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| An assortment of posters. |
The
Martian is the most successful, most honored Mars movie ever made. Mind
you, not the most honored science fiction movie; for example, in 2013 Gravity was nominated for ten Academy
Awards and won seven, Inception
(2010) nominated for 8 and won 4, Avatar
(2009) nominated for 9 and won 3, E.T. (1982)
nominated for 9 and won 4, and Star Wars
(1977) nominated for 10 and won 6. The
Martian was released in October 2015, and as of this writing, it has not
only made more than $600 million worldwide, it’s received 26 prestigious
awards, including two Golden Globe awards and four National Board of Review
Awards, and has earned 135 nominations, including seven 2016 Academy Award
nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading
Role, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, Best
Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Visual Effects, and Best
Achievement in Production Design (winning none unfortunately). It’s on the 2015
Top Ten lists for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone magazine, the New York
Times, Vanity Fair magazine, Variety magazine, the Washington Post, Vogue
magazine, U.S. magazine, People magazine, New York Post, The Atlantic magazine,
and The Wall Street Journal.
Thus, it is utterly ironic but, when it comes to evaluating The Martian, I am at a complete disadvantage. The
reason is that the film does not follow in the traditions of past Mars movies.
It’s almost as though director Ridley Scott had never seen any of the two-dozen-plus
previous movies covering the same ground (and covered in this book), or if he
had, he went out of his way to ignore every cinematic Mars trope or device that
I unconsciously expected and unknowingly anticipated. I am at a disadvantage
because I am a fan of Mars movies and have been nearly all of my life, and I’ve
come to expect characteristics that transport me away from the here and now and
into a world of wonder. But The Martian
does none of that.
Nevertheless, the film is a mega success both financially
and critically. One would be hard pressed to find any critic in the land or any
reviewer who had anything negative to say about this film. Furthermore, all my
friends and acquaintances who have seen the film are delighted by it, saying
they really felt like they were on Mars. Clearly, Scott and his talented crew
made all the right decisions and pushed all the right buttons and honed their
picture to appeal to the teens and young adults of today. They succeeded in
making a Mars movie to which ordinary people can relate. As a Mars enthusiast
who has long hoped for a piloted expedition to the Red Planet, of course I am
thrilled this film is helping fuel the “virtuous cycle” that is growing and
will certainly take us to Mars sooner than later.
This interesting
juxtaposition compares two views of Mars rovers from 2013’s The Last Days on Mars (top two images)
with the Mars rover from Ridley Scott’s 2015 The Martian (bottom image). The top two views show Jordan’s Wadi
Rum desert successfully transformed into a Mars-scape that feels truly alien.
Additionally, the rovers shown are nearly all, remarkably, computer-generated
digital creations. Contrastingly, the manner in which The Martian’s settings were photographed, also filmed in the Wadi
Rum desert, failed to convince me that I was viewing Mars. Also, the rover from
The Martian was a real vehicle built
for the movie.
.
.
Comments on 2D Theatrical Viewing.
Still, I needed to discuss the movie from my point of view, as I have done with all the Mars movies in this book. Since this blog is largely about my feelings and thoughts about all these movies, I felt I should record my honest reactions about The Martian. As do many action movies these days, The Martian was released in both ordinary 2D and in 3D. I first saw the movie in a theater in 2D, and this first set of comments is a reflection of my views after that first viewing. Following that are my comments after seeing the film in 3D some months later. Then I conclude with some final thoughts.
When discussing George Stevens 1965 Todd A-O The Greatest Story Ever Told, Gary Allen Smith in his Epic Movies states: “The Arizona, Utah, and Nevada location photography, while beautiful, never conveys an illusion of the Holy Land. George Stevens’ desire to shoot the picture entirely in the United States ... was commendable but why use landscape so patently American? It often looks as if the characters have stumbled into a John Ford Western.”
Still, I needed to discuss the movie from my point of view, as I have done with all the Mars movies in this book. Since this blog is largely about my feelings and thoughts about all these movies, I felt I should record my honest reactions about The Martian. As do many action movies these days, The Martian was released in both ordinary 2D and in 3D. I first saw the movie in a theater in 2D, and this first set of comments is a reflection of my views after that first viewing. Following that are my comments after seeing the film in 3D some months later. Then I conclude with some final thoughts.
When discussing George Stevens 1965 Todd A-O The Greatest Story Ever Told, Gary Allen Smith in his Epic Movies states: “The Arizona, Utah, and Nevada location photography, while beautiful, never conveys an illusion of the Holy Land. George Stevens’ desire to shoot the picture entirely in the United States ... was commendable but why use landscape so patently American? It often looks as if the characters have stumbled into a John Ford Western.”
Smith’s observation and query echoed through my brain for
the full two-and-a-half hours of The
Martian. Though I know it was filmed in the deserts of Jordon, the topography
chosen and any complementing digital matte paintings were sufficiently like Monument
Valley in the American Southwest that I was continually distracted. Ever since
NASA’s two Viking Landers touched down on Mars in 1976, I’ve taken a keen
interest in Martian topography and terrain. I’ve followed the images sent back
by Vikings 1 and 2, Mars Pathfinder/Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, the
Phoenix Mars Lander, and Curiosity, and I have yet to see anything from the
real-life images that leads me to believe that The Martian got the surface of Mars right. This is the first thing
that troubled me. Rocketship X-M, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Red Planet, and The
Last Days on Mars all present a craggy Martian surface that does not
unceremoniously yank me out of my pleasant suspension of disbelief.
That said, veteran film reporter Pamela McClintock wrote in
her article “How The Martian’s Ridley
Scott Replicated Mars in the Middle East” published in The Hollywood Reporter,
“The director used the vast landscape of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan ... to
realistically portray the planet.... [W]ith The
Martian, [Scott] set out to create the most scientifically realistic,
visually accurate replica of the planet ever put on film. ‘I wanted to get it
right,’ he tells THR. “The way Stanley got it right on 2001.” ... [Nearly] the
only CGI in the film ... involved coloring the sky butterscotch and adding mountains and some carbon dioxide clouds.”
In my view, with the available information from the rovers and landers, his addition of these mountains went a bit too far.
Then again, most of the serious “Voyages to Mars” movies discussed in my book provide a sense of wonder—that special something that you can feel tingling in your spine, that breath-taking awareness that you’re actually witnessing something amazing, something impossible. But The Martian has none of that. Two criticisms from noted papers cut to the chase:
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| The surface of Mars in The Martian didn't seem quite right to me (above and below) |
only CGI in the film ... involved coloring the sky butterscotch and adding mountains and some carbon dioxide clouds.”
In my view, with the available information from the rovers and landers, his addition of these mountains went a bit too far.
Then again, most of the serious “Voyages to Mars” movies discussed in my book provide a sense of wonder—that special something that you can feel tingling in your spine, that breath-taking awareness that you’re actually witnessing something amazing, something impossible. But The Martian has none of that. Two criticisms from noted papers cut to the chase:
“Given the enormousness of its subject, there is a radical
lack of awe in this movie.”—The Christian
Science Monitor.
“As elaborate and expensive-looking as The Martian is, it’s almost totally lacking in poetry.”—The Village Voice.
Whether Scott consciously avoided “poetry” is to be determined—but there is no doubt that he opted for a hardware-oriented, realistic 21st-century portrayal of Mars and its exploration that intentionally avoided any subtle imaginative touches that could pluck at the strings of our subconscious quest for wonder.
In fact, Stephanie Zacharek of the Village Voice makes some further comments that touch exactly on my
concerns with the movie. She says, “[Scott is] workmanlike in his approach to
science, which always trumps magic in The
Martian—that’s the point. But if we can’t feel a sense of wonder at the
magnitude and mystery of space, why even bother? ... Even Mars’s craggy
landscape is less than vivid. Portions of the film were shot in Wadi Rum, in
Jordan, but cinematographer Dariusz Wolski fails to make this desert landscape
look otherworldly—the Death Valley of so many B westerns looks more mysterious
and threatening.”
Whether Scott consciously avoided “poetry” is to be determined—but there is no doubt that he opted for a hardware-oriented, realistic 21st-century portrayal of Mars and its exploration that intentionally avoided any subtle imaginative touches that could pluck at the strings of our subconscious quest for wonder.
Clearly supporting such a decision was Scott’s choice of a
composer. No doubt keeping on track with Scott’s desire to stay focused on the
practical and concrete, Harry Gregson-Williams’ film score is rather vanilla.
Nowhere can be found the awe-inspiring and breath-taking chords and tones of
Leith Stevens, Bernard Hermann, Nathan Van Cleave, and Ferde Grofé, among
others. In fact, as I was heading home from the theater, I even wondered if the
movie had any score at all. I couldn’t remember one. A quick visit to iTunes
settled that problem, but also clarified why I couldn’t remember the score;
there wasn’t much to remember. This was keenly ironic, since Scott is the same
fellow who approved one of the greatest ethereal scores of all time, Vangelis’
Blade Runner. To give credit where it is due, portions of The Martian soundtrack sound like a light-weight Vangelis wannabe.
In addition, the soundtrack is punctuated with hit tunes from the 1970s and
80s. Admittedly, some of these do work well with the scenes they back up, but
this is just another way to drive a wedge between my sensibilities and 2015
audiences.
Comments on 3D Home Viewing.
This bit of the score of The Martian demonstrates
my disappointment with the mainly pedestrian
music that Ridley Scott felt was appropriate.
.
This review is about my first 3D viewing The Martian, nevertheless it’s the
second time I watched the movie. On my 70-inch HD 3D TV, The Martian looks wonderful; the depths are multi-layered and fun
to view; Ridley Scott shot the film with 3D cameras, which I’m told exhibits
better 3D than the films that are shot in 2D and then later digitally converted
to 3D. This time, I listened for the score by Harry Gregson-Williams, and
again, except for a few highlights, it is largely the score that I can’t hear.
The interiors of the film were shot in Hungary, which boasts
one the largest sound stages in the world. One scene that I noticed
particularly is the main entrance to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California. Granted the time frame of the story is in the future, but I rather
doubt that JPL will ever boast an entrance reminiscent of an airplane terminal.
When I knew the lab, JPL was mainly a functional cluster of nondescript office
buildings surrounding labs and testing facilities and didn’t have a grand
entrance per se. Chalk this up to dramatic license. The exteriors of The Martian were mainly shot in Jordon
at Wadi Rum, where three previous Mars movies had done filming, Mission to
Mars, Red Planet, and The Last Days on Mars. Of the three, The Last Days on
Mars used the location to the best advantage, creating an inspired backdrop
that really felt like Mars. Of course, Mars is a whole planet with about the
same land area as earth. Across that vast area, views on Mars will inevitably
come in a near infinite variety of aspects just like earth’s multitudinous
views. Therefore, it’s probably unfair to nitpick this particular Martian
surface, yet after a lifetime of watching Mars movies, The Martian doesn’t feel quite right. While the added CGI mountains
may be part of the problem, it is more likely this is a result of the uninspired
score. My favorite films in this subgenre are Conquest of Space (1955) and then
ten years later, Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964). The scores for both these
films were composed by Nathan Van Cleave and both scores complemented their
films perfectly, imbuing the Martian landscapes with special significance, with
a near tactile sense that the events and places on the screen were not remotely
mundane or prosaic, but something truly awe-inspiring. The Martian, regardless of how wonderful it is in so many other
ways, simply does not convey to me what I need a Martian film to convey—awe,
wonder, mystery. But, as I’ve said, Scott seems to have succeeded in doing just
that for millions of other moviegoers. Far be it from me to rain on the parade.
I am no doubt mired in images and feelings from the remote past. In excellent
3D, Ridley Scott’s The Martian is
fun. I intend to watch it several more times, and I expect that many more of
its treasures will come to the fore.
A Note Upon Further Reflection
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| Where it began. |
.
With further thought, I
think I understand now probably why Scott chose to use a score that didn’t call
attention to itself. This film is about the third visit to Mars. Journeys to
Mars are now routine in this film’s timeline, and the planet holds few
surprises. The awe and wonder that would by intrinsic to a first voyage to
Mars, and which most earlier films tried to convey, would not be so appropriate
here. The Martian is all about
pragmatism; thus the score was also pragmatic. Also, since the last major
voyage-to-Mars movies were released fifteen long years ago, the vast majority
of The Martian’s expected audience
will never have seen them or any of the earlier Mars movies and, therefore,
will have nothing to judge this film against. Scott had a blank slate, and his
instincts have proven sound.
In conclusion, I have little doubt that The Martian is in fact an important leap in the headlong momentum
(Andy Weir’s “virtuous cycle”) that’s building and that will inevitably result
in humans being sent to Mars not too long from now. For that reason, The
Martian deserves all the honors that
it has received and is an important film. In June 2016, an extended edition of The Martian was released on DVD and Blu-ray.
Summary. Eschewing
some details here and there, the story adheres well to Andy Weir’s best selling
novel. The third manned mission to Mars has barely begun when a monstrous
sandstorm threatens the spacecraft. Commander Lewis makes the decision to
immediately abort the entire mission and leave Mars. Even still the storm is
upon them and the main communications dish is blown away and strikes biologist Watney.
Nobody can see him; all presume he was killed by the flying antenna, and they
take off to rendezvous with the main orbiting craft Hermes. It turns out that Watney
was only knocked senseless and was pierced by a piece of metal. When he makes
it back to the elaborate Hab and realizes his status and that he is all alone
on Mars, he develops a plan to survive for four years until the next Mars
mission arrives. At this point, the film becomes an updated version of 1964’s
Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Watney has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve and does
wonders with duct tape and plastic sheeting. He makes excellent use of the
functioning Mars rover that was left behind. In the meantime, NASA, which had
reported him dead, notices from orbital imagery that a rover is moving and
realizes he is alive. Watney has an epiphany and realizes that the Pathfinder
Mars mission of 1996 had landed not all that far away, and he feels it’s worth
a long expedition to salvage it for its communications equipment. At NASA, it
is quickly concluded what he is doing and the earth-bound twin of Pathfinder
that had been used for testing is brought out of mothballs, along with its
retired controllers. NASA then hatches a plan to communicate with him, which
succeeds in making our marooned “Martian” very happy. Following this triumph,
plans are formulated to send him supplies, which is easier said than done, and
then the Chinese government unexpectedly coming to the rescue. But when all of
NASA’s and Watney’s plans go south, and there is no way he can survive alone,
the Hermes crew (who had been kept in the dark and only learns after a long
delay that Watney is alive) disobeys orders and heads back to pick him up, even
though it will add 533 days to the mission. All is well that ends well.
Formal Notice: All images, quotations, and video/audio clips used in this blog and
in its individual posts are used either with permissions from the copyright
holders or through exercise of the doctrine of Fair Use as described in U.S.
copyright law, or are in the public domain. If any true copyright holder
(whether person[s] or organization) wishes an image or quotation or clip to be
removed from this blog and/or its individual posts, please send a note with a
clear request and explanation to eely84232@mypacks.net and your request will be
gladly complied with as quickly as practical.
Formal Notice: All images, quotations, and video/audio clips used in this blog and
in its individual posts are used either with permissions from the copyright
holders or through exercise of the doctrine of Fair Use as described in U.S.
copyright law, or are in the public domain. If any true copyright holder
(whether person[s] or organization) wishes an image or quotation or clip to be
removed from this blog and/or its individual posts, please send a note with a
clear request and explanation to eely84232@mypacks.net and your request will be
gladly complied with as quickly as practical. 
