Mars Attacks!
| Mars Attacks! | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster. | |
| Directed by | Tim Burton |
| Written by | Jonathan Gems |
| Produced by | Tim Burton Larry J. Franco Laurie Parker |
| Starring | Jack Nicholson Glenn Close Annette Bening Pierce Brosnan Danny DeVito Martin Short Sarah Jessica Parker Jack Black Michael J. Fox Tom Jones Natalie Portman Christina Applegate Rod Steiger Lukas Haas Jim Brown Lisa Marie Sylvia Sidney |
| Cinematography | Peter Suschitzky |
| Edited by | Chris Lebenzon |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates | December 13, 1996 |
Running time | 106 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $70,000,000 (estimated) |
Mars Attacks! is a 1996 black comedy and science fiction movie by Tim Burton based on the popular card series Mars Attacks. It was released in 1996 by Warner Bros.
The film combines the storyline and tone of a B-movie (or B-movie spoof) with the budget of a blockbuster movie. It features an ensemble cast, and is highly dependent upon special effects. The soundtrack by Danny Elfman makes extensive use of the theremin (an instrument the composer previously used in Pee-wee's Big Adventure).
The film received mixed reviews from US critics, though it was more popular in Europe. It grossed some $101 million worldwide, and was considered a moderate box office success because of its $70 million cost.
Cast
- Jack Nicholson - President James Dale - US President, husband of Marsha Dale, father of Taffy Dale. Seeks to gain relations with the Martians. He is persuaded to be peaceful by his advisors.
- Jack Nicholson - Art Land - Las Vegas property developer, husband of Barbara Land. Not concerned by the invasion, more concerned by the well being of his investors.
- Glenn Close - First Lady Marsha Dale - US First Lady, wife of James Dale, mother of Taffy Dale. Agrees with General Decker over the evil intentions of the Martians.
- Annette Bening - Barbara Land - former alcoholic, wife of Art Land. She likes the Martians at first, but changes her mind after a Martian massacre. She escapes with Cindy, Tom and Byron (did not escape because he had to distract the martians).
- Pierce Brosnan - Professor Donald Kessler - Chairman of the National Academy of Astronautics, advisor to President, in love with Nathalie Lake, thinks the Martians are friendly.
- Danny DeVito - Rude Gambler - Gambler is a lawyer and attempts to negotiate with the Martians.
- Martin Short - Press Secretary Jerry Ross - White House Press Secretary. Only cares about the President's media image, he appears to be a pervert.
- Sarah Jessica Parker - Nathalie Lake - Reporter for Today in Fashion, girlfriend of Jason Stone, in love with Donald Kessler. She also has her head switched with her dog.
- Michael J. Fox - Jason Stone - Reporter for GNN, boyfriend of Nathalie Lake.
- Rod Steiger - Gen. Decker - US Army General. Doesn't trust the Martians and wants to destroy them. He turns out to be right.
- Tom Jones - himself - Famous real life singer, assists Byron, Cindy and Barbara during their escape from Las Vegas but Byron had to stay behind to confront and distract the martians while the others prepare the plane and take off (see Byron William's section).
- Jim Brown - Byron Williams - Former heavyweight champion, organized a fight with the Martians to trick them in order to let Tom, Barbara and Cindy escape. During the fight, Byron defeats the leader and tries to defeat the rest as well but failed. He is next and last seen in his hometown suggesting he did succeed the battle with bruises and other sorts of minor injuries.
- Lukas Haas - Richie Norris - Lives in Perkinsville, Kansas. Family outcast, eventually saves the world.
- Natalie Portman - Taffy Dale - US First Daughter, daughter of James and Marsha Dale.
- Pam Grier - Louise Williams - Ex-wife of Byron, mother of Cedric and Neville. Washington D.C. bus driver.
- Lisa Marie - Martian Girl - A Martian disguised as a beautiful woman, tricks Jerry Ross into letting her into the White House.
- Brian Haley - Secret Service Agent Mitch - Bodyguard of President Dale, remains with him throughout the film.
- Sylvia Sidney - Florence Norris - Lives in Perkinsville. Family outcast, helps her grandson Richie save the world with her music which kills the Martians.
- Jack Black - Billy Glen Norris - US Army Soldier, volunteers for Martian detail in the Nevada desert. Brother of Richie Norris.
- Paul Winfield - Lt. Gen. Casey - US Army Lieutenant General, thinks the Martians are peaceful. Sent to greet their Ambassador in Nevada. He is the first human victim to die at the hands of a Martian.
- Ray J - Cedric Williams - Brother of Neville, son of Byron and Louise, helps protect the President.
- Brandon Hammond - Neville Williams - Brother of Cedric, son of Byron and Louise, saves the President's life.
- Jerzy Skolimowski - Dr. Zeigler - Inventor of the translator device. Present in Nevada during first contact. His fate is unknown, but it is likely that he is killed by the Martians.
- Janice Rivera - Cindy - Waitress at a Las Vegas casino. Escapes with Tom Jones, Barbara and Byron (did not escape because he had to distract the martians).
- Christina Applegate - Sharona - Billy Glen's girlfriend, lives in the trailer diagonally across from the Norris's.
- O-Lan Jones - Sue Ann Norris - Mother of Billy Glen and Richie. Wife of Mr. Norris.
- Joe Don Baker - Mr. Norris - Father of Billy Glen and Richie. Very proud of Billy Glen.
- Barbet Schroeder - Maurice, the French President - President of France, He is unaware of the invasion and unsuccessfully attempts to negotiate with the Martians.
- Frank Welker - All Martians
Style and movie references
 | This article possibly contains original research. (September 2007) |
As with other Burton movies, the subject under scrutiny is not only the present, but the mass culture of his own suburban childhood. Although nominally set in the present day, the film contains numerous anachronistic references to the style of the 1950s science fiction B-movies of which it is a parody. The film's tone is similar to that of the trading card series, depicting exaggerated comic violence with an intense and often garish color scheme.
The plot is fairly simple but contains unusual variations on the normal Martian invasion movie. The premise is that Martians have arrived at Earth and the President of the United States, James Dale, (played by Jack Nicholson) seeks to gain maximum public relations points by establishing a friendly relationship with them. The Martians, however, reject these overtures and proceed to wreak havoc with their spectacular red and green death-ray guns that leave only the skeleton. The Martians also toy with Professor Kessler's assumption that advanced civilizations are peace-loving; they repeatedly set up meetings for peace treaties and then massacre the humans involved. They use this tactic to wipe out both the United States Congress and the National Assembly of France.
As in the film The War of the Worlds, a simple weapon is ultimately found to counter the alien invaders: in this instance it is the playing of a piece of yodeling music, "Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman, that turns out to be lethal to the Martians, making their brains explode. This is similar to another parody of B-movies, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, in which the killer tomatoes were defeated by playing the song "Puberty Love" by Ronny Desmond.
Also, there is a brief clip of Godzilla destroying Tokyo (from Godzilla vs. Biollante) played aboard the Martian ship.
The film has an interesting relationship with Independence Day, an alien invasion movie released a few months earlier by rival studio 20th Century Fox. Mars Attacks plays for comedy everything that Independence Day plays with relative seriousness. For example, where Independence Day has an extended sequence of epic and impressive destruction across the world, Mars Attacks! has the aliens using Easter Island as a bowling alley, carving their own faces in Mount Rushmore, toppling the Washington Monument onto boy scouts in Washington, D.C. (a deliberate parody of a similar scene in the 1956 B-movie Earth vs. the Flying Saucers), and melting the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House and Big Ben. Other similarities include:
- Enthusiastic humans who eagerly await the aliens' arrival, only to be mercilessly slaughtered in the initial attack.
- Scenes of frantic escapes from the White House.
- The death of the First Lady (in this case, Marsha Dale (Glenn Close) is crushed under a chandelier [Nancy Reagan's chandelier] during the President's chaotic escape from the White House).
- The U.S. President needing convincing to use a nuclear weapon against the invaders. It proves futile.
Since Mars Attacks! was released shortly after Independence Day, this means the films were finished at nearly the same time. The similarities are thus coincidental.
In a manner similar to that of Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, Nicholson plays more than one role: he plays both the President and a Las Vegas real estate speculator; for the latter role he sports sunglasses, cowboy hat and buck teeth that make him almost unrecognizable. Nicholson's double role was the result of a joke with director Tim Burton when Nicholson was cast and Burton had asked Nicholson which role he was interested in, to which Nicholson replied "All of them!" As a result, Burton permitted Nicholson to do the double role of Art Land and President Dale.
Production notes
- The destruction of the spaceship-themed Las Vegas hotel was the actual demolition of the Landmark Hotel and Casino, though aliens were edited in. It was imploded to make way for a parking lot at the Las Vegas Convention Center.[citation needed]
- A large portion of the original trading cards series included oversized bugs that the Martians used to exterminate the humans. No oversized bugs were seen in the film, although flying saucers and robots were featured.
- The producers approached the U.S. Army for cooperation in filming the movie. The Army refused, after learning that the story involved Slim Whitman's song "Indian Love Call" being more effective against the invaders than the military.[citation needed]
- Novelist Martin Amis was employed as a script consultant on the film.
- In 1997, The Misfits, a punk/horror genre band, released a song on the American Psycho album called "Mars Attacks!", inspired by both the original TOPPS brand trading cards of the 1960s and the Warner Brothers Movie.
- The giant doughnut was built in Hollywood by H. Bruce Norrbom and shipped to Burns, Kansas to be filmed.
- Casino scenes were filmed at the Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas.
- The scene showing the junked casino signs was filmed in the "Neon Boneyard", once owned by the Young Electric Sign Company. It is now owned by the Neon Museum,[1] a non-profit organization that is renovating the signs for future display.
- The rifles the U.S. Army soldiers used in Mars Attacks! are M14 rifles. In conjunction with the M14 rifles, the combat uniforms and helmets US Army soldiers wore in the film were the 1960's era olive-drab green uniforms and the M1 steel helmet.
- Prolific voice actor Frank Welker who is known for voicing nearly all manner of animals and monsters in film and animation was the voice of all of the aliens in the film, providing the famous "ACK" sound that they made.
- The town the aliens landed in and later had blown up is Pahrump, Art Bell's hometown.