ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050041
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the opening of ``Independence Day'' we see a plaque erected on the moon announcing that the Americans who first tread on the lunar landscape came in peace.
But soon the moon grows dark and we get something of a cinematic wink that foreshadows the dark mayhem about to unravel: creepy, slimy invaders that come from distant galaxies to feed upon Earth's natural resources after killing off all its inhabitants.
Clearly, these outer-space explorers are not coming in peace.
``Independence Day'' marks the latest in a long line of Hollywood films that tap our deep primordial fear that we are not alone and, in fact, are ripe for the picking by extraterrestrial beings.
The film features spectacular special effects such as billowing, rolling fireballs that engulf an entire horizon.
Strong stuff, but hardly new in the cinematic genre loosely classified as alien angst. And just what is this hold that gremlins and the like have on the imaginations of filmgoers?
``It's very similar to why people like to ride roller coasters,'' says Dean Devlin, producer and co-writer of ``Independence Day. ``It's very frightening, but it's safe.'' He ascribes the alien fascination to three words: ``fear without risk.''
``A lot of people are fascinated by the unknown,'' theorizes Robert Wise, who directed the 1951 classic ``The Day the Earth Stood Still.'' ``I'm a great believer in UFOs. I've never seen one, but that doesn't stop me from believing. I think the notion that we are the only intelligent life in the universe is the biggest ego trip imaginable.''
Moviemakers have been out to deflate that ego trip almost as long as movies themselves have been around.
Space travel themes have occupied filmmakers since Georges Melies' fanciful ``A Trip to the Moon'' in 1902. In the 1950s, when Americans were enthralled with alleged sightings of flying saucers and other UFOs, Hollywood jumped on the space wagon.
Some of those early films remain dear to the hearts of science fiction fans. Among them are ``The War of the Worlds,'' the H.G. Wells story with Oscar-winning special effects by George Pal, and ``When Worlds Collide,'' another Oscar winner for Pal.
``It Came From Outer Space,'' based on a Ray Bradbury story, produced plenty of thrills in 1953 when it was shown in 3-D.
There were plenty of schlocky treatments of the invader theme. The prolific Roger Corman contributed many, including ``It Conquered the World'' (Peter Graves) and ``War of the Satellites'' (Dick Miller).
Jerry Lewis worked the alien visitor theme for laughs in 1960 with ``Visit to a Small Planet,'' based on a Gore Vidal play.
After a fallow period, space visitors returned smashingly in 1977 with Steven Spielberg's ``Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'' Then he topped himself in 1982 with ``E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.''
In both cases, Spielberg's travelers were benign. Not so the slimy terrors of ``Alien'' (1979), ``Aliens'' (1986) and ``Alien3 (1992).''
Among the lesser offerings: ``UFOria'' (Cindy Williams), ``My Stepmother Is an Alien'' (Dan Aykroyd, Kim Basinger), ``Martians Go Home'' (Randy Quaid), and the unforgettable ``Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster,'' which was retitled for video as ``Mars Invades Puerto Rico.''
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Makeup artist Bud Westmore created this half-humanby CNBand half-insect inhabitant of another planet for the 1950s movie
"This Island Earth." A long line of Hollywood films has tapped into
the deep anxiety that human beings are not alone in the universe and
that they are in fact ripe for the picking.