Mars Attacks not only provides comedic
entertainment, but also satirizes many American ideals such as the government,
the military, capitalism, and patriotism. Tim Burton shows this satiric view of
America especially in the scene where audiences first meet the President of the
United States played by Jack Nicholson. In this scene, the president is shown
to be a follower, led mostly by his press secretary and his concern for his
image. This portrayal satirizes the government as well as the media and how it
works. This scene also satirizes patriotism by showing the two generals. One
general is very aggressive and ready to fight for his country but does not
think a lot about the situation before coming to a violent conclusion. The
other general does not supply an opinion when asked but merely asks more
questions such as “Do we know they are aggressive?” Both of these characters
show different satires of patriotism: one being the irrational fighter and the
other being the passive conformist. These generals also represent the military
and therefore through them Burton is also showing a satirical view of the
military.
Another scene that
shows Burton’s satirical view of America’s ideals is the scene in which the
Martians first land and attack. In this scene, Burton satirizes the government
by showing the president watching the fluffy news anchor instead of the more
serious one. This shows again that the government cares a lot about image and
splendor instead of facts and serious issues. Burton also highly satirizes the
military and patriotism in this scene by showing Jack Black’s character running
to fight the Martians and then not even be able to shoot the gun.
This film installs
a view of sacred institutions as not really being that sacred after all. For
example, the two news reporter characters, Nathalie and Jason are married in
the film. However, it is clear throughout the plot of the movie that they do
not hold this institution to be very sacred. Nathalie flirts with the professor
and Jason really only cares about himself and his career.
Finally, the film
also parodies the whole science fiction genre. The quality of the film looks
cheap and the script is poorly written. However, this is done on purpose by
Burton in order to parody more serious science fiction films like Blade Runner, Independence Day, and Alien.
This is also seen in how the characters regard the president. The president in Independence Day is shown a lot of
respect while the president in Mars
Attacks is not even shown respect by his own daughter. Burton uses all of
the elements discussed to create a film that is highly satirical and full of
elements of parody.
I really enjoyed reading this post mainly because you go into great detail, which makes it very easy to picture exactly what you're talking about. It makes your reasoning that much stronger in my opinion. I also like how you put your examples for the scenes of chronological order of the movie and then your final example addressed the entire movie as a whole. I know our class spoke of how the film parodies science fiction, but after reading your blog post I understand it a bit more. Overall I really liked your post, good job! :)
ReplyDeleteI liked what you said about the script being poorly written. It really made sense when you said that because that is exactly what Burton was going for. I also did not think about the two generals in this way before but I can see exactly what you are talking about now with the split sides of patriotism. The hardcore military power and the old school ways vs. the conformist pacifist with the young views. I find it a bit ironic how they get Jack Black to play the poor fellow who gets zapped, but even more so when he grabs the American flag and gets zapped. I also like how the film shows the corruptness of some officials like the press secretary and his obsession with hookers. I think Burton was trying to mock the moral integrity of some of the higher officials in our government.
ReplyDelete-Nick Arceneaux, good job btw. Many great points I had not thought about, honestly.