there are traces of edge enhancement, they're trivial relative to the Con Air BD. Given that the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is on par with the image, I can only imagine how much better the PCM uncompressed alternative sounds. The mix itself remains a largely ambient affair but it has resonance here that it lacks on standard DVD. As for supplementary material: ported over from the 2006 SD platter and ineffectually upgraded to 1080i, extras include the deleted scenes and making-of material discussed in Travis's review below, though HiDef trailers for Wall-E, Gone Baby Gone, and Dan in Real Life cue up on startup.

• CRIMSON TIDE
  DVD – 123 minutes; Unrated; 2.42:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1; CC; English subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Hollywood
  BLU-RAY – 116 minutes; R; 2.40:1 (1080p/MPEG-4); English 5.1 LPCM, English DD 5.1, French DD 5.1; English SDH, French, Spanish subtitles; BD-50; Region-free; Disney
• ENEMY OF THE STATE
  140 minutes; Unrated; 2.41:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1; CC; English subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Touchstone