Independence Day, 1996

I saw this film on July 2nd, 1996 at midnight. I went with some friends from college, and we saw the film two whole days before most people had the chance to. Although, I must say that they were running the movie 24 hours a day starting at that midnight show on July 2nd... so we didn't see it before a few people, but most.

It was THE most fun I've had at a movie, ever.

The idea behind a production like ID4 is, in a sense, audience participation. I watched the DVD tonight and I have to say that this is one of those rare films that NEEDS to be viewed on a big screen. Star Wars (the first three films) also fall into that catagory... but this film... you need to see it with an audience, with cheering, with awe.

I mean, there was clapping when the White House got destroyed. CLAPPING. That says a lot.

ID4 was the brain child of the producer/director/writer team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. These two have been responsible for a few money makers prior to ID4, including Universal Soldier and Stargate. Stargate ended up grossing just under $200 million dollars in 1994... a movie that pretty much came out of left field with its effects and story... along with this team of creators. Stargate didn't make it to the top ten grossing movies of 1994... it had some serious mainstream competition... but what it did do was convince 20th Century Fox that Devlin and Emmerich had what it took to make a serious moneymaking film.

If you've never read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons brilliant graphic novel Watchmen, it is very important that you do so, immediately! It's one of the most important comic books to ever come out... along with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The two came out in the same year, and changed the way comics were looked at and made.

I bring up Watchmen because it deals with a slightly similar theme. The world, even as we know it today, is split up, divided, segregated... always on the brink of war... and one man takes it upon himself to fix things... in a very destructive manner.

The idea being is that people will only wake up and see how important humanity is when all of humanity is threatened.

This film doesn't try to do that, in such a literal respect, but it does show how "We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore." And the world responds as a whole to the threat of the alien ships. They even go so far as to show warring factions working together in other countries. And, at the time, the movie was preaching, sure... but it was also showing us things, to a certain degree. And we're still not listening.

Now, don't get me wrong. ID4 wasn't trying to re-shape the world... but understand that it doesn't matter where the moral of the story (or the story itself) comes from. Especially when it's right.

So. With the story, the producer and the director, the script written... the next thing that was needed was a cast to bring it all together.

Will Smith had just come off of Bad Boys, working with Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. Big budget action film, high profile... he was also the star of his own sit-com that lasted over 6 years... Smith is a good actor when he wants to be. When the material is good, and it allows him room to create more of a humorous personality with his character. He did an ok job in this film... but I think the dialog was poorly written throughout the film... it's way too contrived and circumstantial. It's what most of these characters would be expected to say... and that really doesn't become a problem... because the idea of the film, the plot... the effects... those are more than enough to hold the film together.

So, I would have to say that the performances are not really an issue in this film. Smith did an ok job with what he had to work with. The following year he would star in Men in Black, and I think his performance in this film was very well done.

Bill Pullman. I've always enjoyed his work... though sometimes his cardboard delivery gets to me. Again, in this film, the material worked against him. He has some decent moments, especially his speech before the final aerial incursion... but the rest of the time he's pretty wooden.

Since the beginning of his career, Pullman has had some great performances. Ruthless People, Spaceballs, The Last Seduction and, two years after ID4, his performance in Lost Highway... well, I thought he was incredible in that. I haven't enjoyed much of him since... he was ok in Titan A.E.... but that's about it.

Jeff Goldblum was a great choice for this film. He's a very recognizable character actor, and has starred in a number of big blockbuster films including Jurassic Park, which came out 3 years prior to this. I, personally, enjoy his older work like The Big Chill, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Silverado, The Fly, Earth Girls Are Easy... things like that. Even cheese like Transylvania 6-5000 and Vibes... he's done some neat work. His stuff now, including The Lost World, Holy Man, Cats & Dogs... I'm not exactly sure who is chosing these roles for him, but they are not the kind of independent and cultish films of his past... which is too bad.

I think I enjoyed his performance the most in this film. Sure, he does that kind of stuttering delivery of dialog... he's been doing it for years... but that's his role, that's his character. The material for David Levinson was probably the best of the film, in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the favorite character of Devlin or Emmerich.

Ok, the supporting cast. All of them got on my nerves. Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin and Vivica A. Fox. Sometimes, well, their work just got to me like fingers on a chalk board... specifically Hirsch and Loggia. Their delivery, their dialog was so terrible... their characters were so cliched... it was just too stereotypical, and it took away from the film in a big way. I dreaded hearing from them both.

Karl Walter Lindenlaub was the DP for this picture, along with all of Devlin and Emmerich's older pictures, going back to 1987 with Ghost Chase. There is definitely a similar look in the films ID4 and Stargate... and you can tell that Emmerich trusted Lindenlaub with the films look. It's funny, though, because looking at his past credits, none of his other films come close to having any kind of real special effects. He would shoot two films after ID4 that would be semi-effects laden... The Jackal and The Haunting, both of which were god awful.

Unfortunately, Lindenlaub would not go on to shoot Godzilla for Devlin and Emmerich... which, thinking about it now, might have been one of the films problems. Godzilla was the follow-up for the writer/producer/director team... and I guess no one sat them down and said "This project, Godzilla, is TOO BIG. It's TOO BIG for even you too. It's going to cost a FORTUNE... and people aren't going to be that excited to see it!" I mean, really, don't these guys have any honest friends among them?

ID4 ended up winning Best Effects, Visual Effects in 1996. It also won a number of Sci-Fi awards, pretty much across the board, like the Saturn Award, given out by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Pretty neat.

ID4 topped out the year with over $300 million dollars in 1996, with stiff competition from Twister, Mission: Impossible, Jerry Maguire and a number of others that went over the $100 million mark that year.

With a budget of $75 million dollars, and making $50 million its opening weekend, along with $177 million in rentals... Devlin and Emmerich became, well, they became the producer/writing/directing team of the decade.

And then they made Godzilla.

Shudder.

Now, I should mention that Godzilla was produced on $125 million dollars. It made over $55 million its opening weekend and grossed $136 million dollars in the theaters. Number 9 for 1998... the movie did make more money overseas... but it was not the money making festival that producers thought it was going to be. Running into budget problems, loosing its original distributors... people were scared to touch this project. And with good reason.

The film itself has a terrible script, and is so full of effects that the film is muddy with them. The cast, sure, some decent actors... but, again, the script was of poor material. People were excited, but the buzz behind the production of this film stiffled the release, just enough that... yes, they made their money back... but people weren't so quick to gamble on the momentum of a previous hit.

Emmerich and Devlin were still in the game, though. They made money for people. Their movies, even Godzilla, entertained. With that formula, they went to their next project, The Patriot, and did the most marketable thing they could. They hired a big star. With a budget of $110 million, and with god knows how much going to Mel Gibson, the team reversed gears and created a period piece, with stunning visuals, costumes, effects... the whole deal.

This time... they just broke even.

I'm sure that more and more, the team are running out of actual real material (though Devlin only produced The Patriot). There is only so far that a writer/director/producer team can go without losing steam. The Coen Brothers are an exception... and I think they are the ONLY exception. I do not thing that the Hughes Brothers are even in the same vicinity as these two examples... especially after they ruined From Hell... at least, they ruined it for me.

So... what is in store for these two creators? Devlin has produced what should be a very good movie, indeed... something I am eagerly waiting for. Eight Legged Freaks, which is to come out later this year.

Emmerich will be directing another big budget blockbuster film titled The Day After Tomorrow, which deals with different types of natural disasters, after the world has gone to hell because of global warming and other types of nastiness. This film will be penned by both Emmerich and Jeffrey Nachmanoff, who has pretty much done nothing, in regards to mainstream films. His two credits are The Big Gig in 1993 and Hollywood Palms... both of which I've never heard of.

So... the fate of these two creators... well, they are up in the air.

ID4 is a very well done film, in regards to storyline, effects and production. It's a neat film to watch for a few hours. And the message, the underlying message, is important. Unfortunately, not many people are listening. Which is too bad.