The 10 Best Things About America I Learned from Independence Day
2. Crazy people are our greatest natural resource.
Americans are always looking for the next big thing, and we know that if we do find it, there’ll be some crazy guy who was there first to show us how it works. And if there’s something we know needs to be done, but we don’t know how to do it or know anyone who does, once more we can thank God we live in America, where we cherish our crazy people.
When President Pullman insists that Area 51 doesn’t exist, and the Secretary of Defense corrects him, the humor comes from the truth that, for some things, crazy people know more than the President. In America, crazy people have borderline magical powers — for the precise period of time when you need them around. Then they go back to standing in front of you on line at CVS.
Some are cable guys/computer hackers. Some are xenobiologists. Some are just really good alcoholics. But all America’s crazy people are precious. So let them alone until you need them, and then sit back and watch them take over and save the day!
1. “I ain’t heard no fat lady!”
And, of course, the greatest point of pride in Independence Day — that even in the face of destruction and disillusionment, when the world degrades to a desperate losing fight against impossible odds, the American spirit still drives us to courage and our better natures. That while most national traditions have turned cynical or irrelevant when faced with the challenges of today’s world, America has not given up.
People think the world is too cruel to let the cowboy ride off into the sunset. That Americans are too provincial or unrealistic. But they miss the point, which is that to ride off into the sunset, you need a sunset. The American spirit knows how rough the world can be, which is why, at its best, it strives to spare its own people and others from those horrors as much as possible. Far from weakened by failure, it is at its strongest when there is a clear reason to protect what we value most. And it pops up in the darndest places. In short: you don’t know what you got ’till it’s gone.
The most startling thing about Independence Day is that the victory at the end seems powerful, complete and unashamed, even though most of the human race has died during the movie. But the world’s endless history of hardship has not crushed the American spirit, and the cheer with which all the heroes greet the victory is courage for tomorrow rather than regret for yesterday.
That is how, after two World Wars within a half-century, staring down an endless list of sins before and since, living in a seemingly hopeless world choking on pollution and corruption, Americans can still greet the flags and the fireworks and little Shriners in their little cars with a smile that enrages those who have opened their ears to the warbling strains of the fat lady.
Because:
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!
Happy 4th of July, everybody!
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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