The 10 Best Things About America I Learned from Independence Day
As we approach this holiest of America’s fireworks-oriented days off from work, I’d like to talk a bit about how much I love my country.
My parents used to take me to the 4th of July parade in our New Jersey town. I thought I loved my country then.
At the fireworks later that night, everyone would talk about the “grand finale” — when was the “grand finale?” I thought I loved my country then.
But when I was 15 years old, again on the 4th of July, I truly learned to love my country.
Because on that day, at the Warner Quad in Ridgewood, NJ, in the company of a friend with the patriotic and appropriate last name of Hancock, I first saw Independence Day.
Here are the top 10 things I learned that day that I would never forget.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, either because you are too young, you are reading us from overseas (Hola! Shalom! Howya Doin’?) — SPOILERS!
The movie in brief
Invincible aliens unleash giant laser beams that obliterate the planet’s major cities. A complacent and divided humanity does nothing. The aliens move on to other, successively less major cities and destroy those, too. The global population panics, then dwindles.
A cast of unlikely heroes from every walk of American life converges, first on Washington, then on Area 51, a secret American research facility in the Nevada desert. From there, on the 4th of July, helped by a little luck, a lot of dodgy computer science, and one very special alcoholic PTSD sufferer (played with stirring realism by actual alcoholic PTSD sufferer Randy Quaid*), we strike back, slaying our foes, winning the day and saving the world.
If you have not seen this movie, give it a shot. It is probably the best movie out there about the American mind — because it operates on the level of the average American mind, and because it has a lot of heart and charm. It’s a laser-totin’ love letter to the greatness in the American spirit.
And it just might change your life, as it did when it taught me the 10 Best Things About America I Learned from Independence Day.
10. “You’ll get your chance. You’ll all get your chance.”
The heroes of Independence Day are diverse — they hail from as disparate places as West Philadelphia, PA and Bel-Air, CA. But more importantly, each hero gets his or her shot in the spotlight — building the texture of the movie and humanity’s ultimate victory. For an ensemble cast, there’s a lot of focus on individuals, a lot of small scenes and a lot of solitary scenes.
They’re scenes for an American way of life — doing our part away from the group; away from the cushion of culture and community. The broader American way of life encourages individualism and independence in common cause — a trust that our combined efforts, though largely uncoordinated, will bring about great things, like synchronized assaults on genocidal extraterrestrials.
* Or maybe Randy Quaid is just a really good actor. After all, this is America. Anything’s possible.
Gab on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 2:28 amAm I going absolutely nuts, or is this a repost? It’s good, it’s great, but why do I feel like I have read it before?
DaveW on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 8:52 amI was asking myself the same question Gab. Good to know I’m not crazy :)
That said, still a great post.
Matthew Wrather on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 9:55 amMore like a second edition. :) Pete added, changed, and revised a bunch of stuff.
almost witty on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 10:40 amBest of all? It’s written by a German, who were formerly enemies of the United States.
Then again, Bill Pullman’s fighter pilot being a prototype of George Dubya Bush is a bit of a scary idea…
fenzel on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 11:25 amThe scarier part is how much Bill Pullman resembles Ronald Reagan and how similar their careers have been up to this point in their lives ;)
But yeah, I wanted to bring this back and update it, because it’s one of my favorites and because we have grown a lot in the past year, and it will probably be new to a lot of folks.
Chris Richards on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 11:54 amLoved it! Also, the fact that you compared Cincinnatus to Bill Pullman…possibly the best thing ever. Also, Mary McDonnell is a nigh-indestructable tour-de-force herself (see her turn as cancer-ridden Secretary of Education Laura Roslin who becomes President of Humanity after surviving numerous Cylon-incited genocides in Battlestar Galactica). Also, not to be nit-picky, but the First Lady was leaving LA, not Washington.
Wade on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 12:11 pmExcellent. “Crazy people are our greatest natural resource” is a line for the ages.
dock on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 7:02 pmTo this day I still get goosebumps (and the occational lump in my throat) when I hear that speech. It was also the first time I, myself, heard a theater erupt into cheer during a movie. I wish they would re-issue this movie in theaters the way they did ET. On July 4th, of course.
lee on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 10:22 pmI’ve always seen the President in this movie as a reaction against Bill Clinton, who was oft criticized by the right as a pot-smoking draft-dodger. Contrast that with the President who’s military enough to strap himself into a jet and fly into battle.
I suppose the election of George W. Bush was in some ways also a reaction against Bill Clinton, so maybe it’s not so much of a coincidence that Pullman’s President presaged W.
David on Thu, 2nd Jul 2009 12:21 pmGreat article. “Independence Day” is one of those movies I’ve always been ashamed to like among my film-snob friends. But Whitmore’s speech always gives me the chills.
And the point about crazy people is priceless.
Trevor on Thu, 2nd Jul 2009 1:57 pmI get the feeling that, in Randy Quaid’s death scene, we were supposed to be moved by his final words. The only problem is, he’s got so many lines to choose from, it’s hard to pick which ones we remember and which ones we consign to the dustbin of history. I would’ve been fine with “tell my kids I love them.” Or even “in the words of my generation: Up Yours!” But did he really have to go with the “hello boys, I’m back!” That’s just final-line overkill, in my opinion. Luke Skywalker didn’t talk Rebel Command’s ear off with a bunch of potential catchphrases strung together in the hopes that something would take hold, a la Nathan Hale’s “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” He just blasted the Death Star and got the hell outta there.
rhys on Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 2:09 amwasnt the first lady in LA on a book tour or some shit? not in washington? regardless this is pretty over thought…2 thumbs up.
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