The Day After Tomorrow: Running from Air
Published June 20, 2004
What's weird about this is the assumption that the American government could remain stable in the face of that kind of catastrophe. Left-wingers who complain about the American economic system and political positions in the world at times remind me of a teenager complaining about his parents' corruption and hypocrisy from the comfort and security that they have provided and that he takes for granted. Our system gives more people the opportunity to have the things they value--material things, yes, but also abstract things--more impartially than any other in history. It relies on technology to do so, and also to defend the people (basically, all comers) in their enjoyment of whatever it is they value. (The astonishing thing about the American political system is that the alterations we've had to make in order to address historic inequalities have only honored the basic premise more fully.) That's why al Qaida attacks infrastructure. The breakdown of our infrastructure could only favor brute power-mongers like the Islamofascists (who should make even Dick Cheney's conservatism look relatively mild to reasonable people). The outside threats have never come from better, more humane systems, but from historical throwbacks, to aristocracy and, since the 20th century, to international warlordism, of the left and right.
The Day After Tomorrow conjures changes so extreme that normal existence would be impossible, but stops there, as if it would just be a matter for middle-class Americans of packing the kids in the car and getting to better weather. (Damn this traffic!) The middle-aged female characters are particularly attuned to the individual casualties, whether children or books, but seem to have an uninterrupted supply of cosmetics. This movie doesn't even begin to imagine what a disaster could mean.
You can find this review and a lot besides at The Kitchen Cabinet.
Alan Dale is the author of What We Do Best: American Movie Comedies of the 1990s and Comedy Is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies.
- The Day After Tomorrow: Running from Air
- Published: June 20, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Action, Video: Drama, Video: SF, Video: Suspense and Mystery
- Writer: Alan Dale
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Comments on this articleComments
Setting aside the characterization of my comments about liberals as bitching and whining, you seem to make the assumption that what a person writes about a movie has to be categorized either as a movie review or as political commentary, but not both. Why?
Well, when I see that a movie review seems to be some sort of political commentary, it turns me off from seeing what the author has to say about the movie. I see enough political shit on tv and in the paper that when I go to the movie, I want to be entertained. I higly doubt that when people made The Day After Tomorrow, they were trying to make some telling political stand: They wanted to make as much money as they can with a disaster flick. Just because it happens to be about global warming doesn't make it a political statement
I actually put this phrase in the review--"That pretty much covers the movie as entertainment. As a cultural product it has quite another set of problems."--specifically to note when I was switching from aesthetics to politics. I guess you should have stopped reading then. Still, I'm not convinced everyone will share your extremely limited notion of what constitutes a movie review.
"your extremely limited notion "
Actually, I don't have a "limited notion". Maybe I am just sick of politics in every damn thing. Still, I am sure there will be many on here who appreciate your liberal bashing... This is blogcritics after all.. the haven for the right. I just kinda wish this post had been in et cetera... then I would have known what I was reading before I started. Please excuse my stupidty. *rolls eyes*
QUOTE
Well, when I see that a movie review seems to be some sort of political commentary, it turns me off from seeing what the author has to say about the movie.
UNQUOTE
The same can be said about the movie itself. If the movie is an obvious attempt at political proaganda it should also be avoided.
Day After Tomorrow is a fairly awful film. I had the good fortune of viewing it with an audience that loved the damn thing. And it WAS entertaining in parts. The movie bumbles through inconsistent political stands, poor plot turns, predictable character speeches and agonizingly derivative scenes. Roland Emmerich doesn't really make films more than he comes up with "neat" special effects ideas, and then plops a weak movie upon them. He rips off Godzilla, War of the Worlds, The Right Stuff, Star Wars, Earthquake, Twister and any number of past, superior films, putting together a predictable patchwork quilt knowing full well that the audience dynamic numbers 70% kids who don't have the brains to know any film made before the year 2000. It's all about putting together a nice FX package and racing to the bank to deposit the bucks.
Roland Emmerich is a proud graduate of the Jerry Bruckheimer school of commercial filmmaking. Give the kids generic explosions because they are too dumb to know any better.
That being said, I enjoyed The Day After Tomorrow though suspect if I viewed it a second time on DVD would likely hate it. That also being said, I enjoyed Alan's terrific review and his comparisons to many of the great disaster films of the 1970s......
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so was this a movie review or a bitch and wine fest about liberals? Hard to tell.