Independence Day, or waiting for that fat lady to sing

Cover of "Independence Day (Single Disc W...
Cover via Amazon

We all have our go to movies, movies that we don’t mind turning on and watching a few times, sometimes in the same night. For the wife and I, one of those movies is Independence Day.

When this film first came out, I remember us actually seeing it in the theater more than once. There was the times we saw it together, the times we saw it with friends, and the times we just, well, went to see it. It may be one of the only movies that we ever went to the theater to see multiple times. Even then, we didn’t think it was high art. It was just fun.

It’s not a great film, per se. The plot gets a lot more flack than it deserves, but all in all its a campy summer action flick channeling those UFO invasion films of previous generations. For us, its the kind of movie that you don’t mind having on in the background. There are no twists in the movie, no great reveals like so many of today’s films – and that’s actually what makes it work for us. You see, the problem we have with movies that rely on a twist is that once you’ve seen it once, you know the twist. It won’t ever surprise you again. Any time you see it again, you’ll already be disappointed, because you’ll know Bruce Willis is already dead, or that she’s really a guy.

Maybe we would be more jaded about looping this movie today (July 4th) if we still had cable. But having given up cable about nine months ago, we’ve found what we’re willing to invest time in watching has also shifted. We typically prefer a trusted background movie to attempting to invest time in a movie that will just as likely disappoint us. In fact, a typical night has us watching a mystery, documentary, or something from the Discover/TLC lineups via Netflix/Acorn/Hulu as anything else.

But I’ve digressed, because this post was about Independence Day. A film the rest of you probably got tired of watching when it showed up on repeat today, but that has been playing in our house almost all day long, back to back to back. The crazy part? We accidentally got a hold of the director’s cut this year, which means there are scenes that weren’t in the theatrical release. Nothing that changes the actual plot of the movie, but they definitely add some depth to some of the minor characters.

It’s the tail end here on the East Coat, but happy 4th folks! Hopefully you didn’t burn your house down celebrating. Us? We melted the asphalt in the street instead. But at least the aliens were taken down.