Feel like Disclosure Day is overly complicated and sincere for mass audience
Just went to the movie for the second time. This time with my kids. And God this movie hits harder on second watch when you already know everything.
It seems Steven Spielberg wanted to make huge legacy film and just put everything he got into it, making it extremely convoluted and hard to digest. Closest example I got is "The Boy and the Heron" by Hayao Miazaki, where narrative is so naked and intense and at the same time allegorical it gives you constant feelings of confusion, anxiety and somehow pure catharsis at every moment. I guess this is the real reason why people find it so difficult to understand and express so much concern about it.
As far as I get it movie is not about aliens whatsoever. Aliens is just a MacGuffin, while the real topic of the movie is the world we are living in today. And the world today is extremely frightening.
World war 3 is not something hypothetical anymore, it is the actual reality we are living in and nuclear war apocalypse is the only available next step. You get the feeling of this emergency everywhere in the movie, yet it is never focused, working as a background or backbone for the story silently building the sense of anxiety.
On rare occasions it bursts open like the moment you see people are just taking out the shop at gas station with several guys just peeing at the wall of it at the same time. At that moment you don't know what to feel because you know this is totally possible nowadays yet it is shocking and awakening.
At the same time movie characters are acting as it is not a big deal. Boyfriend of Emily Blunt heroine wants to do music while she is struggling with this idea to become stupid weekend tv presenter using the actual end of the world as the material for her promotion. They got used to this and can't take it seriously anymore. In a way this is the topic we already saw in Don't look up, yet given with opportunity of solution.
And what Spielberg is offering as a solution is so seemingly naive and simple people feel repulsed by it. His allegory is classic cinema myth of aliens that deliberately made as simple, recognizable and straightforward as possible. This is his branded way of presenting it the, while other director could have used religious revelations or something else, it doesn't matter.
Simple truth of listening, believing in something bigger, purer or higher feels stupid. Yet movie is constantly hitting you in the head with it mixing with constant stress the way wrestler is doing it in the opening scene, trying to wake you up.
The actual methods Sipelberg uses for it are extremely straightforward seemingly primitive, yet in reality are never simple.
Light and dark contrast fills the picture the whole movie. Lots of light sources are constantly changing on screen shining and floating in different ways, signalizing the idea of truth's ability to leak through the darkness of the world.
Cinematography might be feeling extremely simple as well, yet you can notice camera is actually rarely stands still in the movie, stressing the dizziness and constant struggle. Insanely intense car stealing scene or actual 4 minute oner when Emily Blunt rushes into the studio in the beginning of the movie and fainting in the end feels so natural and organic you don't ever think how complex and effective it is, yet you are feeling the incredible rush it produces.
At the same time despite strong action this movie has an actual zero screen violence, no one ever hits another person or let alone killing somebody, stressing humane message Spielberg wants to send.
This idea of simple truth triumph and inability of people to accept this is central to the movie. Ex-nun can't believe in the people of the world to process it. Wardex employees can't understand why they can't stop Emily Blunt in the scene where she uses their empathy against their ill will as if empathy is some other world super weapon. Same Wardex people literally can't see childhood home where believers are hiding from them and win. What they can see are only the glimpses of the light and it's beautiful shining in the puddles.
The pivotal moment of the movie is protagonists' awakening in the childhood home expressing the acceptance of this pure goodness happened to them instead of blocking it as something bad. Revelation is shocking them, cause anger in the beginning and empowered catharsis in the end.
The very same thing happens in the finale of the movie that attracts the most complaints from audience only because this time it is happening to them/us. Yes, alien life revelation would stop the WW3. Yes, human empathy, wisdom and listening are actual only real options we have instead of it. Yet we are not ready for that. We feel the same tremble, confusion and fear that we are actually suppose to feel at the moment. Yet to feel catharsis you have to understand what is it really about.