Independence Day

I had been worried about a Godzilla 98 level turkey. And it's not. It's not a bad movie at all. But it has a terrible reputation as one, and despite me not thinking it was bad, I still didn't remotely like it. It cost a mint to make. Millions of people saw it in the theaters, and it was monster hit. And it was just passable. Movie critics were rightly concerned that Hollywood blockbusters stopped being events, and became warmed-over crap made by committee. I believe I mentioned the film is NOT bad. It's also not remotely GOOD.

Where to start? Okay, let's talk about the "Spectacle" of this Event Movie. It feels weird to still feel this way 20 years later, but 9/11 makes the real world destruction of real buildings VERY uncomfortable, and tough to watch. One of the biggest legit criticisms I have heard leveled at the film is that it asks the viewer to sit back and be blown away and enjoy the beauty of genocide via spiffy visual effects. You don't see movies like this made anymore. Superhero fights or spaceship battles are usually the kind of spectacle we see these days. This is just dark.

To give you an idea of how disturbing and misguided all this is, during the previews during the Clinton Administration, when the White House blows up, people in the theater cheered. Sort of as a malevolent way to suggest what they'd like to see happen to Bill Clinton. Now in the movie itself all the destruction is portrayed as damaging and morally wrong. But maybe this is NOT the picture to be released in a country full of people cheering at the White House being blown up. I often think different movie eras get the blockbusters we deserve. And weak films like this and Men In Black being such megahits says something poor about the audiences back then. To be fair, much of the storytelling in popular 80's films wasn't much better. But that was still usually the best we had back them. This movie came out after Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game, The Shawshank Redemption, The Silence Of The Lambs, and The Fugitive. Expecting ACTUAL high quality from movies was a more realistic demand in 1996 than it was in 1986.

So much of the films feels SO clunky. The idea that Vivica Fox is a stripper is an obnoxious story turn. Because it's done so that Hiller's career couldn't advance if he married her. Making the movie's black woman a stripper is the producers' idea of adult relationship drama and conflict. I don't necessarily see racism in that intention. I see storytellers who don't actually understand what good relationship drama and conflict IS. That was their best idea. It sucks.

Similarly Randy Quaid's sacrifice led to one of the most infuriating scenes of the film at the very end. The general tells his kid his dad was brave and he should be proud of him. And the kid says he is. That is this movie's version of wrap-up, and it's terrible. In reality the kid's response to a statement that insensitive would be "Fuck bravery. I want my dad. You assholes took my Dad from me." Giving Quaid's character a family actually hurts his arc in the long run, as long as he's leaving them behind. It strikes me as less noble and more selfish too, which again says the writers don't understand human relationships. They were trying to force a happy ending where none was possible. Fail.

Another criticism I believe I've seen is that we don't see much of the aliens or interact with them much. The producers will claim it's to keep them scary and mysterious. But it also make them VERY impersonal villains that none of the characters seem have an actual personal stake in stopping. Even them destroying the planet is not a personal stake so long as we see so little of them and know so little too.

I will compliment Whitmore's Independence Day speech. It was a bit of a Crowdpleaser. And I think a film with better writing probably could have made it far more poetic and powerful. It's a big moment and a good moment. The problem is it easily could have been better with better writers.

One last thing. I was always alarmed back in the day over the film's veneration of cigars and tobacco. I actually suspected the film was being paid for product placement from Big Tobacco, which is fucked up for a summer movie kids were gonna watch. Before you call me paranoid and crazy for that belief, keep in mind films with smoking characters made shortly after this one have a disclaimer in the credits that no tobacco company paid to advertise their products. This has been standard movie practice to this very day. Which leads me to believe it was THIS film that did that VERY horrible thing and essentially ruined it for everyone else. Another reason for me to feel very uncomfortable with the film.

So that was Independence Day. I expected terrible and didn't get it. But I also didn't remotely get good. It says poor things about moviegoing audiences in 1996 that THIS was a monster hit. 2 1/2 stars.