I've tried looking on the net for the meaning behind "Enemy Mine". I though it meant like the weapon, as in like a minefield or those black circles that make you die in Windows Minesweeper. I have no idea how this is symbolically represented in the movie however. My bro came up w/ the suggestion that it's a reference to the scavenger's ore factory mine at the end. Or it could be both. Anyone have any other ideas?
shareI never saw it that way. I always thought "Enemy Mine" as in "my enemy". It might've something Jerry said when he was learning English.
shareIt is funny. In Spanish we have the expression 'amigo mío' ('my friend' or 'friend of mine'). The literal translation of this film title would be 'enemigo mío', which fits perfectly with the theme of the movie. Since now I never thought it would be confusing for anglophones.
shareThe two expressions are distinct.Being spanish (romance language derived from latin), you should know that using a possessive pronoun (enemy mine), is more emphatic than the lesser adjective possessive (my enemy). Of course in english, we generally use a copula (enemy is mine) or a preposition to express the genitive case in an emphatic manner (enemy of mine). Without a preposition or a copula, the title invites ambiguity.
shareAnyone else impressed someone with the screen name Sexy-PuTang was so artful in deciphering the sentence structure of the title? Who knew English majors could also be so naughty!
shareThat made me laugh, i didn't even notice his name....
shareI like when people mention little unnoticed things like this. It made me smile.
shareSame thing happened here, actually most movies get b0rked in title translation, like Parent Trap (original) / Operacion Cupido (Cupid Operation), Parent Trap (remake) / Juego de gemelas (Twin games), House on Haunted Hill / Residencia del mal (Evil Residence, imagine the kicks we got with THAT one...), Resident Evil / Huesped Maldito (Evil Host, they had to b0rk this one because of the previous example). You'd find it funny that "Alien" was called "El Octavo Pasajero" (The 8th Passenger) and the phrase itself has found use in Mexican slang.
However, Enemy Mine, while ambiguous in English (limpet mines, ore mines, "mine" as possessive), translates perfectly into Spanish as "Enemigo Mío", giving the correct meaning for the title. I was only confused with the English gramatical construction, but then, I was 7 years old when I watched this (three years after it came out).
Uh. "huesped" is a boarder at a boarding house, not a "host." That would be "Anfitrión Maldito." So it's actually "Evil boarder."
shareIt's just another way of saying 'my enemy', but making it more possessive. If you look in the trivia section it talks about mine being a possessive rather than a noun.
"England. Typical. Even drug dealers don't work weekends."
... but it also says the studio pushed the writers to include a real mine in the movie, because they thought that people wouldnt realize "mine" as possesion, so they could have something real to match the title with.
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Space Friendship ---- LOL!
Other titles that wouldnt be nearly as cool as ENEMY MINE
Ace Star Buddies
I Don't Like You: Now I DO!
The Odd Couple III: Space Wars
I really like the title, it sounds very powerful when you say it. I never knew all the grammar 'possesive pronoun' stuff before, but I am not surprised.
-------------------------------------No *beep* *beep* lady, do I sound like I'm ordering a pizza??
Of course they meant that, everybody knows non-Americans aren't really people. Jerk.
sharecarlos-fg7 wrote:
> ...they thought that people wouldnt realize "mine" as possesion...
bobwasere wrote:
> and by people they mean americans. =)
Canadian Villain Garth Vader wrote:
> Of course they meant that, everybody knows non-Americans aren't really people. Jerk.
I'd expect a non-American (just guessing from your name) to get bobwasere's point, but maybe you're defensive to begin with. He meant that Americans wouldn't get it while the rest of the western world would. So chill. It was a tongue-in-cheek slam at Americans, not Canadians or anyone else.
"Be Quicker of Mind Than of Tongue"
Lets look at it simply form the plot as a whole. "Enemy Mine" would most probably be a way to describe a place (one with a hostile/rugged/inhospitable terrain, thus a mine) in which enemies (Willis Davidge (Quaid) & Jeriba Shigan (Gossett)) are congested or forced into by circumstances (the war between these 2 warring races). Hope that helps....
shareThe original short story is called Enemy Mine and doesn't have anything to do with mining.
England Prevails
how about thinking of the place as "an" enemy mine : ie, somewhere you can mine enemies ? like a coal mine is somewhere you can mine coal ?!
To be honest, I had never thought about it properly before - I guess it seemed like a mine as in a landmine, but that makes no sense at all !
I like the possessive bent, very good.
"The Odd Couple III : Space Wars" <- excellent work !
I always thought it was meant to be read backwords or forwards, is that what an anagram is?. Read it backwords and it could still say "enimy mene". Kinda like they are two sides of the same coin. Just a thought.
shareWOW I really like you pointed out the "enimy mene"...That is so interesting!
"Lo. Li. Ta." ~~Nabokov
Because of the way the logo looks, I actually thought this film was called Mine Enemy, in a kind of Shakesperian 'Mine heart doth fly to thee' kinda way, or in a German style like 'Mein Gott', albeit spelt incorrectly...
I was really suprised when i stuck the video in and it came up with Enemy Mine.
No, that's called a palindrome.
share"Enemy Mine" uses the word "mine" as a possessive. The particular form is uncommon to rare in today's usage of the English language, but not unheard of, obviously. Most often it is expressed as "enemy of mine" or "my enemy."
I wouldn't beat yourselves up on that score. The confusion is natural, given the complexity of English. Many of the "proper forms" or constructions used in the language are falling into disuse.
It's my opinion that the mass media has damaged the use of English. Everything is written for the reading level of a grade school child - when it is written at all.
I have just watched the film, and the ending does actually take place in a mine, as in "to mine resources". And it is run by outcast humans called Scavengers who use Draks as slave labor. So technically the title "Enemy Mine" does actually mean a mine owned and run by the enemy.
Which, of course, makes MUCH more sense than the possessive term.
If you get a chance, look up some of the author's comments around the Web. The author of the original story is Barry Longyear.
If you consider that entire sequence was deliberately added to the film, specifically for that exact reason, then it makes a sad comment. The producers thought that no one would understand the title otherwise.
There was no mine in the original story.
Interesting thought. I first heard the Portuguese-version of the name - "Inimigo Meu", which literally means Enemy Mine. The usual construction for the expression would be "Meu Inimigo", My Enemy; but it is also not constructed in the usual English manner in the original title ("Enemy Mine" instead of "Enemy of Mine"), so I guess the inversion in the Portuguese title is adequate.
I think that is the reason I never thought of Mine as a noun. It's really an interpretation that might confound someone who's never seen the movie; but once you get to see it, the correct interpretation gets quite obvious, really. Makes a whole lot more sense than naming the movie after a small sequence set in a mine.
I don't know how anyone can not understand the title of this movie after watching it. What a state the world is in.
On a side note I found the movie horrible. It is probably one of the most ridiculous movies I have sat through. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
If you didn't like it, it's most likely you didn't understand it.
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