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[molly_o]

Independence Day vs. Godzilla Mothra War of the Worlds

I think it's interesting to contrast War of the Worlds with Independence Day. I'll admit up front that I *love*, genuinely *love* Independence Day. It pushes all my buttons (the happy buttons, not the ranty ones). Independence Day says, "We are Good People, and we are absolutely justified doing violence to these aliens, because there is no doubt they are Bad," and I can sit back and enjoy some guilt-free, *righteous* ass-kicking.

But humans don't *win* the War of the Worlds, we just *survive* it, because the aliens miscalculated. There's no victory. And, as Robomark pointed out on the way home, the movie doesn't leave you feeling very optimistic about our post-apocalyptic way of life. Spielberg doesn't show people pulling together to defeat a common enemy, he shows them running and screaming and turning on each other. ID ended in a group hug; the best possible outcome of WotW would be a sustained period of martial law -- how inspiring is that?

I get choked up whenever I watch Bill Pullman make that speech about "today we celebrate our Independence Day," and again when Randy Quaid sacrifices himself to save the world, and again when all the people in the Middle East and Africa and the rest of the world cheer at the broken enemy ships.

There's a little of that in WotW, with the minuteman statue at the end, but I'm not sure whether we're supposed to be comparing the contemporary Americans of the film with the minutemen, or if it's simply an "America's still standing" thing. And the whole lack-of-victory thing makes it feel more ironic than iconic.

Back to Bill Pullman as the president in ID -- he's neither a war-monger nor a coward; he rejects aggressive measures until it's clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that the aliens are Bad, but once he's committed, he puts his own ass on the line in a fighter jet. (I'd take him over the current occupant of the White House any day.) There isn't much visible government in WotW, apart from the soldiers. (And while they're engaged in a futile endeavor, the movie doesn't disrespect them. The decent guy who gets everyone to pull together at the end isn't Tom Cruise -- it's a servicemember. Spielberg sez Support Our Troops.)

The earthlings of ID kick ass because of American ingenuity and scrappiness. The trio that saves the planet has a Clinton-cabinet-esque diversity: a Jewish scientist, a black servicemember, and a white alcoholic dad. (And yeah, I know there are no women involved in any active way -- they're all at home inspiring their menfolk -- and if I ever meet Roland Emmerich, I'll have words with him about that, but still.)

Tom Cruise's character in WotW is not a movie hero, he is an asshole -- the kind of guy who thinks other people are unreasonably harsh and feels misunderstood, because he thinks he's really a good guy, when in fact what he really is, is an asshole. His kids aren't awful, but they're not all that likeable, either. There really aren't any heroes in this movie.

Several reviewers have talked about the scene in the basement with Tim Robbins. While it did slow down the momentum of the movie for me, I think I understand why Spielberg put it in there. It comes right on the heels of Tom trying to convince his son not to run off and join the military in its completely futile battle against the aliens. I think Spielberg was concerned the audience would think Tom was a coward, and wanted to make it clear that he's not, that he's willing to kill, and to risk his own death, to protect his children. I think Spielberg is trying to say that even when the "obvious" reaction might be to fight the aliens and die trying, the smarter, and ultimately more successful, and (most important) *no less valorous* option might be to lie low and hold your fire until you know what you're dealing with. (Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes -- there's that minuteman again.)

I assume Spielberg is trying to undermine the knee-jerk "let's bomb those towel-heads" reaction so many people had (and continue to have) after Sept. 11, because -- and this is really my main point, not that it’s such a brilliant or original one -- WotW is SUCH a post-Sept. 11 movie. I think it’s really the first true post-Sept. 11 feature film. (I’m not counting Fahrenheit 911, that’s a documentary.) Yeah, there’ve been a lot of films set in New York since the towers fell, but this is the first that’s really appropriated images of that event -- images which no one would’ve thought of before the towers fell, but which are unmistakable today (Tom Cruise covered in the ashes of vaporized people, posters for missing people everywhere, etc.).

And as much as I love ID, I can see where its gleeful, let’s-kick-evil-alien-butt enthusiasm perhaps is not the most helpful message for a nation rebounding from an uncommonly vicious attack by waging war on people who didn’t attack them. But Spielberg's alternative is totally unsatisfying. At the end of WotW, the whole world is coated in grey ash and grey alien slime -- even the weather is grey, because this is a summer blockbuster that takes place in *winter*.