Militarism, Misanthropy and the Body Politic: - Brunel University

In the second scene, Hiller and his comrades enjoy a quiet moment while
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watching television from big leather arm chairs in the base’s lounge. The scene contains
some hyper masculine insignia—the emblem of a gryphon over the doorway and a
bomber on the back of Jimmy Wilder’s (Harry Connick’s) T-shirt. Hiller heads toward
the locker room and Wilder tags behind. There are reasons why Wilder, as a fighter pilot,
would be wearing a fanny pack and a longer object from his belt. These accoutrements
also serve an evocative effect, however. Hiller turns and faces his locker, which is placed
at eye level. Wilder cups his hands and places them below Hiller’s buttocks. He says, “I
like the one knee approach. I like the bootie to be right where I can have it because the
bootie....” Hiller drops a small box containing a wedding ring, and Wilder picks up the
box, opens it and, on bended knee, shows it to Hiller saying, “Steve, this is a wedding
ring.” Another man in uniform walks in on the couple, grabs a cake of white soap, raises
his hands, palms outward, and leaves: a moment that serves, as Rogin points out, to riff
on President Clinton’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” 25
The next scene continues to trade on a fascination with the buttocks of African-
Americans. It opens upon a strip joint where we see Jasmine performing. She is wearing
a shiny red bra, feathered wrists, and g-string; the camera is framed three inches below
her buttocks and slightly above her neck. The singer on the soundtrack’s song coos, “Fly
it, baby. Try it, baby,” carrying forth the theme of military aviation and sexual
experimentation. A cutaway to the bar shows a fully clothed man and a stripper with a g-
string watching television on bar stools, with their backs to us. The stripper leans
forward, and her bottom and lower back seem very available to onlookers. Jasmine enters
a dressing room. We see her from her right side, and she’s changed into very high heels, a
Carol Vernallis: Independence Day 73