Film

An Enemy of the People

Name: An Enemy of the People
Genre: Drama
Released: 1978
Cast: Steve McQueen, Charles Durning, Bibi Andersson, Eric Christmas, Michael Cristofer

Drama

Steve McQueen stars as a doctor who discovers his town's prized hot springs are poisoned, then watches as the entire community—media, politicians, business owners—conspire to bury the truth. It's Ibsen adapted to 1970s America, urgent and claustrophobic, about how easily the majority turns on the one person telling them what they need to hear. For anyone who's watched a institution protect itself over people.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy plays where the argument itself is the drama, with a lone idealist talking his way deeper into trouble while the room turns against him, and you like your social conscience served with stubborn, unfashionable principle.

Skip it if you want quick cuts, a lively pace, or cinematic spectacle, since this is a filmed stage piece built on long speeches and confined rooms that rewards patience more than it rewards momentum.

What it asks of you: It asks you to sit through talk, a great deal of it, and to track who is quietly protecting whom; it runs about 107 minutes and stays indoors and wordy throughout.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

All the President's Men1976

Two journalists uncover government corruption despite institutional pressure and personal risk. It shares the same DNA as An Enemy: ordinary people pursuing truth against systems designed to hide it, with mounting dread as powerful forces close in.

But Slower and more procedural than a thriller. The pleasure is in watching journalism happen, not in action or easy answers.

Spotlight2015

A newspaper team investigates the Catholic Church's coverup of abuse. Like Stockmann, they face an institution that prioritizes its reputation over victims, and a public reluctant to believe the truth.

But Methodical and restrained. There are no heroic moments, just the grinding work of proving what powerful people want hidden.

The West Wing1999

Inside a presidential administration trying to do right while navigating politics, compromise, and the people who benefit from the status quo. It's the idealist's answer to An Enemy—what if the systems listened?

But Earnest and sometimes naive about power. If you're already cynical about institutions, the show's optimism may feel naive.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from An Enemy of the People

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Both are about a man discovering he's brought contamination into his family's world, and about how communities enact judgment on the guilty. But where Stockmann is crushed by the town's denial, here the town's reckoning is inescapable and mythic.

A surgeon's family is methodically destroyed by a stranger as punishment for a hidden sin. Like Stockmann, it's about a man whose secret comes to poison everyone around him, but here the town's judgment is literal and ritualistic rather than social.

But Slow-burn psychological horror with an unreal, fable-like logic. If you want realism, this will frustrate you; if you want neat closure, it won't provide it.

Z1969

A political thriller about a journalist investigating a government assassination and cover-up. Taut, paranoid, and made in the moment when Eastern Europe was watching its freedoms crushed.

But More overtly political than character-driven. The style sometimes matters more than the human cost.

Serpico1973

Al Pacino as a cop who reports police corruption and becomes a pariah to his own department. A man alone against an institution that turns his colleagues into his enemies. The parallels are exact.

But Feels very much of the 1970s in ways that can read as dated. The ending is ambiguous in a way that won't satisfy everyone.

The Insider1999

Russell Crowe as a tobacco industry scientist who goes public about what his company knows. High-stakes, well-made, and about the enormous personal cost of telling the truth when money and power oppose you.

But Michael Mann's direction is self-consciously stylish. Some find the technique intrusive rather than enhancing the story.

Network1976

A news anchor has a breakdown on air and becomes a sensation while the network profits. Savage satire about institutions caring only for ratings, not truth. Dark where An Enemy is earnest.

But Broad, theatrical, and didactic. It announces its themes rather than trusting you to find them.

Missing1982

Jack Lemmon searches for his disappeared son in a Latin American country while the U.S. State Department insists everything is fine. Political thriller about institutional gaslighting and a man watching his government lie.

But Angry in a way that can feel preachy. The mystery matters less than the point being made.

Norma Rae1979

Sally Field as a factory worker organizing a union against her employer and her own community's resistance. Another story about one person trying to make people see something everyone wants to ignore.

But Less interested in complexity than in vindication. The moral clarity can feel simplistic compared to Ibsen's ambiguity.

Ghostland2018

Both trap their protagonist in a closed system where insisting on an inconvenient truth makes them seem mad. An Enemy treats this as social tragedy; Ghostland treats it as psychological horror. Same mechanism, opposite genres.

A woman and her daughters are terrorized by killers they thought they'd escaped, forced to question whether the trauma was real or psychological. It's a horror film structured like An Enemy: a person insisting they know the truth while everyone else—family, authorities—suggests they're unstable and mistaken.

But Grueling and graphic, especially toward its twist. The horror is intimate and violating rather than thrilling. Also: the twist divides viewers sharply about what the film is actually saying.