Mars Attacks!

Mars Attacks! is a black comedy and science fiction film by Tim Burton based on the popular card series Mars Attacks. It was released in 1996 by Warner Bros.

The film combines the storyline and tone of a B-movie (or B-movie spoof) with the budget of a blockbuster movie. It features an ensemble cast of major stars including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Joe Don Baker, Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Christina Applegate, Natalie Portman, Lukas Haas, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Ray J, Tom Jones and Jack Black. The film is highly dependent upon special effects. Every member of the top-billed cast except Bening has their character killed in the movie – twice, in Nicholson's case. The soundtrack by Danny Elfman makes extensive use of the theremin.

The film received mixed reviews from critics (though it was more popular in Europe), and although it grossed some $101,371,017 worldwide, it was considered a moderate box office success because of its cost ($70 million). It has since acquired a small cult following and can often be seen on cable TV in North America.^{[citation needed]}

Cast

• Jack Nicholson - President James Dale/Art Land
• Glenn Close - First Lady Marsha Dale
• Annette Bening - Barbara Land
• Pierce Brosnan - Professor Donald Kessler
• Danny Devito - Rude Gambler
• Martin Short - Press Secretary Jerry Ross
• Sarah Jessica Parker - Nathalie Lake
• Michael J. Fox - Jason Stone
• Rod Steiger - General Decker
• Paul Winfield - General Casey
• Sir Tom Jones - himself
• Jim Brown - Byron Williams
• Lukas Haas - Richie Norris
• Natalie Portman - Taffy Dale
• Pam Grier - Louise Williams
• Lisa Marie - Martian Girl
• Brian Haley - Secret Service Agent Mitch
• Sylvia Sidney - Grandma Florence Norris
• Jack Black - Billy Glen Norris
• Ray J - Cedric Williams
• Brandon Hammond - Neville Williams
• Janice Rivera - Cindy
• O-Lan Jones - Sue Ann Norris
• Christina Applegate - Sharona
• Joe Don Baker - Mr. Norris
• Jerzy Skolimowski - Dr. Zeigler
• Barbet Schroeder - President of France

Style and movie references

As with other Burton movies, the subject under scrutiny is not only the present, but the mass culture of his own suburban childhood. Although nominally set in the present day, the film contains numerous anachronistic references to the style of the 1950s science fiction B-movies of which it is a parody. The film's tone is similar to that of the trading card series, depicting exaggerated comic violence with an intense and often garish color scheme.

The plot is fairly simple but contains unusual variations on the normal Martian invasion movie. The premise is that Martians have arrived at Earth and the President of the United States (played by Jack Nicholson) seeks to gain maximum public relations points by establishing a friendly relationship with them. The Martians, however, reject these overtures and proceed to wreak havoc with their spectacular red and green death-ray guns that vaporize all but the skeleton of the target. The Martians also toy with Professor Kessler's assumption that advanced civilizations are peace-loving; they repeatedly set up meetings for peace treaties and then massacre the humans involved. They use this tactic to wipe out both the United States Congress and the National Assembly of France.

As in the film The War of the Worlds, a simple weapon is ultimately found to counter the alien invaders: in this instance it is the playing of a piece of yodeling music, "Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman, that makes their brains explode. This is similar to another parody of B-movies, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, in which the killer tomatoes were defeated by playing the song "Puberty Love" by Ronny Desmond.

The film has an interesting relationship with Independence Day, an alien invasion movie released a few months earlier by rival studio 20th Century Fox. Mars Attacks plays for comedy everything that Independence Day plays with relative seriousness. For example, where Independence Day has an extended sequence of epic and impressive destruction across the world, Mars Attacks! has the aliens using Easter Island as a bowling alley, carving their own faces in Mount Rushmore, toppling the Washington Monument onto boy scouts in Washington, D.C. (a deliberate parody of a similar scene in the 1956 B-movie Earth vs. the Flying Saucers), and melting the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House and the Big Ben. Other similarities include:

• Enthusiastic humans who eagerly await the aliens' arrival, only to be mercilessly slaughtered in the initial attack.

• Scenes of frantic escapes from the White House.

• The death of the First Lady (in this case, Marsha Dale (Glenn Close) is crushed under a chandelier during the President's chaotic escape from the White House).

• The U.S. President needing convincing to use a nuclear weapon against the invaders. It proves futile.

Ultimately, Mars Attacks! parodies the American spirit of gung-ho independence that Independence Day celebrates. Since Mars Attacks! was released shortly after Independence Day, it appeared as a direct parody of that film; however, since Burton's film was almost completed at the time Independence Day was released, the similarities are purely coincidental, or derived from mutual use of science fiction clichés.

In a manner similar to that of Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, Nicholson plays more than one role: he plays both the President and a Las Vegas real estate speculator; for the latter role he sports sunglasses, cowboy hat and buck teeth that make him "almost" unrecognizable. In another strange coincidence, "Dr. Strangelove" had a similar relationship with the movie "Fail-Safe (1964 film)". They debuted at almost the same time with similar plots, but one was a straightforward drama and the other a comedy.

Trivia

• The destruction of the spaceship-themed Las Vegas hotel was in fact an actual demolition, that of the Landmark Hotel and Casino. It was imploded to make way for expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.^{[citation needed]}

• A large portion of the original trading cards series included oversized bugs that the Martians used to exterminate the humans. No oversized bugs were seen in the film, though flying saucers and robots were featured.

• The resurrected Misfits actually gave Tim Burton their song "Mars Attacks" but the song was received late during the filming of the movie.^{[citation needed]}

• The producers approached the US Army for cooperation in filming the movie. The Army refused after learning that the story involved Slim Whitman's song "Indian Love Call" being more effective against the invaders than the military.^{[citation needed]}

• In the scene where the Martians first land the column of US Army tanks includes American M-41 light tanks and Soviet built T-55 tanks.

• In the cartoon ReBoot, in season 3, Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket play a gamecube that has them in the form of Mars Attack's martians in a space fighting game.

See also

• Alien language
• Mars in fiction
• Science fiction

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