That’s the film, not the American holiday, which I’m sure is equally wonderful. Though speaking as a Brit, it just doesn’t really have the same ring to it as when our own St George defeated a real life dragon, and got himself a day of celebration that absolutely no-one pays any attention to. A dragon, for God’s sake!
Anyway, since it is July 4th, we’re looking back in time to 1996 and Roland Emmerich’s ground-breaking sci-fi disaster movie, conveniently called Independence Day, and starring a young Will Smith, and a Golden Retriever will near super-human leaping skills, as well as a malignant invading alien force and Randy Quaid, in easily his best performance to date.
Rather cruelly called trash from certain quarters, Emmerich’s big, bold and silly blockbuster was what the summer of 1996 was all about, and regardless of what you think of the B-Movie on Steroids agenda, or the occasionally clunky script, Independence Day is one of the finest summer action movies of the pre-comic book take-over age, when everyone still loved flying saucers more than dudes in tights.
And here, in an easily digestible list of eight, are the reasons why Independence Day is still awesome. As if you needed convincing…
1. It Renewed Faith In Sci-Fi Blockbusters
It might not exactly seem like a point to shout about, given what films followed, but the success of Independence Day made Hollywood’s purse-string-pullers sit up and take notice. With a relatively high budget of $70m, the film could well have been an unmitigated disaster (ironically), but a massive return of $800m made the investment look like nothing, and the powers that be again began to realise the merit of spending a lot of money on sci-fi themed summer blockbusters.
As I say, the rewards for film fans weren’t exactly huge, with Armageddon, Contact, and Godzilla among the big budget films to follow ID4, but we were also treated to Starship Troopers and The Fifth Element, neither of which would have been considered at their eventual prices were it not for the success of Emmerich’s Independence Day.
Were it not for that success, whose to say we would ever have ended up with the big budget superhero blockbusters that currently dominate the box office?
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3 Comments
I love this movie. I think I watched it a million times when I was about 6 or 7, then asked for its £3 DVD as my one and only Christmas present from my sister a couple of years back.
‘We will not go quietly in to the night.’ God; it almost makes me wish to be American…Almost.
On Independence Day we should celebrate our Constitutional Rights and Freedoms which so many men and women have fought for- including Freedom of Speech, Religion, Assembly and Press. The art of film has been one of the most powerful vessels for conveying the importance of these rights. Check out the Top 10 Movies of All Time about FREEDOM on a special 4th of July post today at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/07/top-10-movies-of-all-time-about-freedom.html to see some impassioned portrayals of our basic rights.
Great article! I have always felt this film was drastically underrated! Also, don’t forget, back in ’96 we were approaching the release of Star Wars: Special Edition and in fact it was previewed before ID4, which was a brilliant way to get everyone in the mood in my opinion. More than that, though, this film is what Star Wars fans had been waiting for in the form of another sci-fi action film and what they were so let down about when the Prequels emerged. I’d argue here and now that a trilogy of ID4 movies would have been preferable to the Prequel trilogy in many ways.
Excellent article. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a movie to (re)watch.