Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408230054
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
But 30 years ago the film "Seven Days in May" chilled audiences with its vision of a military power grab. Stalwart Kirk Douglas was democracy's would-be savior in a world poisoned by nuclear fear.
Now Douglas' son Peter has produced a new version of the story for HBO, "The Enemy Within." The film is subtler and more realistic, says Peter Douglas - and, because of that, perhaps more unsettling.
Forest Whitaker, Sam Waterston, Dana Delany and Jason Robards star in the tale of a president facing removal from office, the target of a legal gambit by military and political leaders.
The film debuts tonight at 8 on the cable channel.
"We don't believe for a second that the military could single-handedly plan a coup in this country. That's not the premise of this movie, although it was in the earlier film," said Douglas, 38, younger brother of actor Michael.
"Enemy Within" uses a different device: a coup with the veneer of constitutionality.
"The 25th Amendment states very clearly that if one-half of the cabinet and the vice president sign a letter that the president is unfit to hold office, with no explanation needed, and deliver that letter to the speaker of the house, the vice president becomes the president," Douglas explains.
The story, set around the year 2000, focuses on the brief period in which the chief executive may appeal his removal.
"It's not truly a coup; it's a constitutional change of power," Douglas says. That makes for a more circumspect movie than the original.
"I think there's some elements that are frightening, but it's more of a thinker's piece than an Arnold Schwarzenegger picture," he said.
Waterston plays President William Foster, who has fanned anger among military leaders and others by supporting a bill that would redirect budget money slated for defense.
Foster, who wants to focus national resources on social ills, is seen by his opponents as a threat to military readiness in an unsettled, post-Cold War world.
Col. Mac Casey (Whitaker), an officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, begins to suspect that his commanding officer (Robards) is masterminding a takeover and races the clock to prove it.
The film's approach was suggested by a National War College essay written by Air Force Col. Charles J. Dunlap Jr., a lawyer with the U.S. Central Command. He served as technical adviser to "Enemy Within."
"The `bloodless coup' scenario is the only one that's realistic for a developed democracy," said Dunlap, who emphasized he was speaking as a private citizen, not as a Defense Department spokesman.
Dunlap's essay, a fictional account of a rebellion in the year 2012, argues that nontraditional missions such as drug intervention and peacekeeping erode the military's war-fighting capability.
They also allow the military to dangerously insinuate itself into the political process, Dunlap argues.
Douglas believes the film's revamped premise has a contemporary appeal.
"Americans love conspiracies," he said. The remake also takes a fresh approach to its characters and casting, Douglas says.
"I think we were trying to capture more real people than movie stars," he said. Whitaker, who has the Kirk Douglas role, is shown as a husband and father grappling with personal as well as professional conflicts.
Delany's role as government official Betsy Corcoran represents "the evolution of women," Douglas said.
"In the original picture we had Ava Gardner, the lush lover of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. We don't have that this time around.
"This woman [Corcoran] happens to be an intelligent professional, the chief of staff to the president - and she doesn't sleep with him," Douglas said.
Dunlap hopes the movie draws viewers beyond the war colleges and think tanks likely to be interested in it. The potential abuse of military power is not an esoteric topic, he says.
"Nothing's going to happen tomorrow. But I am concerned about the direction we're going," he said. Academics are starting to scrutinize the issue, "but nothing can reach the American public like television."
by CNB