Independence Day (1996)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/

Okay, I’ll admit I do have a penchant for Hollywood blockbuster films. Not the recent superhero/prequels/sequels/remakes in 3D outings but the action-packed nineties variety, Jurassic Park (1993) is one of my favourite films of all time and I am not ashamed to say it. Of course the original blockbuster that changed the game, Jaws (1975), is also a firm favourite but the nineties classic holds a dear nostalgic place in my heart. So it may surprise you to know that until very recently I had not seen Independence Day in its entirety. Great British Bank Holiday programming allowed me to indulge in this guilty pleasure in full and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Written and directed by German filmmaker Roland Emmerich, whose first Hollywood blockbuster was Universal Soldier (1992) starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lungren at their best, Independence Day was responsible for an onslaught of disaster movies; all inferior to this gem. It also reinvented and set new standards for marketing strategies for these massive blockbusters. The marketing campaign for ID4 (?, yep still don’t get it) cost a whopping $24 million which incorporated teaser trailers, helicopters with banners flying over California and they paid $1.3 million to run the trailer during the Superbowl which has now become a standard marketing tool for a blockbuster, but Independence Day did it first.

Of course the film was also released on July 4th but it seems Emmerich and Dean Devlin (co-writer) had to fight for this, along with the title of the film. Fox (20th Century Fox who put in the $75 million to make the film)wanted the name of the film to be ‘Doomsday’ so Devlin added in the line ‘today we celebrate our Independence Day’ into the President’s speech in the film at the last minute so that Fox would have to keep the title and therefore the release date. Not only did they have a winning marketing formula they also had a winning shot of destruction to draw audiences in, the blowing up of the White House. The incredible special effects within the film were down to Joe Viskocil who was also responsible for blowing up the Death Star and the incredibly disturbing holocaust scene in Terminator 2 (1991).

Yes Independence Day is a ridiculous film and is extremely patriotic but it is also fun. There are various unbelievable elements such as the President being allowed to fly a plane and Jeff Goldblum’s character David Levinson easily accessing the alien’s system in order to infiltrate it with a virus but we can overlook these flaws in the name of entertainment. Perhaps one element that cannot be forgiven is the appalling cultural stereotypes that the film depicts and that in the film the rest of the world sits and waits for the Americans to save the day but let’s not forget this is a Hollywood blockbuster after all.

Jeff Goldblum is on top form with witty one-liners and even referencing himself in Jurassic Park and this isn’t the only reference we are treated to. There are plenty of classic sci-fi references to satisfy any cinephile with Will Smith’s character Captain Steven Hiller shouting “Now that’s what I call a close encounter”. Independence Day knows what it is and it isn’t afraid to explicitly show it. The characters joke around while the end of the world is imminent but it wouldn’t be a blockbuster if everyone was terrified for their lives now would it? In the nineties blockbuster global catastrophe was an excuse for wise-cracking jokes and the fact these films and their audiences were aware of this just added to the fun. They may have been politically incorrect and unrealistic but the nineties blockbuster was an entertaining escapist ride and Independence Day epitomises this.