After the gossip is finished, let's get back to the subject. The movie mainly tells the story of the Martian invasion of the earth. In this absurd comedy (slapstick), a large group of flying saucers sent by the Martians surround the earth. Under the influence of Professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan), the American president played by Jack Nicholson, he believed that the Martians came for peace and therefore decided to establish diplomatic relations with them. As a result, the Martians slaughtered the earthlings who came to welcome them at the welcome ceremony. But Professor Xler firmly believes that this move of the Martians is due to a misunderstanding caused by cultural and language differences. After that, the President of the United States once again extended an invitation to the Martians, hoping to establish diplomatic relations peacefully. But at the Congress Welcome Ceremony Hill, the Martians repeated their old tricks. Not only did they kill many members of Congress, they also hijacked Professor Xler and brought him back to the flying saucer for human experiments. The U.S. president and people watching the live broadcast in front of the TV screen have now clearly seen the real purpose of the Martians. Unfortunately, it was too late, and the Martians launched a general attack on the earth. Facing the powerful Martian team, countries around the world have suffered. The earthlings simply cannot resist. Until an occasional occasion, people discovered a life-saving straw against the Martians: a song "Indian Love Call" ("Indian Love Call", 1952) sung by Slim Whitman. As soon as the vicious Martian heard this song, his head would explode and die. At this point, the earth talents were able to eliminate the invading Martians and began to rebuild their homes.
And "Batman" (Batman, 1989), "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "Sleepy Hollow" (1999), "Corpse Bride" (Corpse Bride, 2005), "Barber Tao Unlike other Tim Burton's works such as Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2007), The Martian does not tell the individual stories of marginal characters in the black film style. On the contrary, with its exaggerated entertaining spirit and wild imagination, this slapstick show with group portraits outlines a post-Cold War era of American social ideology.
In the movie, the two sides of the confrontation are the terrestrial people led by the United States and the aliens represented by the Martians. The former is peaceful, while the latter is like a war madman, hoping to conquer the earth. Correspondingly, it happens to be the image of a democratic society and a communist society promoted in the Western political system. The United States in the movie is a diverse and hospitable country. The confused American President, the dogmatic and pretentious Professor Xler, the silly presidential press spokesman Jerry Ross (Martin Short), the upstart Rands/Mr . and Mrs. Land (Jack Nicholson, Annette Bening), the stupid but pretentious TV host Nathalie Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), the pure daughter of the president (Natalie Portman), Byron Williams (Jim Brown), and the rude gambler (Danny DeVito) all have their own characteristics. In addition, the American people who appear in the film also have various beliefs, ethnic identities, and social backgrounds. These various characters portray the United States as a democratic country that advocates individual freedom. In contrast, there is a centralized Martian society without individuality. Except for the two insidious and cunning bosses, the other Martians are all dressed in similar fashion. Even the poster featuring Martians, the Martians also appeared with many green heads with no individual characteristics. These all portray the Martian world as a society emphasizing collectivism.
Secondly, the offense and defense of Martians and Earthlings in the movie also reflects the traces of the Cold War consciousness left by the American people. Space equipment, nuclear warheads and other military competitions during the Cold War are all referred to in the movie. Even the spies disguised as beautiful women sent by the Martians were tricks used by the two camps to accuse each other during the Cold War. However, in the movie, the Martians, who symbolize the communist world, are pressing harder, and the US government, which represents the democratic world, is still paying attention to harmony when it is not a last resort. In addition, the Martians were portrayed as treachery villains. For their own ambitions, they did not hesitate to fight to destroy the earth's civilization. With the invasion of the Martians, a series of landmarks such as President Hill and Washington Monument in the United States, Big Ben in Britain, Eiffel Tower in France, Moai Statue on Easter Island of Intelligence, Taj Mahal in India, Pyramids in Egypt, etc. have all suffered. . The locations attacked by Martians cover the world. Among them, there were not only developed Western countries that had always regarded themselves as democratic, but also European and American allies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as the Islamic world that the United States was still wooing at that time. Among the areas that were attacked by Martians shown in the movie, there are only those countries that have or still practice communism (such as Russia, China, etc.). What's interesting is that the costumes, lifestyles, props, and backgrounds of the people in the movie all specify the time of the story in the "now" of the 1990s. However, only the uniforms and ordnances of American soldiers are said to be styles from the 1950s. This kind of traversal may be explained by "wearing a gang". However, why do costume designers use models of the same era instead of them, and instead bother to get some old models from decades ago? Imagine that the 1950s also coincided with the beginning of the Cold War. Coupled with the post-Cold War mentality that appears everywhere in the movie, then this “gangbang” might not be so simple.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991, the cold war between the capitalist and communist camps also came to an end. However, the Cold War mentality did not go away with the wind. In the past few decades, the political propaganda and mutual attacks of the two sides have also left a deep mark on the ideology of society and individuals. Just as the film not only portrays Martians as untrustworthy militants, but it is also full of ridicules at the terrestrial people who are incapable of recognizing the disguise of Martians. Whether it is the President of the United States, the press spokesperson, the professor of astronomy, or the general public who happily greets the Martians, these people are so unsuspecting. Not only did they take it lightly over and over again to the Martians who pretended to be friendly, but after seeing the Martians killing them with their own eyes, they also wished to believe in the misunderstanding caused by cultural differences. As a result, none of the people on Earth who hoped to establish diplomatic relations with the Martians survived. I dare not say that "The Martian Plays on the Earth" is a film in which Tim Burton or Hollywood consciously joined the Cold War mentality, but at least it reveals the impact of the Cold War on American film creation.
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PS: This year I am still looking forward to the new work "Dark Shadows" by Tim Burton and his old partner Johnny Depp.
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