E. T. Has Legs… Or Does He?
REVIEW OF FILM Disclosure Day
“This is going to be hard to watch” - lead character in Disclosure Day to co-star regarding a video of government thugs torturing aliens
“Beware of false knowledge. It is more dangerous than ignorance” - George Bernard Shaw
“But he has nothing at all on!” - Hans Christian Anderson, the emperor’s new clothes
I stepped into a time warp last week. I physically went to a movie theater to watch a Steven Spielberg movie about aliens; talk about deja vu. I had gone to movie theaters in my youth to see the debuts of Close Encounters and E.T. I was nervous about Disclosure Day when I glimpsed at the running time of 2 hours and twenty five minutes, but as a nod to the pop-film icon of our time… I decided to climb on board for the long ride.
A Spielberg film was a right of passage for late stage baby boomers. Many of his works have become cultural touchstones: Jaws, Close Encounters, the Indiana Jones franchise, E.T., the Jurassic Park franchise, Saving Private Ryan,Shindeler’s List… Spielberg’s corpus evokes a certain time and place and a walk-away catch phrase; “We’re going to need a bigger boat”, “ET phone home” or musical earworms such as 5 notes from Close Encounters or the string ostinato from Jaws or the Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Arc. It would be hard to think of any other contemporary director who so effectively channeled the zeitgeist. Is there anyone reading this who has not engaged in conversations regarding at least a few of the films I mentioned? The challenge for someone with this unsurpassed track record is staying relevant. The last few releases have shown someone older and, do I dare say it, out of touch. Did anyone, aside of Mr. Spielberg, think a remake of West Side Story or War of the Worlds was a good idea? Ditto for The Post, a feature based on the release of the pentagon papers. Did anyone go and see BFG or Ready Player One? Or how about the cold war thriller Bridge of Spies or his bringing to life the European comic book Tin Tin? Attempts at social statements have also fallen short. AI Artificial Intelligence is barely referenced by anyone, even though decades after the film we are faced with the real thing. Ditto for Minority Report, a bloated bore which shed no light on the future or social justice. Nevertheless I felt a sort of obligation to join in the larger conversations. UFOs are back in the news — or more properly renamed UTFs — lets see if the old saw can deliver some new tricks…. Unfortunately the seasoned director might want to consider the tag line in the final scene: LISTEN!
What is remarkable about Disclosure Day is its stagnancy. It is akin to running into an elderly relative at a family gathering and having them, once again, recite their theory on Big Foot. As a child, this might be charming, as an adult it is tedious. Mr. Spielberg thinks he has a great deal to say and, unfortunately, the commercial success and widespread praise of Schindler’s List and Lincoln gave him the self-confidence to weigh in on things that matter, rather than merely entertain. Prior to this recent work he directed a very personal coming of age film, The Fabelmans based on his journey to being a filmmaker. The serious Spielberg films are well crafted and beautifully rendered with world class performances. In effect he has become the Ken Burns’ of entertainment; wildly successful, professionally capable, but lacking gravitas. Fortunately for Mr. Burns can dependably deliver solid products with recognized experts. In Spielberg’s case he, via his script and choices, weighs in on the red meat of the matter. It is a meager feast of tasteless gruel as his collaborators are cowed by the master chef’s success.
One of the challenges of being so successful is a lack of candor from friends and coworkers. Who has the courage to say to the recognized master: even for a pop-culture movie, this is REALLY DUMB.. Better to take the pay check and the credit and move on with your career. Disclosure Day is weighted down by pretentious statements about religion and current events delivered in the stilted drama, which in terms of acting, dialogue and plot bears a striking resemblance to old style TV movies. Everyone knows this but no one is brave enough to speak truth to power. The irony is the theme of the film is — speak truth to power.
There is a great deal to say about the prospect that we are not alone. Sadly sifting through the hours of dialogue will yield no interesting insights into alien life. Instead there is a feast of insipid conversations squeezed between ham-handed chase scenes and set-piece escapes and near misses. The plot is too tedious to delve into particulars but the set up surrounds “evil” government officials & and corporate flak suppressing “the truth”. Some Spielberg’s troupes are revised in the telling: we have the earnest, clueless earthlings, the blinding white lights around the aliens; spoiler alert: the aliens themselves are plus-sized ET’s with legs and no magic finger. This omission speaks volumes. It is as if Spielberg is caught up in the conundrum of whether this movie is “serious”. The film is an attempt at gravitas that brushes against Spielberg’s bread and butter: catchy pop-culture set-pieces. It is as if a Taylor Swift song suddenly morphs into Theonious Monk solo for the chorus.
The best examples of this thematic dissonance come with the strange plot twists. The director reprises the urban legend of President Nixon showing Jackie Gleason the bodies of dead aliens. We can all be thankful Spielberg chose not to explore the extensive number of urban legends surrounding extraterrestrials having sex with earthlings. We can only imagine how that dialogue would have sounded. The aliens, in this film speak a language akin to a very serious bout of indigestion. One of the characters can understand this speech as the english language, supposedly based on mathematical equations. He is bewildered when everyone else hears a human imitating a cat throwing up a hairball. And what are we to make of another lead character fleeing to a Christian convent and clutching rosary beads to fend off a bad guy using an alien device to read her mind. She clutches the small crucifix so hard blood is dripping from her hand Maybe he hit that note too hard? And what about the evil government men filming and torturing aliens? This thinly veiled reference to current events is particularly troubling as it might be read as exploitative virtue signaling. Whatever one’s view on US government immigration policy, is this particular film the right venue to sound a note on government exploitation? The director of War of the Worlds, HG Wells’ classic of alien invasion, never once considers the possibility of the not so little green men being a threat. What if E.T. is here to “Serve Mankind” in the twilight zone sense of the phrase.
Perhaps the best approach to this film is to sit back and bask in petty drama. Imagine this is 2 ½ hours of TV commercial montages that happen to form a drama about aliens. All things considered, it passes relatively quickly. Spielberg isn’t making District 9, an interesting feature about “the other”. Unlike Disclosure Day, that film has resonance. It will get you thinking about justice and mankind’s honest reactions to difference. The characters and message of the Spielberg “drama” has the staying power of an office elevator ride. The remarkable forgettableness of this film lies in stark contrast to the resources available to this director. You have the ability to make and hire the best writers, actors and technicians and the result is an obvious turkey. In the “serious” films, Schindler’s List, Lincoln, The Fabelmans, the lack of insight was masked by the gravitas of the subject matter i.e. the Civil War, the Holocaust and his own personal journey to filmmaking. There was enough flash to pull things along and garner praise (think Ken Burns) Disclosure Day, although harkening back to his earlier work, is overwhelmed by an attempt to relive the past. Rather than being a springboard into new perspectives the channeling of themes from his golden period exposed an older artist recycling ideas with a lesser effect. Think of the Rolling Stones latest album. In the end we are left with no one-liners or earworms, just forgettable fluff from an old man who never bothered to do the work required. It’s tough reliving the past. This proves the isolation at the top. The trick is to know you’re in a bubble and step outside yourself to remember your own strengths. You need to LISTEN! Just like the alien says. Sometimes a trip down memory lane is best experienced in silent contemplation.
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