Independence Day (1996)

Director:

Roland Emmerich

Writers (WGA):

Dean Devlin (written by) &
Roland Emmerich (written by)

Release Date:

3 July 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

We've always believed we weren't alone. Pretty soon, we'll wish we were.

Plot:

The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy. Fighting superior technology, Man's best weapon is the will to survive.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Spaceship | Weapon | Spacecraft | Area 51

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 26 wins & 21 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Dec. 13	8:00 PM	TNT
Sun. Dec. 13	10:45 PM	TNT

Cast

Will Smith	...	Captain Steven Hiller
Bill Pullman	...	President Thomas J. Whitmore
Jeff Goldblum	...	David Levinson
Mary McDonnell	...	First Lady Marilyn Whitmore
Judd Hirsch	...	Julius Levinson
Robert Loggia	...	General William Grey
Randy Quaid	...	Russell Casse
Margaret Colin	...	Constance Spano
Vivica A. Fox	...	Jasmine Dubrow
James Rebhorn	...	Albert Nimzicki
Harvey Fierstein	...	Marty Gilbert
Adam Baldwin	...	Major Mitchell
Brent Spiner	...	Dr. Brackish Okun
James Duval	...	Miguel Casse
Lisa Jakub	...	Alicia Casse

Also Known As:

ID4 (USA) (promotional abbreviation)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi destruction and violence.

Runtime:

145 min | USA:153 min (special edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS 70 mm (70 mm prints) (Europe) | DTS (35 mm prints) | Dolby Digital (35 mm prints) | SDDS (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Ireland:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #34370) | Brazil:12 | Japan:U | New Zealand:PG | Australia:PG (edited for lower rating) | Canada:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Italy:T | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:All | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | UK:12 | Israel:PG

Filming Locations:

2nd Street Tunnel, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Centropolis Entertainment

Trivia:

The alien spacecraft miniature was 65 feet wide.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the shots of the moon at the very beginning, one can clearly see dust blowing above the surface. In reality, since there is no atmosphere on the moon, dust particles would not float, but would fall straight to the surface (and at the same rate as large objects). Of course, dust would not leave the surface in the first place due to the lack of air.

Quotes:

[first lines]
SETI Chief: [answering telephone] If this isn't an insanely beautiful woman, I'm hangin' up.
SETI technician: Sir, I - I- I think you should listen to this.

Movie Connections:

References The Rock (1996)

Soundtrack:

Rumble

A gripping yarn if meaning is ignored? v1.00

Emmerich's earlier work, Moon 44 (1990). Low budget visuals but an intelligible story of a clash between two strong industrial groups, the clash happening well away from the legal frameworks on earth. Believable, if scary for a weak male to female. Independence Day (1996) maybe adds extra possible sets of meanings to this.

Further, I have a problem with how I interpret possible hidden meaning in this 1996 work. It is earthlings against alien invaders and as an underclass I have occasionally noticed that we are understood by many to be aliens, Klingons, we are often warred against.

*

Going to other sources to try to amplify my understandings of this can be sense, just I really need to look to biblical sources and I am prone to misunderstand those in a big way. Unfortunately that does not stop me feeling a need to try to interpret in that way.

Ancient Hebrew law, that some types of legal penalties should not be permanent for those in the tribes. The Jubilee year. A time of freeing those enslaved. But the biblical histories only note one occurrence of that, and in their later years at that, with a rush to back out and re-enslave those freed.

That is a fun thing for underclass to note and write experiences of occasionally as around 1992 to 93 I was noting that sort of thing. By 1996 I was in big trouble again, chained. I assume that other underclass will have had experiences too, freedom then loss of that freedom. For me, Independence Day by Emmerich feels like an expression of how the good among the ancient Hebrew might have felt when the slaves were freed. If that is the case I understand it to totally misunderstand the realities of big babies and other such. It is not an expression of a Klingon view but of an Enterprise view.

The weakness of the logic of an earth computer virus on alien machines is obvious to many. But I understand it to likely be intended to be a parallel to one of the main ways that Enterprise culture attacks and forms the underclasses. We are led astray and then mangled badly. This suggests that the underclasses are victims in a war that has always been going on, just the belief systems that have been openly dominant since the eighties have made the result clearer, they are a purer form of natural injustice?

The aliens having telepathic control fits what I understand of Enterprise understandings about Klingons, see Wet Hot American Summer. Meantime my Klingons' experiences of Enterprise attacks is of them often being akin to that. To quote Spike in Buffy, such actions by Enterprise or anyone are not without side effects. To me, this telepathic control is not about Klingon reality other than that.

Whatever, if I forget about meaning then this is a gripping yarn. Even if it is told by Captain Kirk's side.