Mars Attacks
Mars Attacks! (1996), a comedy/science fiction film directed by Tim Burton, was a big-budget production masquerading as a B-movie. The film is visually impressive, as are most of Burton's films, and highly dependent upon special effects. The film's soundtrack by Danny Elfman makes extensive use of the theremin.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The film is highly parodic. However, its targets were not other blockbuster Hollywood productions Independence Day or trading card series created by Topps in 1962. The exaggerated comic violence of the movie is only slightly more intense and garish than in the original cards. Therefore, as with other Burton movies, the subject under scrutiny is not the present, but the mass culture of suburban childhood of the past.
The plot is fairly simple but contains some interesting variations on the normal Martian invasion movie. The premise is that the Martians have turned up on Earth and the President of the United States (played by Jack Nicholson) seeks to gain maximum public relations points by establishing a friendly relationship. (Nicholson also plays another role in the movie, that of a Las Vegas real-estate speculator.) The Martians however reject these overtures and proceed to wreak havoc with their spectacular red and green death-ray guns. The Martians pursue fleeing humans with speakers blaring "We come in peace," and some have seen in the Martian use of overtures to peace as methods of getting victims all in one spot a commentary on the public goals and actual practices of Western military powers in the 20th century.
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 yodelling music, Indian Love Call performed by Slim Whitman. Some have criticized this as being far too similar to another parody of B-movies, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, where the killer tomatoes were also caused to explode when exposed to a particularly bad song.
Cast list: Jack Nicholson (two roles), Danny DeVito, Joe Don Baker, Annette Bening, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Natalie Portman, Lukas Haas, Jim Brown, Tom Jones, Jack Black.
See also Mars in fiction.
