Enemy Mine (1985)

Going by the ratings, I would not have chosen to see this. The numbers are only about average across sites, the most promising being a 6.9 on IMDb. But once I read the plot description, I felt like checking it out.

In the future, humans and aliens called Dracs are at war over planetary claims, neither evidently having the moral high ground. Human pilot Willis Davidge (Dennis Quaid) engages Drac pilot Jeriba Shigan (a heavily made-up Louis Gossett, Jr.), and both crash onto an unclaimed planet. Despite plenty of oxygen, water, and ostensible food, the local environment is dangerous enough that Davidge and "Jerry" decide they're better off relying on each other than continuing their fight.

Davidge had heard that Dracs were far from human. While they do look more alien than Klingons, they still look like humans in costume to me. More so than the Prawns from District 9. I guess this is deliberate for emotional impact, but I wonder how effective the movie would be if the Dracs resembled, say, Jabba the Hutt.

Jeriba's language turns out to be largely flipped Russian, possibly in reference to the Cold War nearing its end in 1985. For a more alien flair, Gossett adds almost as much gargling as Chewbacca. If that bothers you, consider it a mercy that Jeriba learns English quickly enough, and Davidge's accent tones down his own gargling when he practices in return. (In general, the more they can communicate, the better they get along.)

The environment? Not as relentlessly uniform as a lot of fictitious planets. Sometimes it borders on pretty, as with heavy snow if you're into that. We don't encounter many native species, but what is there reminds us how nice the '80s puppetry was compared to most later CG. And no creature is particularly gross.

Lest you think the plot just a thin sci-fi remix of The Defiant Ones with an antiwar message care of Wolfgang Petersen, know that Drac biology does eventually come into play. Despite a masculine demeanor, they're hermaphrodites, and that's more important here than in The Left Hand of Darkness. It doesn't go in the disturbing direction you may well be thinking. But I can only imagine what other details the novella includes.

Overall, it's mostly predictable but quite enjoyable. Amid the punctuated thrills is a deep sentimentality, with a bit more optimism than the source material. I welcome such works, especially so soon after darker ones.