Independence Day created a worldwide sensation when it was released in 1996, and has gone on to be one of the all-time highest grossing films. Combining comic-book science fiction on the grandest scale with spectacular special effects, Independence Day delighted audiences with its depiction of alien invaders reducing the White House to an inferno. President Bill Clinton and presidential candidate Bob Dole both endorsed the film breathlessly. "We won in the end," said Dole. "Bring your family. You'll be proud of it. Diversity. America. Leadership. Good over Evil."

How did such an apocalyptic, anarchic and ultra-violent film manage to achieve this kind of acclaim? Michael Rogin suggests that Independence Day serves American power in the name of attacking it. He analyzes how the film re-imagines American society and rewrites American history. Propaganda disguised as escapism, Independence Day salves American anxiety--about race, sexuality, disease, and war--by means of delirious movie-making.

Independence Day is perhaps not a classic in the conventional sense. But Rogin argues, dismissing the claim that the film is harmless entertainment, that it is of the utmost significance. Consummating the marriage of America's two top export industries, entertainment and aerospace, Independence Day is the defining motion picture of Bill Clinton's America.