Generic Codes And Conventions Of The Science Fiction In The Day The Earth Stood Still and Independence Day

Generic Codes And Conventions Of The Science Fiction In The Day The Earth Stood Still and Independence Day

The ways in which the generic codes the conventions of science fiction

are used in 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' and 'Independence Day' are

very different. The main factor is that both films were made in two

different times. 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' was made in 1951, so

it doesn't have the massive amounts of special effects as in a film

today and it is also in black and white. 'Independence Day' was made

in 1995 and in that time were a lot of action films being made with

very high quality special effects. Both films have different ways of

showing science fiction and both are based around the same narrative

and that is that aliens attack the earth and try to take over it. The

ways in which both films show how the alien comes in contact with the

earth is very different. These are a few points that explain the

differences.

Firstly in every Sci-Fi film there is nearly always a space ship. In

'The Day The Earth Stood Still' the spaceship is shown as being made

of an unknown material that is unpenetrable. Another thing is that

when the spaceship opens and closes there are no hinges or anything to

show the entrance, it is almost like it is one whole body. The

spaceship is also quite small and unconvincing to today's standards.

'Independence Day' shows the space ship as being very big, almost so

big that it covers the sunlight. It however doesn't have an

unpenetrable outer material but instead has a shield. This maybe

implicates that the aliens have also evolved their technology. Another

thing is that you don't ever see the ship open up while in the Earth's

atmosphere, instead it has small defender spaceships that are very

fast. To today's standards this is more convincing.

As many blockbuster films 'Independence Day' is based upon a B movie,

that is a movie that was made a long time ago and has the same