Militarism, Misanthropy and the Body Politic: - Brunel University

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tiny top, and even though one can catch a flash of the border of the g-string, what looks
like nothing below—no hose. It’s quite a sight, and after she paces back and forth across
the space three times, Tiffany grabs a poster and says “check it out.” She then tries to
cover up Jasmine’s buttocks, while viewers may keep trying to catch glimpses of this
naked body. She says “check it out,” to draw Jasmine’s attention to the placard, but we
can’t help thinking it refers to the woman’s derrière. Through match shots, African-
American buttocks have become a constant theme for 40 shots and 2 minutes. Since only
black characters are treated in this way, the reader may wonder to whom the film is
addressed. 26
The representation of Hiller’s body as strange and problematic reappears in
subsequent scenes. After his one-on-one dogfight, Hiller parachutes from his fighter after
heading through a narrow crevasse in the Grand Canyon. We find that he and the alien
land not near the Grand Canyon but somewhere that looks like Death Valley. Hiller is
tangled up in his parachute, kicking and flailing: the dark tangles look knobby and
stringlike, and so they rhyme with the alien’s writhing tentacles that we see emerging
from the spacecraft’s interior in upcoming shots. Hiller lets out a series of jive-inflected
war whoops and hollers and heads over for the alien: “Son of a bitch. Ahhh! That’s right.
That’s what you get! Ship all banged up. Who’s the man? Wait till I get another play. I’m
gonna line all you friends up right beside you. Where you at?”
Hiller has been trash talking ever since the dog fight in the Grand Canyon. We
next see him drag the alien through Death Valley, and he states “You got me out here
draggin’ your heavy ass through the burnin’ desert with your dreadlocks stickin’ out of
the back of my parachute. You gotta come down here with an attitude, actin’ all big ‘n’
Carol Vernallis: Independence Day 74