O'Connell: Mars Attacks

The first Martian visit

Tim Burton’s film Mars Attacks takes on many aspects of the U.S. government, including the military, political authorities, and many disaster and science fiction films of the last few years. This is probably why so many American moviegoers were turned off by its obvious mocking of American values. Thanks to Pierce Brosnan’s character, the president is under the impression that the Martians are friendly and come in peace. This is until they zap everyone in sight when they first make contact. Even after this happens, the U.S. government still tries to be friendly with the Martians even at the expense of the lives of many Americans. One of the biggest parts of the films is also the biggest mockery of our nation’s defense system. General Decker suspected the Martians were evil all along and is constantly badgering the President to take action against them. None of the weapons work and every attempt is futile. Even when they launch a nuclear missile to the Martian spaceships they simply send out a balloon-like device that sucks up the explosion. One of the Martians makes fun of the humans by inhaling the contents of the balloon like it’s nothing. It also gives his voice a high-pitched squeak. The Martians do a lot to embarrass the U.S. government but nothing is as embarrassing as two small-town people from Kansas doing the job they can’t. Richie and his grandmother figure out how to kill the aliens by accident and save the human race. The government is looked to for help by many citizens and is counted on to fix our nation’s problems. This film mocks the government making every one of their attempts pointless when all they had to do was play a song. Another big way the film parodies the government is by having Jack Nicholson play dual roles as the President of the United States and a sleazy real estate developer named Art Land living in Las Vegas. All art cares about is money and his greediness is fully put on display. Burton is asking us to question whether we really know the president at all and what he’s really like out of the view of the public eye.