Tim Burton’s film
Mars Attacks! Satirizes the government,
the military, capitalism, and patriotism. This film shows the result of
Martians coming to the United States of America and their interactions. When
first coming to America, the Martians were welcomed with a huge ceremony. Many
excited Americans all dressed up as hippies came together to see the spectacle
of them landing with their giant space shuttle on American soil. America even
went as far as to bring two news crews, plenty of people from the military, and
a huge giant red carpet for them to walk across once they leave their shuttle
and fully emerge themselves into Earth. This welcoming scene in particular
makes fun of the government because the government hyped up the situation with such
a positive note, allowin
g many of their citizens to be there to witness it. The
government was not all that wary that these are dangerous creatures; rather
they just listened to a professor who had the belief that they weren’t just
because of their advanced technology. This scene also makes fun of the military
because the military is supposed to protect their citizens, but instead they
lost to a total of four Martians. This scene also makes fun of patriotism. The
American citizens had such a blind faith in their country with their safety it
caused them to die by being shot with a space gun and being turned into red and
green skeletons.
Another scene in
this movie that makes fun of capitalism is when Art Land is trying to sell a
space hotel to a bunch of business investors while simultaneously there is a
huge Martian war going on in the background. The extreme need for getting rich
and making quick money is easy to laugh at in this scene because it is obvious
that if they don’t stop talking about this matter soon they will experience a
quick death. Burton’s Mars Attacks! makes
fun of sacred institutions in the way that it shows all the faults of it in
such an extreme manner that is obvious to literally anyone who watches the
film.
You bring up a few good points about how Tim Burton satirizes American's trust in their government. For me, it was not that the government failed, necessarily. Instead, the government was so concerned with welcoming the aliens, that they did not know what to do when they were hostile, even though they had so many heavy weapons there. I think you should go into more analysis about what happens during the scene that the aliens attack. You could also elaborate on the satirization of capitalism. Otherwise, you do make good points that I had not thought of before so good job:)
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