Video Mondays: Disclosure Day

Opening weekend, I skipped the 11AM SMC: Do the Right Thing, because I wasn’t sure I was up for a “double feature.” Having come to this neighborhood theater for several months I was a bit surprised by the lack of a crowd, albeit I am here more than 20 minutes early. I’ve gotten used to full theaters for classic movies… which was one of the reasons I picked viewing Disclosure Day here instead of one of the Regals or Cinemark. That is, most movies for the past six months have been with very small audiences, except the independent screenings that I’ve seen at Cinema 21. I’m hopeful about this movie… 🤞

So, Disclosure Day… the mind is very much caught up in the story. As with most UFO stories this one is vey much a chase between the good guys and the bad guys to prevent the good guys from disclosing our history of alien visitation. Will our heroes be successful against a huge private/government armada of control? It really is not clear until the last frame whether we’re going to get a happy ending or a tragic one. I mean, there is so much reckless driving that any slight mistake and someone is not making it to the credits.

I appreciate that Spielberg presented the God question to a sympathetic Catholic nun. What I mean is that churches with centuries long histories, especially if they can be a bit honest about their “difficult” histories, are going to lean in the direction of “wonder” and grace when it comes to difficult questions. Fundamentalist religions want to present a sense of certainty when it comes to the unknown. And an honest nun is going to laugh in the face of someone who presents either religion or science like they have it all together and know the unknown. Side note: the girlfriend misquotes the Genesis story. Humanity is never called the highest of God’s creations, but we are told to take care of creation as a worker in the field not a “Lord” over subordinates, and this before the Fall (BA in Biblical Studies here, I’m “trained” to recognize misquotes or fabrications presented as “from the Bible”).

Spielberg does such a great job telling this story, giving us antagonists who have discernible reasons for their actions and flawed heroes… One of the best moments, that’s probably a response to the feeling by many that if the government did have all of this evidence, the current administration wouldn’t be able to keep from spilling the beans themselves. They show a clip of Nixon giving a Hollywood big-wig a tour of the facility and someone says that since then, with a new person in the president’s office every 8 years, they decided to take the executive branch out of the loop and keep it all under military compartmentalization. Ha!

This film is very much worth seeing, hopefully in a somewhat full theater. Enjoy.

[Movie viewed on 2026-05-13 at Cinema 21]

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