

Rating: 3.0 stars (out of 4.0)
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Key to rating system:
2.0 stars - Debatable
2.5 stars - Some people may like it
3.0 stars - I liked it
3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
*********************************
A Movie Review by David Sunga

Directed by: Rob Bowman

Written by: Chris Carter

Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Mitch
Pileggi, William B. Davis

Ingredients: Aliens, conspiracy theories, two FBI agent partners 

Prior to a catastrophic bombing in Dallas, FBI agents Dana Scully
(Gillian Anderson)and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) are able to evacuate
the building. But when a few bodies are mysteriously found in the
rubble, the partners are placed before an FBI panel investigating them
for professional negligence.

A discredited author named Kurtzweil (Martin Landau) tells Mulder that
the bombing was a coverup: the bodies were actually dead long before the
explosion. The victims died of a peculiar alien virus: once the virus is
implanted into a human host, an alien fetus begins to form which uses
the human tissue for food and breaks out of the corpse as a malevolent,
full-fledged alien humanoid. Kurtzweil also insists that the coverup is
the work of a shadow government, a powerful cartel whose very existence
remains a secret. 

Although it sounds like a hoax, Scully and Mulder check out Kurtzweil's
tale. In order to acquit themselves before the FBI panel, Scully and
Mulder search for proof of the existence of either Aliens or of the
secret government, but as they investigate, sinister anonymous forces
try to stop them. As a result, the two partners begin to question their
dedication to each other, and their commitment to finding the elusive
truth.

Will partners Scully and Mulder continue to support each other? Will
their insistence that "the truth is out there" ever be vindicated by a
glimpse of the actual truth?

Opinion:
Imagine a dangerous fictional world where the truth of a situation is
carefully hidden from the public. For example, suppose an international
totalitarian corporation, selling unrelated products through fake
'front' companies, filled key scenes in Hollywood movies with
conveniently placed products, using product placement to subconsciously
influence movie audiences to buy things. 

An unobservant person living in such a world might imagine he/she lives
in a world devoid of influence, a world of complete free will, laissez
faire capitalism, with diverse products to choose from. Another person,
carefully noticing the product placement in movie scenes, might deduce
that he/she lives in a world of free will, but with substantial
advertisement from competing companies. Finally, the person who digs the
deepest might describe the same world as superficially free, but in
reality controlled by a cartel - - whose main objective is to get people
to part with their economic dollars, political votes, and other forms of
power in order to monopolize power for a sinister oligarchy which
exterminates competition and keeps the truth hidden from ordinary people
through the use of press releases, spin doctors, Hollywood agents, and
an army of lawyers.

THE X-FILES occurs in a similar imaginary world - - a cosmos where truth
is deliberately obscured by powerful groups who keep the truth hidden
behind illusory levels of misinformation. It seems there are three main
power groups: the US government (fairly benign, but always a good
candidate for secret agendas), the shadow government (people in powerful
positions, who for the last 50 years, have had access to advanced
technology and some ability to counter it), and finally Aliens from
outer space. The government, the secret government, and the Aliens all
have their own agenda: each group deliberately obscures the truth, each
group infiltrates the other, and each group may act in collusion with or
defy the other groups when a situation serves its purpose. Finally there
are also rebels and informants in the X-Files world. 

In such a convoluted world deluged with information and misinformation,
heroes are defined as ordinary people capable of honest love and
loyalty, who strive against all odds to perceive the truth - - and
occasionally glimpse a measure of it, despite the antagonism of powers
that be. In other words, heroes are individuals like government workers
Scully and Mulder. 

The main goal in the average summer action movie is for the heroes to
endure lots of chase scenes, and then wrap up by solving all the
problems and defeating a clear-cut villain by the end of the movie. On
the other hand, the main goal for an X-Files hero is to get a glimpse of
the truth in a decidedly untruthful world. As long as that distinction
is kept in mind, THE X-FILES is an enjoyable movie.  

Reviewed by David Sunga
June 21, 1998

Copyright © 1998 by David Sunga
This review and others like it can be found at 
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