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Re: What Movies Are You Watching Lately? -- A Recommendation

 In a nutshell, two recent catches:
 _Independence Day_  --  A pleasing two-hour flick, but not the rollicking
 	ride I might have expected.  I left _Eraser_ feeling just pumped;
 	I left _Independence Day_ thinking, "Yeah, that was neat."  Lots of
 	neat images of mass destruction, the best dogfights since _Return
 	of the Jedi_, and a fair bit of humour, but yet ...  Well, there's
 	the implicit racism by which these aliens are *bad* while humans
 	are *good* ... compounded, of course, by the fact that we never
 	really see any aliens firsthand, apart from one or two cameos, so
 	it's kind of like that Gulf War thing where the "other guys" were
 	killed so easily, and in such vast quantities, because we didn't
 	have to see them (the aliens have been "dehumanized", if you will).
 	And for a technologically superadvanced race, these aliens sure are
 	stupid; I mean, they have to *open*a*window* to see who's inside one
 	of their own shuttles?  Doesn't that thing have life monitors?
 	Can't they scan it for lifeforms?  Wait a minute, why don't they
 	just use their telepathy?  I also have a beef with this flick's
 	rampant American arrogance -- "Independence Day is no longer just an 
 	American holiday, but a holiday for the whole world!"  Gee, if the 
 	aliens had attacked just three days earlier, this movie would be 
 	called Dominion Day (because, of course, Canada would have led the 
 	revolt; then again, the thought of aliens blasting Sheila Copps, Jean 
 	Chretien, the Bloc Quebecois, the Reform Party, and everybody else to 
 	hell might make allies out of most Canadians).
 	But seriously, would the rest of the world -- which, generally, hates
 	America's guts -- cotton to the idea that an American holiday must
 	become the world's?  And what if America's flag became the world's?
 	Remember what happened to Greece after the Persian Wars ... recall, 
 	if you will, how the rest of Greece responded to democratic Athens
 	when the Athenians said, "Hey, we led the resistance against the
 	Persians, so why *can't* we dominate Attica?"
 	(Of course, I don't want to give anyone ideas.  This could be the
 	germ of a sequel.  And, for that matter, how do we know there aren't
 	any *other* alien mother ships making their way here?)
 	That said, there were *lots* of neat cameos in here -- quite a
 	number of actors were willing to take bit parts so they could have
 	nifty death scenes, I think.  A modicum of gay content, too (in the
 	Harvey Fierstein character, in that actor from _The Doom Generation_
 	and other Gregg Araki movies, and in some of the jokes between Will
 	Smith and Harry Connick, Jr. -- though I admit I might just be
 	dreaming this part), interestingly enough.
 --
 Peter T. Chattaway  | "Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves,
 Culture Editor,     | aye, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that
 The Ubyssey         | we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with
 petert@unixg.ubc.ca | trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously
 ------------------- | not to sin at all." -------------------- Martin Luther --