Fourth of July movies, part 2

 Here's my list, in no particular order besides the first two, which I've already discussed. 

1. Independence Day

2. Jaws

3. Born on the Fourth of July. I like this movie, but it's actually a little heavy for holiday viewing. The main character was born on the 4th, as the title suggests, and the early sequences featuring a recreated Fourth of July parade and fireworks in small-town American really capture the nostalgic appeal of the holiday, even as theses are set up as an ironic contrast to what unfolds. This movie is on most of these types of lists (with the title and war themes, how can you not include it?), so it's really on with #4 that I start to diverge. 

4. Frogs. This is one of those so-bad-it's-good horror movies about reptiles attacking a family as it begins to celebrate Fourth of July on its Southern plantation island estate. I'm not sure about the cult status of this film, and I'm definitely not convinced it's the best of this type of "bad" movie. It's bad, yes, but Sam Elliot and Ray Milland (and even Joan Van Ark) elevate the acting quite a bit, and it's pretty hard to be dignified when all the other minor characters are being attacked by snakes and turtles (the frogs, oddly, mostly seem to watch). We accidentally watched this on the Fourth of July this year, without knowing it had a Fourth of July connection, so I'm just thinking it's serendipity and that the movie was begging to be put on the list. Plus it is eerie and strange to watch this dysfunctional rich family assemble for its annual Fourth celebrations on the lawn. There's lot of passive-aggressive behavior and cutting remarks, which makes it seem like an authentic rich family to me. The cinematography is also good, as others have pointed out, though the "horror" just mostly looks like well-shot nature images of reptiles intercut with people thrashing on the ground as they are being "attacked." We're just supposed to assume from the intercutting that this is what's happening. That's a lot to ask from parallel editing, and the effect is more boring than funny. But there are lots of other reasons to watch, if you've got nothing better to do. 

Original fireworks photo, from about 2005. Captured on Nikon digital camera.

5. Brokeback Mountain.  This inclusion is also serendipitous, I think, in that I recently read the short story for the first time and have been thinking about the excellent movie. There's a scene where the Heath Ledger character fights some men, in an unexpected and somewhat excessive explosion of violence. After he easily dropkicks the men, who had been offending him by cursing in front of his young children, he's shown against a dark sky illuminated by fireworks. (This makes me pretty sure it's a Fourth of July celebration, though I really don't remember.) Some have apparently criticized the scene as an unnecessary display of masculinity, but, like this writer, I tend to just appreciate the beauty and ponderous nature of the shot. It is a movie, after all.  

Well, this is getting too long again, so I'll add a part 3 for the last few movies. 

Fourth of July Movies

Every year, my wife and I watch Jaws and Independence Day as part of our Fourth of July celebrations. Usually we eat hot dogs and potato salad, and just relive the kinds of rituals that always made this a special holiday for me as a kid. (I oddly never cared that much about fireworks, but we also usually watch the New York show for a dose of that.) 

Jaws is not a movie that needs to be defended or explained much in terms of its watchability; there have been lots of documentaries and writings focused on the unique merits of this film and holding it up as an example of make-or-break filmmaking for a up-and-coming director. It's a master class in how to make a truly thrilling (and even scary) movie even when your main horror prop (the shark) doesn't work much of the time. The dialogue is very snappy, and I could go on for a while about how well the writers and Spielberg build in conflict into every line and exchange, however minor, apparently building these strengths up to balance the weakness of the shark (which is scarier the less it is seen, another lesson in horror). Characters talk over each other, and the arguments of the three men on the boat reveal their characters while giving voice to our fears and anxieties. I use clips from this film when I teach screenwriting in my creative writing class, both to show how even a shark movie that's good is still about humans and to show how conflict works to heighten drama even as characters are going about seemingly routine business. The Fourth of July connection is obvious, but it's the way the date is mentioned is a key factor in the island's economic survival that intrigues me. Much of the way people celebrate the holiday in this movie -- the small parades, the food, and the overall middle-class vibe -- reminds me of the July 4th holidays of the 1970s, around the biccentennial, when people seemed genuinely glad to be in America. (Perhaps I'm sentimentalizing the past, but the last few years of July Fourth celebrations have seemed a touch too ironic.) 

Hot dogs, photo taken by me. All right reserved.

As for Independence Day, well, the Fourth of July connection is clear, and it's a big, entertaining movie. There's a nostalgia element for me, in that I first saw it with a friend at like 3 a.m. when they opened the movie by keeping the theaters open all night. The effects really hold up, also, which I think is because of, not in spite of, its reliance on pre-CGI special effects. The effects in CGI films of this period, like Titanic, look OK now, but they still often stick out as false more than they should. This has something to do with "visual literacy" (what we're used to seeing) in films, and it's related to how driving in cars or riding in wagons in old movies always look terribly phony today. To moviegoers of yesteryear, these effects probably looked pretty cool just to be on the screen.

I was interested in finding more July Fourth movies,  so I googled the topic, and I was unsatisifed with many of the lists. All of the lists include Independence Day and Born on the Fourth of July (because why not), but Jaws isn't always listed (!) and other movies didn't seem to belong at all. (Some of the them were just movies it might be fun to watch on the holiday). 

So the second part of this post (Part 2) will include a new list of my own.