INDEPENDENCE DAY

US, 1996, 145 minutes, Colour.
Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Mc Donnell, Judd Hirsh, Randy Quaid, Harry Connick Jr., Margaret Collin, Robert Loggia, Brent Spiner, Harvey Fierstein, James Duvall, Viveca A. Fox, James Rebhorn.
Directed by Roland Emmerich.

Independence Day was the big special-effects film of 1996 and a great box office bonanza. It was directed by Roland Emmerich, émigré German director, who co-wrote the film. He had made minor action films like Moon Zero Two and Universal Soldier with Dolph Lundgren. In 1994 he had great success with the science fiction film, Stargate. After Independence Day he went on to make Godzilla as well as the Mel Gibson war of revolution action drama, The Patriot.

In the '70s Steven Spielberg had presented aliens as amiable and as offering humans a higher way of life, especially in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He continued this particular perspective with E.T. However, there was a science fiction tradition where aliens were enemies of the human race. This came to a head in the late '30s with Orson Welles' radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, which many people believed was news reporting rather than a radio drama. With President Reagan and the Star Wars development, the fear of nuclear war, a more fearful, even paranoid approach developed. This goes back to Roswell and the stories about aliens coming and the military and political cover-up of their arrival. Independence Day takes the approach that the aliens are hostile and are attacking (and destroying) Washington on the Fourth of July. Will Smith is an energetic pilot who confronts the aliens. Bill Pullman is the decent president. Jeff Goldblum is the research scientist. A parody, star-filled presentation of this kind of theory (with Jack Nicholson as the president and Glenn Close his wife) was seen at the same time in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks.

1. The impact of the film? The film as a phenomenon - publicity, public interest, concern about extra terrestrial worlds? The Americans finding an enemy in the mid-'90s?

2. What response and nerve in the public did the film touch? Spectacle and special effects? Aliens? An enemy? The Star Wars tradition? American politics? A cause to unite all peoples and unite the world? The future of the planet?

3. Panavision photography and special effects? The New York city, Washington and Los Angeles locations? The desert? The scientific facilities, laboratories? An authentic feel?

4. The visualising of the spacecraft, the size and impact? The drama of the air battles? The shields around the spacecraft? Attacks and explosions? The musical score?

5. The structure of the film: the three days building up to Independence Day? The day of the attack, the day of the battles, the day of victory?

6. American patriotism? Issues of the environment and the future of the planet? The use of nuclear warheads to destroy the enemy - with the possible consequences on America? The world? American fight back and survival?

7. The film establishing its characters quickly, the interactions, the solutions? The tradition of the B budget supporting features of the 1950s? The tradition of science fiction and fantasy? The visualising of aliens in this movie tradition?

8. Bill Pullman as the President: a nice and gentle man, his background as a Gulf War pilot, the Poles calling him a wimp? His relationship with his daughter and the family sequences? Communication with his wife? His reliance on Connie? His advice from the chiefs of staff and general secretaries? His personal staff and their support? An ordinary man, his way of coping, criticism about indecisiveness, his having to make decisions? His decision to stay put in Washington? The subsequent panic and deaths? His change of heart, anguish of conscience? Communication with his wife in Los Angeles? The past history with David, the clash? David and his father arriving? The warning, the explanation of the formula? The decision to move from Washington, the plane taking off in great danger? His regrets about the deaths? Going to the desert station? The information about Roswell - and the President not having been informed? The history of contacts with aliens since the '40s? The alien and the experimentation at the centre? The battles and his decisions? The losses? His wife's arrival, her illness, talking with her, telling the truth, her death? His decision to go as a pilot, the nuclear issues? Firing of the rocket, failure, the second attempt, success? The final action? His speeches to the American public - especially the Fight back Independence Day speech and its spirit?

9. The President's wife, a good woman, working on behalf of the President? Leaving Los Angeles, the crash? Being found by the group, befriended by Jasmine and her son? The discussions, the background of her life, her being transported to the station, terminal illness and haemorrhage, her death?

10. Connie and her efficiency, the advice to the President? Her past with David and the break-up of their marriage? Their discussions? Her helping David to communicate with the President? The advice, the decisions? Her admiration for David and his solutions? Steve and Jasmine and their wedding - the witnessing, reunited?

11. David and his playing chess with his father, his father and his sadness at his wife's death, loss of faith in God? David at work, the forecasts, Harvey Fierstein as the co-worker, his concern, ringing his mother, escaping from the city? David as scientist, the patterns, decision to go to Washington with his father, going against the traffic? The confrontation with the President? Their eventually listening to him, going on the plane - and his airsickness? His attempts to help, listening to his father, the theory about the virus? It working? Witnessing the wedding and the uniting with Connie? The decision to go with Steve, the action, caught in the spacecraft, the split-second timing, the virus, the escape?

12. Steve and Jasmine in Los Angeles, the boy, the possibility of marriage? Starting the day? Going to his headquarters, his patriotism, his friendship with the other pilots, the discussions and patriotism? The task, the battle, the explosions, the deaths - his crash landing, the desert and dragging the alien to the station? Found, his being part of the experiments, rediscovering Jasmine and the group? The wedding? His decision to go into the spacecraft with David, his skills, the manoeuvres, escaping?

13. The alcoholic and his sons? The crop-dusting? Drink, his talk about the aliens and being taken away 10 years earlier? The escape and he and his sons going with the convoy? His decision to fight, training, going in the plane, the bomb not working, his final self-sacrifice, and his sons being proud of him?

14. The military chiefs, the information given, having to deal with it, the data? The military solutions?

15. The Secretary of Defense and his hawkish attitudes, urging the nuclear drop - the President taking a stand and his being fired?

16. The mad professor, hidden away with his staff in the desert, underground, the secrets about aliens and Roswell? Isolated? The probing experiments - and his death?

17. American interest in Roswell and other sightings, the secrets? Their plausibility?

18. The aliens and their visual presentation - as B-movie creatures from the past? Their alleged intelligence? Their greed, devastating the planets and resources, fighting humans? Their overshadowing the cities? The destruction of the cities? The deaths? The plane battles?

19. America and the Independence Day theme - given up-to-date meaning at a popular level for the whole world?