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 should
I 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.
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 should
I 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.