Frederick- Satire Attacks!

Mars Attacks is a hilarious example of the modern day satire. Burton successfully satires politics and the United States Military, as well as much more.

Burton satires the government by showing something closer to the unimpressive reality rather than the idealistic norm from movies. Movies like Independence Day glorify the president, as a superiorly intelligent person who has everything under control and can successfully lead the country to victory, even against an awesome alien invasion. The reality however is that the president is just another man, who relies on advisors and experts in fields to help him run our country. Burton parodies the Independence Day president, and takes it even further and makes his president and officials complete morons. The president, played by Jack Nicholson, is shown as unable to make his own decisions, and is very concerned with the image given off to the public. He relies heavily on his press secretary, which shows how shallow Burton sees the president and the press as. He also follows the advice of the pseudo-professor, who doesn't give a good argument for his reasoning, but says it in a confident manor that the president blindly follows. The president and his group never have a long hard discussion or ask the hard questions, but make a discussion in minutes, and continue to make the wrong decision over and over. The press secretary Jerry Ross, played by Martin Short, also satires politicians and shows how corrupt they are. Early in the movie, a scene shows Ross in a limo, and stopping on a corner to pick up some prostitutes and sweet talks them with how "stressful" his important government job is. Ironically this same situation becomes the downfall of the government later when Ross picks up an martian disguised as a lady. He brings the martian to the White House where the martian attacks and kills many people. This situation makes fun of the many politicians, some even presidents, who's affairs have ruined and severely effected their reputations and careers. 

The military is also satired. The military General Decker parodies the stereotypical military general who is violent and war crazed. For as much as America would like us to believe that as a country we are always noble and just in our wars, the rest of the world sees us differently, as a war crazed, power crazed nation, that often acts irrationally when it comes to war. The other, passive General Casey parodies a Colin Powell type character. Powell is known for being indecisive and keeping to himself, but people love him and even wanted him to be president despite his lack of action. Another satire of the American military comes in the scene where the aliens first land on Earth. Jack Black plays the redneck "trailer trash" hillbilly type of military personnel. This character parodies the upstanding, successful and honorable type of man, like Will Smith in Independence Day that we would picture in the military. In this scene, the military is demoted to childlike, and this is shown through the symbolism of the Boy Scout belt that Black uses to keep his military pants held up. 

These institutions, government and military, are seen as sacred, or needing to be respected and revered by all. The are considered incorruptible. Burton challenges that and says, in a way through his work, that nothing is sacred. Not the government, not the military, not even death. By saying nothing is sacred, it gives us the freedom to laugh and make fun of anything. It gives us the freedom to criticize anything, as Burton does in Mars Attacks. It's by criticizing things that we can make them change and improve them, so without it, if we let these institutions be considered "sacred" and untouchable, we would never be able to improve.