we are about 20 minutes or so into our annual fourth of july INDEPENDENCE DAY watch and guess what folks, this movie rules.

should be said that this movie, like most entries in the alien invasion genre, reflects the fears and anxieties of an advanced, imperial society. “what if we were treated like those we conquered and killed?”

no accident that the ur-invasion story, The War of the Worlds, comes out of Great Britain at the height of its imperial power. hell, H.G. Wells makes this exaxt point in the book.

“Before we judge [the Martians] too harshly, we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought...upon its own inferior races.” (1/2)

“The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?” (2/2)

(one of these days i’ll go on my long rant about how america’s obsession with robot apocolypse stories is a subliminated response to the old and once-ubiquitous fear of slave revolt)

once you learn about how terrified americans were of slave revolt from the 1650s to the 1850s you can’t unsee the cnonection!