"Independence Day" is rubbish but it's fun to watch and the actors have a ball with it.
Maybe 'plausible deniability' is the Star Trek morality play since the concept means the President lies to the people and doesn't even know it. However, if not for the super-secret research facility, there would have been no remaining defense and the human race would have been served to the space aliens on toast.
The facility could have been super-secret without keeping the knowledge from the President so we conclude it was the movie's purpose to insert the point about the gross violations of principle inherent in 'plausible deniability.' A lie is one thing but a calculated lie is an art form, at least in Washington.
Kicking plausible deniability is good but it really wasn't the kill shot we want to see. In most sci-fi, dishonest people will probably get killed as they're all Star Trek morality plays in that way. If they're any good they're a wee bit more. In this movie, plausible deniability took a bit of a punch and the one pitching it did go down with a knockout but that was more because he was 'a sniveling little weasel.'
Watching the movie for content is a silly approach but there was one part which isn't within any latitude for sci-fi or fantasy experimentation. A nuclear bomb was detonated over the alien spaceship hovering over Houston and observers in a military vehicle on the ground were there to confirm success.
The only impact to that military vehicle was it rocked around and a few cars blew about the place as with a good-size Texas tornado. That marginalization of the consequences of a nuclear explosion should be anathema to any sci-fi writer since it's known what fifteen kilotons did to Hiroshima and modern weapons typically heft a minimum of three to five megatons. That truck would have been vaporized and it was grossly irresponsible to portray anything else.
(Ed: take it easy. The movie is fantasy, not sci-fi!)
Yah, I grok but propaganda still smells the same. We're concerned since we see Obama acting like Slim Pickens in "Doctor Strangelove" when he rode the nuke bomb to the ground to blow up Moscow himself. There's been quite a bit of pitching lately of, yes, folks, you really can, well, probably survive a nuke war. It's really going to suck for someone but, well, probably not for you and that's not a bad deal, right? Sure, you know I'm right. Let's nuke those blue people.
Bill Putnam takes the prize for delivering the All-Time Greatest Sci-Fi Weeper.
When his wife croaks and he sees his little girl, the guy is demolished and we get all heartbroken for him. Oh man, he fookin' lost his wife and now he has to tell the kid.
OK for him as he's the actor and he knows it's a movie but we're watching and believing it. Oh, man, now he has to tell his kid. (sniff)
Putnam also gets big points for being the only person to ever deliver Dylan Thomas without also being a raging bore. Often US sci-fi disaster movies need the Rousing Presidential Speech and Putnam goes completely whoop ass with this one. Morgan Freeman did the cool, understated version in another movie. Maybe a movie comparison sometime based on Rousing Presidential Speeches. They can be cool and funny at the same time.
Maybe 'plausible deniability' is the Star Trek morality play since the concept means the President lies to the people and doesn't even know it. However, if not for the super-secret research facility, there would have been no remaining defense and the human race would have been served to the space aliens on toast.
The facility could have been super-secret without keeping the knowledge from the President so we conclude it was the movie's purpose to insert the point about the gross violations of principle inherent in 'plausible deniability.' A lie is one thing but a calculated lie is an art form, at least in Washington.
Kicking plausible deniability is good but it really wasn't the kill shot we want to see. In most sci-fi, dishonest people will probably get killed as they're all Star Trek morality plays in that way. If they're any good they're a wee bit more. In this movie, plausible deniability took a bit of a punch and the one pitching it did go down with a knockout but that was more because he was 'a sniveling little weasel.'
Watching the movie for content is a silly approach but there was one part which isn't within any latitude for sci-fi or fantasy experimentation. A nuclear bomb was detonated over the alien spaceship hovering over Houston and observers in a military vehicle on the ground were there to confirm success.
The only impact to that military vehicle was it rocked around and a few cars blew about the place as with a good-size Texas tornado. That marginalization of the consequences of a nuclear explosion should be anathema to any sci-fi writer since it's known what fifteen kilotons did to Hiroshima and modern weapons typically heft a minimum of three to five megatons. That truck would have been vaporized and it was grossly irresponsible to portray anything else.
(Ed: take it easy. The movie is fantasy, not sci-fi!)
Yah, I grok but propaganda still smells the same. We're concerned since we see Obama acting like Slim Pickens in "Doctor Strangelove" when he rode the nuke bomb to the ground to blow up Moscow himself. There's been quite a bit of pitching lately of, yes, folks, you really can, well, probably survive a nuke war. It's really going to suck for someone but, well, probably not for you and that's not a bad deal, right? Sure, you know I'm right. Let's nuke those blue people.
Bill Putnam takes the prize for delivering the All-Time Greatest Sci-Fi Weeper.
When his wife croaks and he sees his little girl, the guy is demolished and we get all heartbroken for him. Oh man, he fookin' lost his wife and now he has to tell the kid.
OK for him as he's the actor and he knows it's a movie but we're watching and believing it. Oh, man, now he has to tell his kid. (sniff)
Putnam also gets big points for being the only person to ever deliver Dylan Thomas without also being a raging bore. Often US sci-fi disaster movies need the Rousing Presidential Speech and Putnam goes completely whoop ass with this one. Morgan Freeman did the cool, understated version in another movie. Maybe a movie comparison sometime based on Rousing Presidential Speeches. They can be cool and funny at the same time.
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