Sitting here watching "Independence Day"

[Gman]

and saw the part where the president makes a televised speech to the country appealing for calm and wondering how Bush would have handled this situation. I asked everyone else in the room here watching and they all looked at me and started laughing and made all kinds of comments.

Scary thought.

[POAS]

1. Bring it on!

[Rosco T.]

10. Good morning. In less than an hour ...

... aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.

We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.

We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!"

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

[radwriter0555]

15. Only a BUSH would have used the title of a CHEERLEADING MOVIE as a slogan

to appeal to the nation in it's darkest hour.

Bring It On (2000)



http://imdb.com/title/tt0204946/

Genre: Comedy / Sport

Tagline: May the best moves win.

Plot Outline: A champion high school cheerleading squad discovers its previous captain stole all their best routines from an inner-city school and must scramble to compete at this year's championships. (more) (view trailer)

User Comments: Good (clean?)fun!

[tocqueville]

2. Independence day is a jingoistic "terra" movie

and bad science fiction. The scenes with the president are completely unrealistic (sometimes even ridiculous) even for SciFi, but it's obvious that the pilot theme has been borrowed by the Bush administration in the "mission accomplished" photo op. Besides the scene of the falling skyscraper has a scary ressemblance with the scenes of 9/11, nearly "documentary".

Since the film has been made well before 9/11, I'll check into that if I was a conspiracy theorist.

[bryant69]

3. Hollywood science fiction and bad science fiction are synonyms

90% of the time.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[bronxiteforever]

4. Oh sorry to disagree but its a comment about the environment

The aliens use up a planets resources and move on to another one. Like we are doing. Jeff Goldblum's character is great-I agree with you the President role is weak but Randy Quaid-How can you not like Randy Quaid!!!

[tocqueville]

6. it's jingoistic BS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_%28film%29

other countries are barely depicted in the movie and if depicted it's with the wrong attributes. Only the Brits are shown playing a minor military role. Then the US in the end declares that Earth will have a national day, curiously the 4th of july... Cm'on if the French had made a similar movie and pandered that they "saved the world" and from now everybody had to celebrate the 14th of July, they had been blasted for "Gallic arrogance" with probably French flag burning in the US...

what amazes me it that otherwise nice Americans are not even aware that they are hurting other's feelings. I lived in Sweden when the movie came out. The Swedes felt the same way.

the theme is obvious : terrorists attack with new weapons, it's impossible to negotiate with them. Only the US can save the world by going it alone.

[Downtown Hound]

12. If it means anything to you,

I'm American, and I agree. So do many other Americans I know. That movie sucked.

[bronxiteforever]

28. I can't argue your general points because I agree

but I like bad sci fi movies like I do the occasional junk food.:)

[Kingshakabobo]

31. I guess you missed the part about the Israelis working with the Arabs?

Or the Russians and Chinese pitching in?

[Shakespeare]

32. About that date....

The big battle with the aliens took place on July 4--convenient from the moviemakers' perspective, but as it relates to the events in the movie, it wasn't an arbitrary or selfishly chosen date.

And--it's just a movie. I doubt anybody would've gotten worked up if another country had made a similar film, even if was other-than-America-centric. It's just a movie, and is written from a perspective with which its audience (ergo, the most moviegoing dollars) will identify. I didn't purport to be an "important film;" it was light summertime entertainment. You're trying to squeeze it into a peg it was never intended to fit.

[jerry611]

14. Remember War of the Worlds in the 1930s...

People thought it was real and ran in the streets...

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Oh, geeez-us. It's just plain old Sci-Fi Shlock, with exploding aliens.

The only (extremely mild and weak) social commentary made in the film is that Jeff Goldblum advocates recycling.

Good God. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[Marr]

24. How about that part where the Mac can be plugged into an alien spaceship?

Now THAT'S compatibility.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. One Of My Favorite Movies. That Speech Always Gives Me Chills And Tears.

It makes it so painfully evident what a true leader is supposed to exude and how painfully inept our so called president is.

Great movie by the way, and that's one of my favorite scenes.

[FUGW]

7. Now thats shock&Awe cut a deal like we thought the Iraqi's would have.

Bush and company know there is no profit for the people who have to actually fight a war. So I'm sure they would make a deal with the Aliens that if they are left in charge they will make things go smoothly for them.

[Bucky]

8. Sure, but watching Tweety blame Clinton for the aliens would be funny

[gumby]

9. Thumbs Up for "Independence Day"

It's an updated Flash Gordon.

Just love that snark. :thumbsup:

[Downtown Hound]

11. I hate that movie

That's the kind of movie that makes me root for the aliens. Spielberg's remake of War of the Worlds was a much better alien invasion movie. Sorry, but when the world is being destroyed by aliens, Will Smith's 'tude and lots of jingoistic crap just doesn't do it for me. And boy were we lucky that the alien computers were Mac compatible! There is so much crap in that film I can't even begin to describe it. Sorry if I'm ranting, it is just a movie after all. But if I had to name one movie that sums up everything that is self-centered and arrogant about American attitudes towards the world, that movie would be it. As an American I find it embarrassing, not inspiring.

[cherokeeprogressive]

13. I've never actually been embarrassed by a movie...

Unless you take into account the time my MOM walked in while I was watching a videotape...

Has it occured to you that maybe the alien computers in the movie operated in the realm we all know as "binary"? I'm thinking that if there is a common language of the universe, that'd be it.

I'm curious to know just what your favorite movie is. Mine? (I know you didn't ask, but heck, I'm here so I might as well say) Dr. Strangelove (or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb)

Kubric's view of nookular war wasn't funny (the MOVIE was though), it was downright fucking scary. And, I'm afraid it isn't too far off the mark over 40 years later.

Movies=entertainment. Escape. Fantasy. 99% of them I don't bother to see at all. The others I don't take seriously.

[Downtown Hound]

17. At the end of the day, movies are much more than escape

American movies are the single greatest cultural export that we have. I would even venture so far as to say that the rise of the United States as a global power and cultural influence in the second half of the twentieth century was do in no small part to the popularity of our cinema overseas. Movies both shape and reflect attitudes and opinions. Indepence Day basically reinforces the American view that everyone should be like us. After all, it was the American Independence Day that 'will no longer be known as an American holiday," right? America saves the day once again! It kicks ass and does it with attitude. I just get tired of being represented to the world like this. Is a little humility and humbleness too much to ask for? While I'm writing this, I realize that I may be giving the impression that I care about this more than I really do. After all, it's a stupid movie in my book. Not really worth my time. But I'm just saying why I think it's a stupid movie. I've had enough American jingoism to last me ten lifetimes. As far as I'm concerned, it's gotten us nowhere. Independence Day is not responsible for American jingoism. But it does reflect the jingoism that is very prevalent in our society.

As for the alien computers, if you really think that a 1996 Macintosh could access a computer that is likely thousands of years more sophisticated, much less gain complete control of it's network, much less infect it with a virus that brings the whole system to a crash...well good luck with that. I'm not a computer scientist, but offhand I'd say that's a little like saying that an original Pong game could bring down the entire internet today. Only the difference in time is magnified tenfold in the case of alien computers.

As for my favorite movie, I really don't have a single one. I like Dr. Strangelove very much as well. Some of my other favorites include:

V for Vendetta
Alien
Dawn of the Dead (original)
The Big Lebowski
Equilibrium

To name just a few.

[cherokeeprogressive]

19. Dawn of the Dead

Oh My Gawd. I had to crawl into the backseat of the car (we were at a drive-in) and lay down. I had nightmares for months.

I'm not sayin' that a '96 Mac could access the computer you describe. What I'm sayin' is that I wouldn't hesitate to TRY, (and this is where the fantasy part comes in) HOPING I could somehow save the World.

A little humility (to add humbleness, if that's a word, would be redundant) isn't too much to ask for at all. An attitude of forgiving for "artistic license" and what it means to entertainment is.

^5 on the Dawn of the Dead thing, even though after 25 years I'm prolly going to have nightmares toniht. Thanks.

[leeroysphitz]

34. Binary. An algorithm is an algorithm anywhere you go.

But how did Goldblum manage to write one in 4 hours? :)

[jerry611]

16. The alien computers probably arn't much different

Our computers operate by a series of ones and zeros...which translate to on and off. It is kind of like music or mathematics. It is a universal language.

That movie was also trying to take a page out of the War of the Worlds. In that story the aliens just start to die because they become infected by our bacteria and viruses.

[Downtown Hound]

18. And you don't think that the aliens

might have developed some pretty sophisticated anti-virus software in the thousands of years that they've had to work on it? For what it's worth, I think the ending in War of the Worlds is pretty hokey too. I find it hard to believe that an alien race would not have taken into account biological dangers when preparing for an invasion for as long as they have. But I still find that less hokey than what Independence Day presented.

[Touchdown]

30. Why would aliens worry about virus software?

With all that firepower, and a scortched earth policy, why care? For all they probably know, we were the first victims of their who knows how many invasions with computer technology.

That said, the movie is just dumb fun. Like a disaster flick with a bit of dogfights thrown in.

[radar]

20. Oh yeah, that president joined the final attack....

Not enough pilots for the planes so, being a former fighter pilot, he volunteers to go along.
Hehe - gotta love that hollywood imagination.

[alphafemale]

25. Isn't that the one where the hero at the end does a "Suicide Bomber?"

Like Luke Skywalker would have been...except he lived of course. :silly:

[bananas]

21. Now go watch "Mars Attacks"

"Two out of three ain't bad"

[Marr]

23. "I for one welcome our new alien overlords".

No, actually- he'd never make a broadcast. He'd be in a hidden underground bunker- you know- defending America.

[bling bling]

26. OMG, Do you remember when Bush hid from a cloud?!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1427391

What's funny, too, is that on that thread were comments about links to Independence Day:

65. Guess they watched Independence Day one too many times
wasn't it a cloud that obscured the ship in that - or am I confusing movies?

Response to Reply #65
84. Yup, it was. The ship was wrapped in a cloud at some point.



Incoming Cloud Forces Bush Into Safe Bunker
The Guardian 4/29/05

President George Bush was bundled into an underground bunker, Dick Chemey was evacuated to an "undisclosed location" and heavily armed secret servicemen took up defensive positions when a fast-moving cloud scudded towards the White House, it was reported yesterday.

The cloud that materialised 30 miles south of Washington on Wednesday morning was so dense it triggered radar monitors on the Domestic Events network, intended to prevent a repeat of the September 11 attacks.

As an anti-aircraft missile battery on the roof of a nearby building was raised to the fire position, a Black Hawk helicopter was scrambled to take a look, but saw nothing except some clouds, one of which turned out to be the suspected aggressor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1472905,00....

[Marr]

29. Haha!

God, that's just hilarious. Thanks for the link.

[shadowknows69]

27. I say we send george a copy of the DVD with a note attached

suggesting he lead the inevitable attack on Iran himself since he's such an excellent fighter pilot.

[martymar64]

33. The theme music in "Indie Day"

It sounds un-naturally like "Deutschland Uber Alles".
Just sayin'.