"With Liquor and Money They's Loaded Down..."

[psalm_onethirtyone]

So, I know that while I am basically the most awesome thing ever to happen to my flist, sometimes, in a crisis of faith, some of you sit back at your computers and say to yourselves, "Can Soujin sustain her level of awesome? Is she even truly as awesome as I thought?" You can now live in mental security, because I am about to assure you that yes, I am.

Maria and I went down to the creek to-day to walk across it because it was frozen.

(You can already see where this is going.)

Ice is sharp. Added bonus: I was wearing a silk skirt, which FROZE SOLID while it was billowing, leaving me to continue our walk for another half an hour in what was essentially an icy ripple of ballgown hemline. ADDED BONUS: Yes, I continued the walk, despite the fact that there was blood running down my leg. TRIPLE BONUS FOR THE WIN: we decided to get off the creek and shortcut across the triangular bottom to the bridge, whereupon I fell through a GROUNDHOG HOLE up to my thigh and yes. Special day.

(Not to mention the fact that about five days earlier, while at mhari's house, I SET MYSELF ON FIRE.

God, I love my life.)

Yeah. I take my offerings in the form of cake and sheep. Don't burn first!

p.s. I hated Independence Day. Good GOD how many tropes were in that film? Also, everyone was a jerk. The one kid was cute, though.

Comments

[raanve]

That all sounds rather unpleasant. Please to be not dying or freezing or burning alive, etc. Thank you.

Also -- OMG don't even get me started on Independence Day. (Or, you know, do. If you enjoy hearing me go on and on at length about something I do not like.)

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Workin' on it! But I have mad accident-prone skillz.

Also, please, talk to me. I have no idea why it is a classic. I annoyed me to DEATH.

[raanve]

Ok, see here's the thing. I also hate this film. I find it annoying. I don't really know if/why it's a classic, aside from the fact that it made fiftybazillion dollars. Here are some of the things that annoy me about the movie:

1) Plot holes big enough to drive a friggin truck through, and weird plot-ideas that are so patently moronic I can't even suspend my disbelief enough to go along with things. (Yes, it makes TOTAL SENSE that we would be able to bring down an alien mothership with a computer virus that we engineered with our tiny human non-faster-than-light-travel-having brains. WTF.)

2) As you said, SO VERY MANY over used an terrible tropes. A few thrown in for what HAS TO BE comedic effect (the one moment that stands out here is a HUGE explosion, gigantic loss of human life, but we are shown a DOG escaping unscathed, because you CAN NOT KILL DOGS ZOMG.)

3) The whole thing is so crazy-overwrought, nationalistic to the point of near jingo-ism, and naturally it's the scrappy Americans who save the whole goddamn planet, because lord knows the French couldn't do it! HA HA!

4) Shortly after this film came out, there was another round of "Hollywood is so violent it is harming the childrenz society is collapsing ZOMG." One of the loudest voices in this tired discussion was then-Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole. When asked if there was a film that portrayed the kinds of values he would like to see Hollywood show more of HE NAMED THIS FILM, AND NO OTHER. ?!?! My brain exploded from the cognitive dissonance. This film has a crazy-high body count, the whole US capital is a-sploded, we witness a number of high-profile US monuments being destroyed, the First Lady DIES on screen [but it was the Clinton years! SO HA! Or something], and THIS is the movie that has emblematic values? Uh, yeah, that's our problem as a culture right there.

See? I do go on. I will say that I saw this film opening weekend in a packed theater, and that was a fun viewing experience. (Hey, remember that one time when Will Smith punched an alien! GOOD TIMES!) But that all of this stuff nagged at me afterwards, and on repeat viewings I just... I sort of seethe with rage. I tried, once, to get people to talk about this film in film class, and no one wanted to take me up on it... with the usual B.S. excuses that it was "just a fun summer movie" etc. I think this film is actually really, alarming telling about a lot of what goes on in our culture -- a lot of stuff that became overt in our culture after 9/11. So yeah. I really do not like it, but it sure gives me something to rant about!

(Thank you for listening to me rant, btw. -_^)

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Okay, I basically agree with you on every count. I mean, these were all things that absolutely annoyed me around the bend (except of course the Bob Dole thing, since I was six at the time and had no clue who he was). ESPECIALLY THE DOG. GOD that was annoying. I mean, COME ON.

[raanve]

Oh, I'm officially old. ;)

But yeah. I mean, I have to hope that at least a tiny portion of it (like, say, the dog) was deliberate. Otherwise, this thing got greenlighted and made straight-up. But nonetheless, I know that on some level the film WORKS, it's just... that level is "lowest common denominator" and that makes me sad.

Also, I just don't like it. BUT -- glad to be of service. ;)

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Well, there are a tonne of slightly self-aware jokes, like the 2001 a Space Odyssey reference and It's The End of the World As We Know It, but they could also be smirky self-congratulatory elbows, too, so. Meh.

[tomecatti.livejournal.com]

(Did Bob Dole also like Starship Troopers? The book; I know nothing about the movie.)

[raanve]

This I can't answer; I never heard him make any sort of statement on Starship Troopers.

This NYT article pretty clearly lays out my recollection of Dole's comments regarding Independence Day, however.