Retrospective: Independence Day (1996)
Eric Walker
theaters, this "epic" movie has been largely forgotten. And there's a
good reason for that: the only reason we saw this movie was to go
"Oooooh, Aaaaaah," and say "That blowed up real good!"
Did anyone really care about the way the movie gave us "Irwin Allen
Meets War of the Worlds?" Can anyone remember one memorable character
from this movie, except possibly Will Smith? Whether it was Jeff
Goldbum's re-hash of his "Jurassic Park" scientist, Bill Pullman's
macho President of the United States, or the stereotypical Jewish
grandfather who gives the wise advise about viruses that ends up
saving the world...no one really cares about these characters. All
there is to see in "ID4" is things blowing up.
Fortunately for the film's producers, this means that much of the
audience overlooked the jingoistic, flag-waving theme behind the movie
that connected with the audience far more than the stupid characters
did.
In "Independence Day", the United States saves the world. In fact,
other than the scenes of aliens arriving over Moscow and Iraq, you'd
never know that the rest of the world was involved with this alien
invasion. It's not really "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers," it's
"America vs. the Evil Enemy." One of the movie's many conveniences is
that the aliens just happen to be a totally evil, faceless Enemy that
never allows us to be sympathetic in any way. We don't know where
they're from, what the name of their race is, or anything. They're
just The Enemy: they're here to destroy us. Good vs. evil.
Black-and-white.
Despite the fact that this is a "worldwide" alien invasion, we only
see three American cities toasted. We don't hear anything about what
happens out there in the rest of the world, because that's not
important: this is *America* we're talking about here. How DARE these
Evil Bad Guys attack the Greatest Nation On Earth?
The rest of the world sits back while America fights, and when America
figures out how to stop the aliens all we get from the rest of the
world is a one-liner from an Israeli solder saying, "It's about time!"
"About time" for what? Time for America to get on the stick and save
the world once again. Ever since WWII, America has promoted itself as
the "protector" of the world. This movie is another way for America
to say, "...and don't you forget it!"
And of course, America is such a great nation that even a
poorly-trained volunteer air force can defeat a whole armada of alien
fighting ships, despite the fact that they're vastly outnumbered. Not
only is America the great nation in the world, it's the greatest
nation in the Universe! We don't even see the other countries winning
victories against the aliens. It's not important, because America won
the war and beat the bad guys.
The whole idea of the title, of course, is that the aliens arrive and
attack, and we get to fight them off just in time for that most
American of holidays, Independence Day. Except now the whole world
gets to celebrate an American holiday: "Independence Day is no longer
just an American holiday," as the President said.
It's interesting to note that Hollywood has practically owned most of
the movie audiences around the world for years. American movies have
such a stranglehold on foreign markets that in some countries, the
local film industries barely exist at all. With "Independence Day",
Hollywood forces this message of America as the Greatest Nation In The
World down the throats of moviegoers worldwide. "We save the world
and you love us for it!"
Some people are going to flame me for making what looks like a
criticism of America, the Greatest Nation In The World. The standard
flame in this thread will be, "If you don't like this country, then
get the hell out!" I'm not attacking America here. I love this
country and I'm glad to be here.
What I *am* attacking is Hollywood, for creating a piece of blatant
propaganda that they will be foisting upon audiences worldwide. It
may be pro-American propaganda, but it's still propaganda.
But hey - those cities and ships sure blowed up real good!
--
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