ENEMY OF THE STATE. Buena Vista Pictures, 1998. Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, Regina King. Director: Tony Scott.

   Tony Scott’s paranoid thriller Enemy of the State has a lot going for it. Aside from the kinetic direction that doesn’t let up, the movie features Will Smith in his prime alongside Hollywood stalwarts Gene Hackman and Jon Voight. Smith portrays Robert Dean, a Washington DC labor attorney who unwittingly comes into the possession of evidence showing that National Security Agency bigwig Thomas Reynolds (Voight) had a Congressman knocked off.

   With no one to trust, Dean eventually turns to the mysterious “Brill” (Hackman), a former NSA employee who now works as a freelance spy for the right price. The two men – of very different personalities and temperaments – must work together to bring down Reynolds and his henchmen.

   Set primarily in Washington DC and Baltimore, the movie benefits tremendously from on-location shooting, particularly one sequence in Dupont Circle. The movie also has a strong supporting cast, including a youthful Jack Black and a not yet famous Scott Caan, son of Hollywood heavyweight James Caan. Seth Green (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) portrays a NSA tech guy, though he is for some unknown reason uncredited.

   The politics of the movie, for better or worse, are written on its sleeve. The tension between privacy rights and the government’s desire to monitor threats through surveillance and satellites is front and center throughout the film, with the script taking a decidedly civil libertarian approach to the debate. Notably, the movie was released in 1998, several years before 9/11 would change everything.

   Overall, I enjoyed this one, but I have no desire to watch it again. Final assessment: come for Smith, but stay for Hackman and Voight. They’re both very good here.