Post by klep on Jun 29, 2020 7:54:16 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/29: Mars Attacks!
DISASTER WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
If extraterrestrial life exists, and I believe it does (though I also believe it has never visited Earth), there's no reason to believe they'd be less warlike than we ourselves. This shouldn't be a comforting thought. However, it does seem equally likely to me that a species capable of interstellar travel would be uninterested in conquering our planet, largely because it would be less efficient than simply taking over one without sentient life. However, we have no reason to believe that the aliens in this week's feature have interstellar travel, just interplanetary, and there aren't a lot of habitable planets in our solar system even in the more lurid science fiction of the past—just three.
This movie is indeed a callback to the more lurid science fiction of a bygone era. The United States is of course the first country to be contacted by Martians. We follow the events through the eyes of a number of characters—the President, of course; he and the First Lady are Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close; their daughter is Natalie Portman. They are also advised by Angry General Rod Steiger, Pipe-Smoking Scientist Pierce Brosnan, and Sleazy PR Guy Martin Short. Other people through whose eyes we see the invasion include a rural family, a bunch of people in Las Vegas, and a divorced couple split between DC and Vegas.
There's no ambiguity to the Martians. They want to destroy all humans. They aren't big on birds, either—well, that's physics; the Martian atmosphere is too thin for them. But during their initial landing in the Nevada desert, they destroy quite a large number of soldiers and spectators. Then they persuade the government to give them a second chance and wipe out Congress. They get a spy into the white house by playing on a guy's libido, then the full invasion is on.
We play with just about every trope in science fiction, here, and it's a lot of fun. Pierce Brosnan, the most conventionally attractive person in the film, of course plays the scientist who cannot help believing that the Martians are peaceful. It ends poorly for him. Our nuclear weapons are useless, and the solution is something unexpected. Not to mention that a couple of plucky teenagers use their skill from playing video games to take out literally dozens of Martians.
The cast is packed, too. Oh, sure, a few Burton regulars—Lisa-Marie and O-Lan Jones—but Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Lukas Haas, Jack Black, Christian Applegate, and so forth. Joe Don Baker, even. (Whose character does have slight Mitchelly overtones, in my opinion!) I'm not thrilled with how they're billed at the beginning of the movie; in no universe does Joe Don Baker deserve billing over Pam Grier, and not even if you look at their percentage of screen time or importance to the plot, from what I can tell. Still, though; there's even a throwaway role for Danny DeVito where he doesn't have to wear a ludicrously high top hat.
I'm genuinely not sure why this movie's throwback silliness didn't do better with audiences. It deserved to. It's extremely funny, and to this day, I cannot look at Tom Jones without mentioning that he can fly an airplane. The movie does have a fairly cynical take about how humans tend to let hope triumph over experience, making it an all-too-timely film. When the President said that he wanted people to know that the schools would stay open, I nearly cried.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/6: Return to Oz
FANTASY WEEK!
We all know that Dorothy came back from Oz, but what this film presupposes is... what if she went back? Made in a lucky confluence of Walter Murch desiring to do an Oz film and Disney needing to make one to hold the copyrights, Return to Oz takes a darker turn than the Judy Garland film, and provided many a child with nightmare fuel. Come join our discussion next week of Return to Oz, available on Disney+ and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/30: Da 5 Bloods
The current podcast pairing concludes with Spike Lee's brilliant new film that interrogates America's history of racist exploitation through the prism of the Vietnam war. Come join our discussion on Wednesday of Da 5 Bloods, available on Netflix.
DISASTER WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
If extraterrestrial life exists, and I believe it does (though I also believe it has never visited Earth), there's no reason to believe they'd be less warlike than we ourselves. This shouldn't be a comforting thought. However, it does seem equally likely to me that a species capable of interstellar travel would be uninterested in conquering our planet, largely because it would be less efficient than simply taking over one without sentient life. However, we have no reason to believe that the aliens in this week's feature have interstellar travel, just interplanetary, and there aren't a lot of habitable planets in our solar system even in the more lurid science fiction of the past—just three.
This movie is indeed a callback to the more lurid science fiction of a bygone era. The United States is of course the first country to be contacted by Martians. We follow the events through the eyes of a number of characters—the President, of course; he and the First Lady are Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close; their daughter is Natalie Portman. They are also advised by Angry General Rod Steiger, Pipe-Smoking Scientist Pierce Brosnan, and Sleazy PR Guy Martin Short. Other people through whose eyes we see the invasion include a rural family, a bunch of people in Las Vegas, and a divorced couple split between DC and Vegas.
There's no ambiguity to the Martians. They want to destroy all humans. They aren't big on birds, either—well, that's physics; the Martian atmosphere is too thin for them. But during their initial landing in the Nevada desert, they destroy quite a large number of soldiers and spectators. Then they persuade the government to give them a second chance and wipe out Congress. They get a spy into the white house by playing on a guy's libido, then the full invasion is on.
We play with just about every trope in science fiction, here, and it's a lot of fun. Pierce Brosnan, the most conventionally attractive person in the film, of course plays the scientist who cannot help believing that the Martians are peaceful. It ends poorly for him. Our nuclear weapons are useless, and the solution is something unexpected. Not to mention that a couple of plucky teenagers use their skill from playing video games to take out literally dozens of Martians.
The cast is packed, too. Oh, sure, a few Burton regulars—Lisa-Marie and O-Lan Jones—but Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Lukas Haas, Jack Black, Christian Applegate, and so forth. Joe Don Baker, even. (Whose character does have slight Mitchelly overtones, in my opinion!) I'm not thrilled with how they're billed at the beginning of the movie; in no universe does Joe Don Baker deserve billing over Pam Grier, and not even if you look at their percentage of screen time or importance to the plot, from what I can tell. Still, though; there's even a throwaway role for Danny DeVito where he doesn't have to wear a ludicrously high top hat.
I'm genuinely not sure why this movie's throwback silliness didn't do better with audiences. It deserved to. It's extremely funny, and to this day, I cannot look at Tom Jones without mentioning that he can fly an airplane. The movie does have a fairly cynical take about how humans tend to let hope triumph over experience, making it an all-too-timely film. When the President said that he wanted people to know that the schools would stay open, I nearly cried.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/6: Return to Oz
FANTASY WEEK!
We all know that Dorothy came back from Oz, but what this film presupposes is... what if she went back? Made in a lucky confluence of Walter Murch desiring to do an Oz film and Disney needing to make one to hold the copyrights, Return to Oz takes a darker turn than the Judy Garland film, and provided many a child with nightmare fuel. Come join our discussion next week of Return to Oz, available on Disney+ and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/30: Da 5 Bloods
The current podcast pairing concludes with Spike Lee's brilliant new film that interrogates America's history of racist exploitation through the prism of the Vietnam war. Come join our discussion on Wednesday of Da 5 Bloods, available on Netflix.