Eljumaily-Mars Attacks

Tim Burton’s film Mars Attacks is an incredible parody of the quintessential science fiction alien invasion film. Taking the mickey out of such films as Independence Day and Alien, Mars Attacks depicts a very sorry world full of inadequate leaders and scholars that attempt to understand an event they really can’t change or do anything about. The alien apocalypse Burton creates brings more laughter than fear to viewers, with cartoonish looking aliens that obviously are indifferent to Earth and are using it merely to entertain themselves with destruction. The entity that Burton satirizes the most, however, is the government. The President of the United States, played by Jack Nicholson, has not even a clue as to how he should approach the alien invasion. Rather, he acts as a puppet that chooses which opinions he should take from his colleagues.

            These talking heads lead the President in many different directions in an effort to reason with the aliens. They only ever succeed in getting ruthlessly slaughtered by the Martians, no matter what tactic the President agrees on using. This view of the government shows how Burton truly feels that our leaders and anyone who helps them reach their conclusions. He makes them seem absolutely useless and purely detrimental in their decisions for their country. This is a direct shot at patriotism and the massive amount of trust we put into those with power. Burton takes the most powerful shot, however, at the U.S. military and its two generals.

            The first General of the United States military shows a very dull-minded, violently blunt approach to the invasion. General Decker’s immediate response to the news is “We should nuke these assholes with everything we got sir” acting as an example of the trigger-anxious destruction hungry war hero. Burton grew up in a time of much foreign destruction, with the cold war booming all about him and Vietnam being destroyed all the way across the world. This is the director’s way of flipping the destruction onto that of everyday Americans and it’s government, putting the bloodthirsty General into a place of absolute powerlessness. He fittingly gets killed by a shrink gun used by the Martian Leader, finally putting him in his place as a tiny, insignificant, angry pipsqueak of a man.

            The second General is very passive and never truly gives his opinion, bringing about the weak side of Government, who only says what he needs to stay in place but out of sight and mind. This is much like the President, who never uses his own mind to try and solve any of his problems. He often listens to his British scientist side-man Professor Kessler, who never gets anything truly right. He states that as an advanced civilization, the Martians must be peaceful, when in fact all they do is kill. This brings up a funny pyramid of trust, where the entire civilization puts their eggs into the basket of a man who in turn puts all of his “talking heads” which tell him what to do. Overall, Mars Attacks is an incredibly satirical and dry depiction of science fiction films and the Government that attempts to stop their apocalypse.