Mars Attacks!
No one would have believed in the last years of the twentieth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own, certainly not pompous pipe-smoking pundit and government advisor Professor Donald Kessler who had analysed data returned from probes and concluded there was no evidence of life on Mars.
The sudden appearance of a huge fleet of flying saucers from the red planet forcing a hasty reconsideration of his position, though in advising President James Dale he maintained there was no cause for alarm, that “an advanced civilisation is by definition not barbaric,” even as thousands of the gleaming craft moved through space with disturbing speed his misguided reassurances left not only America but the rest of the world unprepared when Mars Attacks!
Inspired by the unlikely source of a 1962 bubble gum trading card set and subsequently the subject of a convoluted path across two decades with the screenplay going through multiple iterations and numerous budget proposals considered excessive, it was agreed that it would be Batman and Beetlejuice’s Tim Burton who would direct a more modest version Jonathan Gems’ previously rejected screenplay to bring Mars Attacks! to the screen in the holiday season of 1996.
Costs kept down by using then-new digital rather than practical effects wherever possible, though some of the destruction was blended with traditional modelwork and confined to fewer iconic locations than had been planned, shooting took place in Kansas, Las Vegas and Washington DC, and as would be expected of a big-budget science fiction disaster film spoof, the ensemble cast portraying the cross-section of society was drawn from the top end of international stars and rising names.
With Jack Nicholson doubling as President Dale and over-ambitious developer Art Land, both arrogant and in over their depth, Glenn Close is First Lady Marsha and Natalie Portman First Daughter Taffy, looking as though she is about to die of sadness, with Pierce Brosnan as Kessler, Michael J Fox and Sarah Jessica Parker as news and fashion reporters Jason Stone and Nathalie Lake, he informed but she getting the scoop because her vapid chatter appeals to viewers, while Martin Short spins stories as press secretary Jerry Ross.
With working class Jim Brown and Pam Grier and trailer trash Lukas Haas and Sylvia Sidney watching from the sidelines, it becomes apparent that the initial Martian attack at the landing site in Pahrump was not an accident or miscommunication, Mars Attacks! drawing on a huge number of inspirations beyond the source material, Invaders from Mars, This Island Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and Dr Strangelove among them and progressing as would be expected on a fifties B-movie.
The effects holding up well on their thirtieth anniversary, though some better than others, with fabrics, flesh and that pesky dove particularly difficult to render, Mars Attacks! stands as one of Burton’s most enduring films, never indulgent or meandering and with Danny Elfman’s theremin infused score capturing the mood of the less sophisticated era which inspired the film, the Martians, for all the modern technology used in their creation, consciously straw man monsters who have no greater purpose than conquest and revelling in chaos.
Presented in 4K, the new limited edition collector’s box of Mars Attacks! is packaged with a steelbook with an acetate slipcase portraying Lisa Marie’s Martian infiltrator both in and out of her disguise, a variety of posters and art cards and two new supporting features with input from the creatives involved in the production and looking at the visual style of the film and the creation of the groundbreaking digital effects.
Mars Attacks! will be released as a deluxe collector’s edition and a standalone steelbook on Monday 10th August
