2 hours 25 minutes, USA 1996
Director: Roland Emmerich; Producer: Dean Devlin; Screenplay: Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin; Photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub; Production Design: Patrick Tatopoulos and Oliver Scholl; Editing: David Brenner; Music: David Arnold .
Stars: Will Smith (Captain Steven Hiller), Bill Pullman (President Thomas J. Whitmore), Jeff Goldblum (David Levinson), Mary McDonnell (Marilyn Whitmore), Judd Hirsch (Julius Levinson), Robert Loggia (General William Grey), Randy Quaid (Russell Casse), Margaret Colin (Constance Spano), James Rebhorn (Secretary of Defence Albert Nimziki), Harvey Fierstein (Marty Gilbert).
July 2nd. The moon is still, the flag planted by Neil Armstrong back in 1969 unmoving. But a huge shadow is being cast across the satellite, heading for Earth. The shadow is being made by a huge spaceship, half the size of the Earth itself, and as it reaches the edge of the atmosphere, it breaks apart in to a dozen or so smaller pieces, each 15km in diameter. These pieces take up positions hovering low over the major cities of the world: New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Moscow, London, Paris. At first, the arrivals are greeted with open arms, but it soon becomes apparent that the visitors are not here for an alliance. After a devastating attack which leaves most of the cities in ruin, the survivors gather together. Led by American President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), cocky fighter pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and computer whizz David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), these remaining forces must put aside their ethnic and personal differences and work together to stop the invaders from completing their mission: the annihilation of the human race and the conquest of Earth.
Do not, under any circumstances, miss this film. Independence Day will be the science fiction event that captures the imagination of a generation, in the same way that Star Wars did in the 1970s and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial did in the 80s. And don't be put off by its rooted sci-fi background. It is a human story of working together and putting aside differences for a greater good, set against a special effects background. And what special effects! If the phenomenal trailer wasn't enough, the sight of these huge spacecraft crawling across the sky, scraping the top of the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge simply takes your breath away. These visuals, designed by Volker Engel and Douglas Smith, have surpassed the efforts of any others ever seen on a cinema screen. Then, in a throwback to the old disaster movies like The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, these enormous disks wreak havoc in incredible fashion. The sight of the White House, The Empire State Building, St. Paul's Cathedral or the Kremlin bursting spectacularly into flame leaves one speechless. The realism of these images is all the more frightening by the way in which director Roland Emmerich handles the crowds. We have all seen, in films of the past, people pointing and screaming at upcoming terrors. Here, the sheer hysteria of the people trying to evade the firestorm seems unforgettably real.Roland Emmerich, the director of Stargate and Universal Soldier, has really pulled off a timely coup with Independence Day. Since the end of the Cold War, and this era of racial harmony, there aren't really any viable movie 'baddies' you can have without offending somebody. Aliens are the perfect solution: they can be unquestionably evil and nobody gets upset. It also makes for a perfect set of good guys: Bill Pullman's President Whitmore is white and middle-class. Will Smith's Captain Hiller is young, fit and black. Jeff Goldblum's character is Jewish. Add to this a white trash farmer (Randy Quaid), a homosexual (Harvey Fierstein) and a group of strong, determined women and you have another perfect advertisement for a harmonious, multi-cultural society. Individually, they could not survive, but together they are unbeatable.
The aliens themselves are great. Designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, with an indirect homage to H. R. Giger, they are the epitome of a movie anti-hero. Seemingly indestructible, unquestionable frightening and ugly, and unremittingly evil (Bill Pullman asks a captured alien "What do you want us to do?". The alien replies "Die."), they embody every fear that humanity has about life on other worlds. What if they're not like ET? What if they have better technologies than us? These questions will remain for some time, especially considering NASA's latest discovery about life on Mars, but Independence Day gives immediate answers to them: teamwork and good, old fashioned decency will prevail.
While not having a particularly original storyline, and despite its blatant patriotism and occasional sickly sentimentality, Independence Day will give viewers the ride of their lives. Will Smith (Bad Boys) is very good in the lead role, finally casting aside his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air image and becoming a fully-fledged movie star. Smith gets all the movie's best lines (when opening the hatch of a crashed alien fighter, he punches the pilot squarely on the nose(?) and quips "Welcome to Earth!"). He also features in the film's most amusing scene, where he drags the now-unconscious alien across the Nevada desert in his parachute, stopping every now and again to give it a swift kicking, so pissed is he that his 4th July holiday has been ruined. Bill Pullman (While You Were Sleeping) is steely and determined as President Whitmore, a man who is criticised for his indecision in peacetime, but who comes in to his own whilst at war, drawing on his experiences as a Desert Storm hero. Pullman apparently modelled his performance on Alec Baldwin's in Malice (which Pullman also appeared in), and his gritty patriotism shows through, especially in one of the film's most moving moments: the stirring speech he delivers to his beleaguered troops before launching the final battle. I think there is also an unwritten law in Hollywood that says that any director making a summer blockbuster must cast Jeff Goldblum. Jeff (The Fly, Jurassic Park) as Jewish computer expert David Levinson, is the brains of the operation: it is he who figures out the meaning of the intercepted satellite transmissions; he who works out how to break through the defences of the alien craft and who finally discovers the weakness of the alien mother ship.
A supporting cast of familiar faces also stand out: Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves) is effective but under-utilised as the First Lady; Randy Quaid (Kingpin) is amusing as a drunken crop-duster who becomes a pilot hero; Margaret Colin (Three Men and a Baby, Chicago Hope) and Judd Hirsch (Taxi) are both good as Jeff Goldblum's ex-wife and father, respectively. Robert Loggia (Jagged Edge), Harvey Fierstein (Mrs. Doubtfire), Adam Baldwin (Full Metal Jacket), Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Harry Connick Jnr. also pop up in cameos. Emmerich's choice of deliberately not casting the bigger Hollywood stars in lead roles mean that we feel a great deal of empathy for the characters as characters, rather than them being charicatures of the actors playing them. And, while none of them will win Oscars, all the cast deliver uniformly excellent performances. Special note must also go to the bold, dramatic musical score by David Arnold and the superb cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub, both of whom deserve awards.
While Independence Day may not be the most intellectually stimulating piece of cinema you will ever see, and though the plot doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, it is undoubtedly an incredible, fantastical ride through three momentous days in human history. As I said earlier, do not miss this film under any circumstances. It is the best film of 1996 so far, and one of the truly bonafide blockbusters of this, or any year.
A film review by Jonathan Broxton 1996