By Steve Biodrowski

Leave it to Tim Burton to tune in to the one great unspoken fact about disaster pictures, alien invasion pictures, and other assorted forms of cinematic mayhem: that the devastation is, in a vicarious way, fun. His film of MARS ATTACKS! does not work on the visceral level of suspense: that is, how will noble humanity regroup, defeat the evil aliens, and perverse our way of life - not to mention our precious bodily fluids? Instead, the entertainment value comes from cheerfully watching Earth blasted to bits, which the film more or less endorses (as one friend said upon leaving a screening, "That film make a good argument for the extinction of the human race, because all the characters are assholes who get what they deserve").

This may be taking things a little too far. Burton and writer Jonathan Gems do not insist that all of humanity deserves to perish; rather, it is the status quo that needs to go. The disenfranchised and the disempowered are the only characters who garner any kind of sympathy, and the inside joke of the plot is that, for all the demolition and insanity, this is one scenario in which the meek really shall inherit the Earth. A useful point of comparison is the John Milius film RED DAWN, surely one of the most repugnant films of the '80s. Although the film was treated as some kind of expression of right-wing paranoia at the time, both the detractors and its supporters missed the real flaw: the film's own raging hypocrisy. Milius, in his simple minded way, may have treated the Russians as evil invaders hell bent on destroying America as we know it, but ultimately he endorsed the invasion - or at least its consequences.

In Milius view, the power structure (as we see it in the microcosm the film presents) was run by wimps who deserved to be driven out. Remember the scene wherein the high school's student president, after the initial attack, calls for a vote, and he is angrily shouted down by a character whom Milius obviously supports, who then basically takes over? Milius is showing us that the old power structure is gone, allowing his favored characters to assume their rightful place as leaders. Thus, the film on a surface level condemns the invasion; while pretending to express a patriotic view, however, it revels in the results. This is hypocrisy. Milius did not have the nerve to call openly for the overthrow of the United States government, so he constructed a fantasy in which someone else did it for him, allowing him to put his on-screen identification figures in charge.

MARS ATTACKS!, on the other hand, is more open about its intentions. The invaders this time are not so much evil as amoral. They just want to have fun; the only problem is that the fun is all at our expense. The characters who are destroyed are in various ways self-serving or at the very least self-obsessed, who are not concerned with the global ramifications of what is happening so much as with how it will affect them personally: for example, Jack Nicholson's entrepreneur and Danny DeVito's lawyer both think they can make money off it; the President (Nicholson again) thinks it will earn him votes.

Also, conventional notions of heroism and patriotism are overthrown: one character is blasted while trying to surrender; a photography of him trying to save himself by handing over the U.S. flag is misinterpreted as an attempt to save Old Glory. Meanwhile, his younger brother (who gets not respect from his family) turns out to be the real hero, abandoning thoughts of personal safety to rescue his grandmother.

These latter two characters are among the film's few survivors, and clear that the film supports them precisely because they are pretty much abandoned by society at large; they are perpetual outsiders, as Burton considered himself to be when he was younger. This state of being alienated from society saves them and the others (an alcoholic new age-er, a retired boxer who has found Allah) from sharing in the fate of society. (As Paul Winfield said of the script, "The high are brought low, and the low are brought high.")

All of which is a very strange formula to find in an alleged big studio blockbuster. For all its high-tech effects, sets, costuming, and locations, MARS ATTACKS! remains independent in spirit, the identifiable work of an artist with a recognizable vision. That vision does not necessarily sustain Burton throughout the film (which is not always as funny as it means to be), but it does lend some personality to the proceedings in unexpected ways.

One good example is the casting. The very idea of Jack Nicholson as the President tips us off that all is not completely on the straight and narrow with this film. The further inclusion of an all-star supporting cast increases the humor potential, since the basic work of the script is to kill the characters off like targets in a shooting gallery. Seeing an anonymous bit players offed (a la the infamous string of red-shirted lieutenants in STAR TREK) is just not the same as seeing your favorite star blown away after only a few minutes screen time.

Some have said that, after making ED WOOD, Tim Burton has made an Ed Wood Movie. Nothing cold be further from the truth. Ed Wood was trying to play the Hollywood game; he was simply incapable of winning. Burton, on the other hand, has beaten the odds to create something, however uneven, that transcends its flaws.