Falconer- Mars Attacks!

Director Tim Burton is widely known for directing movies with scary disturbing plots such as “Sweeny Todd” or “A Nightmare Before Christmas”.  However, “Mars Attacks!” is not the spine chilling alien attack thriller it may seem at first glance. In the film Burton satirizes government, military, capitalism and patriotism all together. The dictionary defines satire as “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.” If aliens were to attack the earth tomorrow it would in fact be a crisis that would require the country to come together and rely on their government but for decades people have been channeling their disagreement of how the government can handle things into jokes. In my opinion making jokes on these matters is the way people cope with the fact the country will never be run the exact way they want it to.

            One major problem people have with our government is that it is supposed to be a “democracy” in which we have a say but too often the majority end up disliking the president and senators they even voted for themselves. I really enjoy the way Tim Burton shows different peoples reactions as they watch the Aliens encounter congress on television. First you see the President, his wife, daughter and Professor Donald Kessler watching the program. At first the aliens seem peaceful and willing to give earth a second chance. The President has a smug proud look on his face as he is watching this because he thinks he has fixed everything. Then the aliens dramatically change the mood and start mass murdering all of congress with their Technicolor ray guns as if it is hilarious to them. Though they just witnessed the mass murder of he United States congress Taffy mocks her father by simply stating, “I guess it wasn’t the bird”. Many presidents through out history have thought too highly of themselves and their plans only to be embarrassed by failure. It was funny to see his ego broken down first by his own teenage daughter. Then you see the grandma watching the same program. She is laughing hysterically at the tragedy chuckling, “They blew up congress”. Congressmen are often depicted as wealthy lazy old men with selfish intentions. Burton portrays a satire yet realistic idea of how the people would feel to see congress blown up.

            In “Mars Attacks!” Burton uses the perfect combination of cheesy dialogue and an all-star cast to create a brilliant satire to the popularized idea of what the country would do when aliens attack. Many movies have made a serious version of this scenario, which in my opinion are just temporarily thrilling but have no lasting impression. Burton’s film may have been a silly comedy but it challenges our ideas of the government, military, patriotism etc.