Villeneuve tells us that the film is about dictatorship, and this is true. Beginning at the very start of the film we hear a lecture about dictatorships \u2013 a subject which history professor Adam (Gyllenhaal) happens to specialize in.<\/p>\n
What dictatorships or totalitarian systems do \u2013 and hereafter I want to use the latter \u2013 is to subjugate people. But not only do totalitarian systems oppress people – they also suppress awareness of this subjugation, which can happen in a number of ways. As the film begins, Adam tells his students that in Ancient Rome, the government sponsored bread and circuses for the people in order to reduce dissent. Bread and circuses are at their core a type of entertainment. Modern governments act similarly to limit dissent in different ways, we are told \u2013 yet the focus on \u2018entertainment\u2019 will be relevant later on.<\/p>\n From here onwards we\u2019ll be jumping around a bit in our analysis, but I\u2019ll break the news to you first: Adam and Anthony are one and the same. Bear with me for a little while longer. When Adam and Anthony meet in the hotel, Anthony explains the presence of a scar on his stomach, asking Adam if he has one too. Adam recoils in fear and horror, and flees the hotel. How might we understand this scene?<\/p>\n There is no scar on Adam\u2019s stomach, because that scar appeared when Adam\/Anthony (hereafter ‘AA’ to refer to both) was in a car crash – something which also resulted in Mary\u2019s death. Mary was the girlfriend of AA, or at least his mistress, while he was already with Helen. The scene where AA gets his scar, and Mary is killed in a car crash, is marked by a spiderweb on the windshield of the car. Spiders live inside webs.<\/p>\n Consider spiders for a moment. The spiders in this film are not some loose analogy for dictatorships or other systems of the political kind. But they do represent a totalitarian system. They are avatars of memory, and the totalitarian control that traumatic memories of the past have over people\u2019s minds. Consider your own memories – of trauma, of bullying, of the dissolution of a romantic relationship – and how inescapable they often feel. Having crossed this point, things are slowly beginning to come clear.<\/p>\n At the very start of the film \u2013 and remember that it isn\u2019t in chronological order, so this is actually the ending scene \u2013 AA is in a club [entertainment] and a beautiful attractive waitress crushes a spider. AA is crushing the pain of his own memories, by seeking entertainment. This liberates him from the totalitarian control they exert over him. What memories, you ask?<\/p>\n The answer is given earlier on, when Adam has a dream of walking down a hallway, passing by a woman who is at once also a spider. He wakes up, and sees a woman whose hair matches the spider pattern. This is another factual memory \u2013 it is one of the other girls that Anthony cheated on his wife with. Anthony has a serious problem with commitment and infidelity, and is repeatedly unfaithful \u2013 not just to his partner.<\/p>\n What about the giant spider walking over the entire city? This is explained by the poster for the film, which shows that same spider in the city right over Anthony (who we are able to positively identify because of his jacket) but also inside his head. This is key. The spider (the gargantuan weight of his traumatic memories) is above him, but it is also inside him; its influences on his life are pervasive and absolute like some totalitarian dictator \u2013 but these memories, like the spider, are also an integral part of his very being. His experiences are in his head to stay.<\/p>\n At the very end in the movie, Adam has taken the place of Anthony. He goes into the bedroom to see Helen, and is greeted by a horrifyingly giant spider. Why? Because his memories are coming back to haunt him. So what exactly does this mean?<\/p>\n The entire film is a story of Anthony being confronted by his past. Adam is a representative of this past, and his role as a teacher of HISTORY attests to the fact. Adam represents a past version of Anthony that was unfaithful to Helen. Now Adam was meek and quiet, even to the point that he allowed himself to be cuckolded by Anthony. How can we say that he was a representation of Anthony\u2019s unfaithfulness?<\/p>\n The answer is simple; Adam is an unmanly coward, and unfaithfulness is a form of cowardice, or a lack of living up to one\u2019s responsibilities as a man. This is attested to when Anthony is in the car with Mary who he has just tried to fuck \u2013 just before they crash, he says to her \u2018You think I\u2019m not a man?\u2019 She DOES think he\u2019s not a man \u2013 because she has just discovered his unfaithfulness, which precipitates their dramatic exit from the hotel. In this way, Adam\u2019s weakness\/unmanliness facilitates Anthony\u2019s unfaithfulness \u2013 Adam does not stop Anthony from fucking his own girlfriend, because he represents Anthony\u2019s own past weakness (and thus, his weak masculinity).<\/p>\n That scene where Anthony is having sex with Mary, who then freaks out when she sees the wedding ring [marks?] on his finger? This was real. Mary did not realize that Anthony was married. The freakout did indeed happen. The crash did indeed happen. And Mary died, and Anthony was injured as a result \u2013 giving us the scar from earlier.<\/p>\n Why is Anthony an actor? Because he is acting out the horrors of the past in his head. The nightmares are all his. The gargantuan spider in the final scene looks poised to consume Adam, who by this point has assumed the role of Anthony before he enters the bedroom. It is memories of sinfulness, and the weight of his guilt, which seem ready to devour him.<\/p>\n Adam IS Anthony, so Adam allowing Anthony to fuck his girlfriend represents AA\u2019s weak, sensitive, humanistic side failing to exert control over his brash, Dionysian side. This failure resulted in the death of Mary and nearly also the destruction of his marriage. This haunts him to this very day.<\/p>\n Simplified, it looks something like this:<\/p>\n 5 out of 5 stars. Enemy is one of the most stunning films I\u2019ve seen this year. Its genius is composite and gestaltic; it lies in the mind-blowing script of Gull\u00f3n, the paradisal and dystopic direction of Villeneuve, and the compelling yet disturbing acting by Gyllenhaal. While the film has received near universal acclaim, the plot and its incomprehensibility to … Continue reading Film review: Enemy (2013)<\/span> ![\"enemy_day17-0034-final\"](\"https:\/\/uncucked.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/enemy_day17-0034-final.png?w=739\")
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