A month later, during television coverage of the Super Bowl, the next trailer had the Manhattan skyline being demolished with the warning, "Enjoy the Super Bowl. It may be your last."As yet, it was unclear what kind of movie Independence Day was - apart from big - but the campaign built in movie theatres where the film was promised for 4 July, which is Independence Day and the climactic point in the summer movie campaign Some weeks before 4 July, the kids get out of school The stupefying summer weather sets in. As long ago as last Christmas - long before Independence Day was finished - movie theatres played teaser trailers in which we saw some very large but unexplained spacecraft looming over New York, Los Angeles and Washington, and blowing the White House into confetti. The hook was in; that last outrage was something most Americans could identify with in an election year that has two candidates running for President, Shifty and Gloomy, who suggest a total talent pool of seven or eight.

What we also need in summer is a bit of excitement akin to the clash of the natural and the surreal such as earthquakes, unruly weather and a certain kind of movie can contrive. And, you see, we've known for months that Independence Day was coming.It was hard to resist the brilliant campaign that has made the sensation what it is, and only archaic purists will wish that as much wit and invention had gone into the movie itself. Or at least its opening.None of this is especially healthy - but we have clean air, no-smoking laws, the best of organically grown food, and an expensive medical system for health. This is not to be facetious about the damage done by such things.

Still, these fearsome events are also spectaculars, amazing ordeals that challenge attendance and even participation. Living in an earthquake-prone city, San Francisco, I know that one strand in the tangled reasoning that keeps people here is that, if the big one comes, at least we'll see it. Nicholas is only six - six and three-quarters, he adds - and I didn't want to make him stand in a queue for as long as it would take for one of the more normal screenings. But I didn't see any way of waking him up for the 3.15am screening - or, come to that, of coaxing him off to sleep first if he knew we were going for the 3.15. Strategically, I reckoned that the 7am was our best chance of getting in without being insane about it. Not that sanity was in itself non-negotiable: Nicholas had to see Independence Day quickly, before other kids, and before he burst. This was it, the summer sensation.That really is the appropriate way to regard Independence Day: it's less a movie than something to rival heatwaves, wildfires, tornado season, urban riots, or even earthquakes.

All those alleged "disasters" are part of the turbulent carnival of American summer. And although you may not win every battle, if you don't start fighting, you can never win.. In America, 'Independence Day' has broken all box-office records, taking $94.6m in its first week alone.So My son and I went to the 7am screening of Independence Day. I was taken to hospital and things went wrong, so they sent me back to England. I regret that we didn't win, but it is a period of my life I am proud of. I was standing up at what could have been and was a turning point in the history of ordinary people.As Assistant Secretary of the International Brigades Association, I'm using my retirement to tell people about the war, and to point out the big lesson of Spain which was that if you see fascism or racism, you've got to begin to struggle.