Subject: Review: Independence Day (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Seth Bookey)
Date: 2 Aug 1997 15:19:25 GMT

Independence Day (1996)

Seen on 5 July 1996 with Andrea and Kerry at the Ziegfield for $8.50. Also
seen repeatedly on HBO in June 1997. 

After months of watching previews for *Independence Day* it was clear that
I would be seeing it whether I wanted to or not. Gigantic space ships
looming over great cities, worried citizens looking skyward, and every
landmark familiar to us blown to smithereens. While watching one preview
months earlier, the White House is blown up and at least one exuberant
audience member exclaimed "Sign me up!" 

Like movies before and after it, the special effects and the previews were
the true stars of the show. Did you go to Towering Inferno to see Fred
Astaire pet a cat? Did you sit through Earthquake to see Ava Gardner throw
barbs at Charlton Heston? I didn't think so.

Consequently, you didn't go to *Independence Day* to see Jeff Goldblum
chomp on a cigar; you went to see the Capitol blown to bits. I was hoping
for the IRS building, but no dice.

It is clear now why the stars of the movie were not prominently featured
in the previews. The entire story is subordinate to the special effects.

The biggest let down in Independence Day is the opportunity to make the
movie something more than a jingoistic flag waving epic in which only an
American can think up a way to beat the aliens (that it takes a minorities
to do it is something at least). It is also disappointing that after all
the build-up to see the aliens, they are two dimensional as well. Their
entire dialogue and mission is limited to about three or four words,
indicated they are simply evil and bellicose.

Like I said, the buildup is terrific and the let down tremendous. The best
scenes after the aliens start microwaving the world's great cities occur
in the "notorious" Area 51 in the subterranean lab the government has kept
secret all these decades. But it all ends in macho swagger. Oy gevalt. 

The cast is good but not stellar. The comic talents of Judd Hirsch,
Margaret Colin, and Harvey Fierstein do go a long way to temper the
general testosterone nonsense perpetuated by Will Smith, Bill Pullman,
Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia and a host of others; and if Randy Quaid was
included to make sure we were annoyed, mission accomplished. 

In anachronistic retrospect, Contact and Men in Black are preferable.

Copyright (c) 1997, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021, [email-masked]

More movie reviews by Seth Bookey are available at 
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html.