Washington, D.C.

Both of the movies that I watched about Washington, D.C led me to the conclusion that no matter where people are in that city, they are always on camera. The city has very high security and the citizens are always on camera.

Enemy Of the State

This movie demonstrates the side of Washington, D.C. that the public does not see. Although we know that there are cameras all around us, this movie took the surveillance to an extreme. It showed how every move we make is being monitored by a camera. The main character in the movie, played by Will Smith, has a taping of a murder that a very important politician wants. Smith's character, Robert Dean, is unaware that he has the tape and as the movie progresses his life gets invaded by the NSA. They monitor Dean's life with satellite surveillance, by placing cameras in his house, taping into his phone calls, and placing tracking devices on his car, pants, pen, watch, and shoes. The NSA even goes as far as stopping all of Dean's bank accounts and exploiting him in the newspaper. They do this by looking back into his records as far as when he was in college. As this is happening his life is falling apart completely including his marriage, career and life in general.

A Few Good Men

This movie is about a lawyer who is defending two marines that killed another marine named Santiago. The reason they killed Santiago was because they were issued a Code Red, although the intent was not to kill the man. This means that they were ordered to go teach this kid a lesson by beating him up. In the minds of the two marines they did not do anything wrong because they were doing what they were told which is their job. After the lawyer, Tom Cruise, has gathered enough information about the case the court room drama begins. The movie finally ends with a dramatic confrontation between the two main characters, the lawyer and the Col Nathan Jessup, in the court room. This movie did not portray the city as full of surveillance like Enemy of the State. It portrayed the marines and the court system.

The security in A Few Good Men was demonstrated all throughout the movie. The characters always have to announce themselves and offer some kind of identification to prove who they are. There is also a lot of security during the court room scenes because there are police officers always present.

A connection that I made between the two movies was that both movies gave the impression that if you do not have a lot of power then you have a low rank. For example, in A Few Good Men, there is a part in the movie where Demi Moore's character and the lawyer are talking right before they go into court for the last time. Moore tells the lawyer that if he thinks for any reason Col Jessup will not confess to what he did than the lawyer should just back off and let it go. If he does not back off he could get into a lot of trouble. Basically, the lawyer does not have enough power and authority to overcome the Col.

This is shown in Enemy of the State when the power that the government has is used against the citizens multiple times. This power is used against any one who comes in contact with the tape of the murder. The first guy to come in contact with the tape gets chased through the city until he gets run over by a fire truck, the second guy gets blackmailed and his whole life is ruined.

Washington D.C Fact:
An aspect of Washington that was portrayed in Enemy of the State is all of the high security and surveillance. It has been proven that a person can be caught on camera as much as 300 times daily. There are cameras everywhere we go. It gives me the feeling like there is always somebody watching. A line from the movie that really stuck out in my mind is when Brill says to Robert Dean "The only privacy left is in your head."

It seems that lately the media print articles with false or exaggerated information. It is hard for me to know what is the truth and what is not. I am making this connection to Enemy of the State because there is a part in the movie where Robert Dean finds an article about himself that is mostly false information. This was an attempt by the men following Dean to blackmail him. When doing my research I found some information on a newspaper that prints articles that are legitimate which is The Washington Post. This newspaper sticks out in most people's minds for the exploitation of the Watergate Scandal. I am not sure that an exploitation like that will happen again anytime soon because too many people can be shut up easily by being paid off.