Independence Day

This is a 1996 movie that shows U.S. patriotism at its best. Aside from as sci-fi flick I would say it's not so bad.

It is a classic alien invasion story. Enormous round starships descend from the skies and set above the main buildings in every important city in the world as though they were expecting something. Only one scientist, David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), discovers what the alien ships really mean by being floating over the cities. Levinson tries to warn everyone but his warning is not heeded. Soon each starship shoots beams of destructive light that tears apart not only the buildings below them but most of the cities causing the annihilation of millions in just instants. What is left of the governments of the world flee to secret bases. The U.S. president (Bill Pullman) is alive and with the rest of the military they try to coordinate a world counterattack though they know that all their weapons cannot even scratch the surface of any of the alien ships and drones which are protected by invisible force fields. Not even an atomic bomb can. Then Levinson enters into play again. He has devised a plan and with the help of Cap. Steven Hiller (Will Smith): they will go into space, get inside the mother ship, sabotage the alien main computer and thus give the human fighters one last chance to connect one definitive blow to the alien invaders precisely after the dawn of another Fourth of July (hence the patriotic title of this film).

I know that many people dislike this film for being so “America”- centered. Others are indifferent to that. If I made a movie like Independence Day I would also make the Ecuadorians stand out over all the other nations. That is no crime (though I would really have a hard time figuring out how to do that). So I would say if you have the chance to see it again, sit back in your favorite couch and take this movie as what it is: a decent sci-fi film with great special effects and an enormous dose of naiveté but quite fun in the end.

The highlight? Actor Randy Quaid. He is Russell Casse and he is meant to be the comic relief of the movie though he is actually the best actor in the story. In the movie he is a Vietnam veteran who is now a drunkard who raises his three kids in almost precarious conditions now that they are refugees. In need of pilots the Army recruits him. When the final attacks begins the human ships are almost out of ammo and one of the enormous starships has found out where the human resistance is hiding. They prepare their ultimate weapon that will surely destroy the secret base but one missile in the right place can stop the attack. The president himself (he was also a pilot in the past) tries and fails and then it is Russell who shows up with a last missile. When he shoots the mechanism fails so he decides to deliver the missile by crashing the plane against the alien ship. What he says before he does it…well, it is so sad but at the same time so hilarious that it also makes that sequence the cherry on top of the cake. Randy Quaid is indeed a great comedian.

Three stars out of five for this one.