There are works whose true greatness only reveals itself years after their publication: the film Independence Day, published a quarter of a century ago, is one of those. For a long time it was assumed that the story of the blockbuster could be told quickly: Aliens move from planet to planet in order to destroy them and to appropriate the resources there. After a few setbacks, mankind manages to avert annihilation and defeat the invaders.
The film has not been interpreted openly since its appearance, especially from the left: Independence Day was optionally misinterpreted as US chauvinist, patriarchal or the ruling order affirming cinema junk. A common lot of great works. Homers too Odyssee took something before it could develop its full effect. So slowly the obvious meaning of Independence Day penetrate into our consciousness, we live in times in which an Elon Musk set himself the goal of transforming humans into a multi-planetary species that first colonizes Mars before the earth is dumped on the intergalactic landfill.
The previously hidden second level of the multi-layered Roland Emmerich drama reveals itself: The Aliens in Independence Day are not aliens at all, but represent a part of humanity, that part whose wealth is based on oppression, exploitation and expropriation of the basis of life.
Who in the film the people stand for when the aliens are the capitalists, it goes without saying: They embody those who do not have the necessary change to buy a ticket to Mars; those who, despite cultural, regional and structural divisions, put their common overriding interest first: to avert the destruction of their existence.
As in the real global class struggle, in Independence Day a few attempts, until the oppressed and exploited become a class for themselves and themselves of their own powers – in the end, courage, unity and knowledge succeed in smuggling a computer virus into the command center of the aliens.
25 years after its release, it is finally time for us to be in Independence Day recognize what the film is: an eco-socialist masterpiece that shows us the way in the fight against the destruction of man by man.
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