Date: Fri 25-Oct-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHIRLE

Illustration: C

Location: A13

Quick Words:

Independence-Playing-Pullman

Full Text:

(rev "Independence Day" for Now Playing, 10/25/96)

Now Playing-

Summer's Biggest Blockbuster, `ID4' Also Carried a Simple Plot

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Independence Day, the biggest money-making blockbuster of 1996 (nearing $300

million in the US alone), arrives at the Edmond Town Hall theatre October 25

and invades Newtown for two weeks. Star Wars it ain't, but this crowd-pleasing

sci-fi flick, dubbed ID4 by industry insiders, is a lot of fun and, if

anything, whets moviegoers' appetites for the return of George Lucas' Star

Wars franchise (a remastered version of the original film, with added footage,

will be released in theatres in January `97, and an all-new prequel is

expected some time around 1998).

If you're looking for a deep plot, look elsewhere (though ID4 avoids the

numbing banality of Twister 's by-the-numbers script) because this movie,

directed by Roland Emmerich and produced by Dean Devlin (the team that made

1994's surprisingly successful Stargate ), is out solely to please those

seeking a rush of pure escapism.

Aliens arrive in ominous, saucer-shaped vessels which surround the globe.

Before the United States president (Bill Pullman, not to be confused with Bill

Paxton, who starred in Twister ) can size up their intentions, their aim

becomes painfully clear when the ships begin firing upon cities around the

planet: They want to annihilate mankind and take over Earth.

ID4 offers a sizable cast of characters including the president and his wife

(Mary McDonnell), a crackerjack Marine pilot (Will Smith) and his stripper

girlfriend (Viveca Fox), a computer whiz (Jeff Goldblum) and his eccentric

father (Judd Hirsch), the White House press aide (Margaret Colin) and the

secretary of defense (Robert Loggia). Also be ready for cameos by Harvey

Fierstein, Harry Connick, Jr, Brent Spiner and Randy Quaid.

Although the story of ID4 is globe-spanning, the narrative features all types

of nice (read: too convenient) plot twists like the White House press aide

being the estranged wife of the techno-nerd who deciphers the aliens'

motivation (all that much easier to get vital info to the president!), and the

stripper just happens to come upon the president's wife who has gone missing

in all the mass panic, confusion and debris with which one has to tangle when

metropolitan areas get pummelled.

The premise to ID4 is simple: There is intelligent life on other planets and

now it's knocking on Earth's doorstep. But unlike the peace and long-life

affirming mind sets of Star Trek , Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.

, in which the aliens are essentially benign and seek peaceful co-existence

with humans (hopeful allegories of our culturally diverse society), ID4 -

which borrows from many filmic genres of the past, especially the disaster

films of the `70s - recalls a World War II movie logic in which it is us

against them , good vs evil and no complications whatsoever.

This is the kind of movie where the dashing, happy-go-lucky fighter pilot

greets his first alien with a right cross to the kisser and an

audience-rousing "Welcome to Earth!" punchline (bad pun intended); the

President, addressing Earth's last battalion of rag-tag pilots before a

last-ditch attempt to defend the planet, gives his best "Gipper" pep talk by

declaring this to be " our Independence Day!" (and then joins them in the air

for combat); and the sight of mythic American monuments (the White House, the

Empire State Building) being blown to bits (rather impressively, I might add)

serves not to invoke gasps of horror, but shrieks of "Ooh, now you're going to

get it!" from jazzed moviegoers.

One of the best compliments one could give ID4 (aside from handing it just

about every technical Oscar award for its outstanding effects work, which, by

the way, are done mostly by models and miniatures, not by the new wave of

computer animation) is that it plays within itself, like the consummate

professional athlete who knows when to take the shot and when to pass. ID4

knows it's a popcorn muncher, not an art-house flick, and therefore goes for

simple razzle dazzle, likable heroes and formulaic, albeit satisfying,

climactic moments.

Also refreshing is the film's avoidance of gratuitous profanity, violence and

sex. Although rated PG-13 (undoubtedly because of all the apocalyptic though

bloodless mayhem of having entire cities turned to rubble as millions die),

Independence Day is decidedly old-fashioned in its storytelling and, aside

from the occasional scary alien, steers clear of blatantly offensive material.