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| Initially the film was to be titled John Carter of Mars. |
Borrowing bits and pieces from the several volumes in the
Barsoom series, John Carter shows us how a Virginian gentleman and decorated
hero turns into an Arizona brawler, fit company only for the vermin that occupy
military jail cells. Once he escapes, he is chased both by the cavalry and the
Apache, which turn on each other, allowing Carter to escape down a defile at
the end of which is a mysterious cave, where he encounters an odd bald being
with an illuminated amulet. Carter shoots the being, touches the amulet ... and
the next thing he knows he's outside the cave. Quickly, he learns that, for no
apparent reason, the mere act of taking a step hurtles him into the air. Thus begins John Carter's experiences on Mars, or Barsoom, as the inhabitants of the planet call it. (Summary continues at the end of this post.)
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This film cost one quarter of a billion dollars
(an amount that is almost common place today, as your typical comic book adaption costs in this neighbor). Luckily, every nickel is right
up there on the screen for you to enjoy. I watched it in 3D and found its
cinematography and special effects breathtaking. At the time of its release, it
was one of the most sophisticated effects films ever made technically. Director Andrew
Stanton, who scripted with Mark Andrews and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael
Chabon, along with Director of Photography Dan Mindel and Production Designer
Nathan Crowley have crafted an immense loving tribute to the century-old heroic
alter-ego of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Following Andrew Stanton’s huge successes directing
Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo and Wall-E, he felt he wanted to expand into
live-action features, He’d had a hankering to film Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A
Princess of Mars for quite a while. He pitched the idea to Disney studio chief
Dick Cook. Because Stanton was part of the Pixar family, and since Pixar had
been more than a little successful for Disney, Cook really could not refuse
Stanton. Disney owed Pixar and Stanton too much. A month later Disney acquired
the rights to the first three John Carter books and Cook and Disney signed
Stanton to direct a John Carter movie. In time, all parties realized that the
movie could not be made for less than $250 million. After more time, Stanton
began shooting the film, much of it in the red deserts of Utah.
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But hereabouts, several factors began to enter the equation:
(1) Though a Disney veteran of 35 years, Dick Cook’s recent movie track record
was appalling, and Disney CEO Bob Iger felt that the company would be better
served if Cook stepped down as studio head, which he did; without Cook, John
Carter no longer had a corporate sponsor, no VIP to field whatever may come;
(2) James Cameron’s Avatar became the biggest hit in motion picture history,
which may have been a good sign for John Carter of Mars, as Stanton’s film was
called early on, but there were serious concerns that uninitiated audiences
would believe that John Carter was too derivative of earlier science fiction
action pictures, when in fact it was the opposite that was true; Lucas and
Cameron and others had been borrowing scenes and concepts from the John Carter
books for decades, and (3) most importantly, Iger began negotiating with George
Lucas to buy Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, because Lucas was planning
to retire. Iger wanted to impress upon Lucas that he (Iger) and Disney were
dead serious about promoting the Star Wars brand, which meant that just then
Iger was very sensitive about avoiding any appearances that Disney was busy
promoting a competitive space franchise of potentially equal worth.
So now Iger found himself in a quandary. He could not pull
the plug on Stanton’s John Carter without risking harming Disney’s delicate
relationship with Pixar; but, if he went full steam ahead and promoted his $250
million John Carter through the roof, turning it into 2012’s tent-pole movie
(which under other circumstances he would have done in a heartbeat) he stood a
good chance of risking the fragile deal that was shaping up with Lucas. Iger
was between a rock and a hard place. His solution? To save face with Pixar and
Stanton, he would allocate all of Disney’s resources to make sure John Carter
would be completed according to Stanton’s vision; but Iger also made clear to
his executives that John Carter would not and could not be graced with anything
remotely like the advertising and promotional push that a big exciting $250
million sci-fi action adventure film warranted.
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| Lynn Collins as the beautiful Dejah Thoris. |
Though completed and honed into the best possible product Hollywood could make, John Carter was left to die on the vine so as not to risk driving a wedge into Iger’s bid to buy Lucasfilm. Yet, his decision to ignore John Carter had repercussions beyond merely ignoring the film. Just as in 1984, when the attitude of Frank Price, Chairman of MCA/Universal’s Motion Picture Group, doomed Dune by creating a cascade of negativity that flowed down to the critics and then on to the movie-going public, Iger’s decision likewise cascaded through his executives down to the critics, so that the public was left with a bad taste in its mouth even though it hadn’t had a chance to see the film yet.
For example, I’m sure the critic of a mighty metropolitan
newspaper, whose name I’ll discretely not mention, is a nice person, yet she
had to have been at least spitting distance from the “Kool-Aid” because no
sensible soul could have seen John Carter in its entirety and then have written
the “review” that appeared March 9, 2012, beginning with (and concerned more
about the budget than the film):
"The mess that is “John Carter” is signaled early on when our
hero finds himself on a strange planet that literally puts a bounce in his
step.... “John Carter” is that latest version of a long and rich Hollywood tradition: The big-budget (a reported $250 million plus) fiasco. It’s enough to
make your jaw drop. That ‘John Carter’ is so hit and miss, and miss, and miss
is unfortunate on any number of levels.... [I]n making the move from animation
to live action, [Stanton] never finds his footing."
In addition, Glenn Dunks of Trespass said “Even if Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 11-volume series is adapted by its three screenwriters into a nonsensical mess, then it should at least be a visual feast, right? Hardly.”
Frankly, that both critics used the word "mess" is telling in itself!
In addition, Glenn Dunks of Trespass said “Even if Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 11-volume series is adapted by its three screenwriters into a nonsensical mess, then it should at least be a visual feast, right? Hardly.”
Frankly, that both critics used the word "mess" is telling in itself!
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| John Carter Taylor Kitsch. Tars Tarkas Willem Dafoe. |
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And on and on and on, critic after critic falling over themselves to (though they would never admit it possibly even to themselves) avoid the ire of Iger. In retrospect, seeing that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has earned more than $2 billion dollars worldwide in only six weeks (mid–December 2015 to end-of-January 2016), perhaps Iger’s business sense was justified in this case—but of course we will never know how John Carter would have fared if it had been treated fairly.
And on and on and on, critic after critic falling over themselves to (though they would never admit it possibly even to themselves) avoid the ire of Iger. In retrospect, seeing that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has earned more than $2 billion dollars worldwide in only six weeks (mid–December 2015 to end-of-January 2016), perhaps Iger’s business sense was justified in this case—but of course we will never know how John Carter would have fared if it had been treated fairly.
The best in human nature does not thrive when there is
disharmony. There are many fine films that have tanked at the start not due to
the inherent quality of the movie but because of the climate of hostility that
for some reason exists within the management of those films respective studios.
This negativity affects prerelease promotion and creates an environment of
rumor that, once begun, is impossible to shake. And once a negative rumor
begins to circulate, a kind of pack mentality takes over and critic after
critic, often not even consciously, sense the prevailing attitudes and climate
about a movie and automatically dismiss it. Of course, critics’ dismissals
seldom automatically spell disaster for a movie, but there is something about
malice generated at the top executive level of a film’s own company that’s far
more toxic than common garden variety criticism.
Yet, thankfully, in the case of John Carter, some critics have bucked the
tide and have correctly assessed the film as an immense epic in the vein of the
widescreen extravaganzas of the 1950s and 60s. For example, Justin Craig of FoxNews.com
made a comparison to Cecil B. DeMille’s work: “If Cecil B. DeMille were alive today and given the chance
to direct a special effects-laden fantasy adventure on Mars, he might have made
something similar to Andrew Stanton’s visually stunning epic John Carter.”
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John Carter (2012)
USA. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Color by Deluxe.
2.35:1. 132m.
CREW: Director Andrew Stanton. Script Andrew Stanton &
Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon. Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of
Mars. Producers Lindsey Collins, Jim Morris, Colin Wilson. Score Michael
Giacchino. Director of Photography Dan Mindel. Production Designer Nathan
Crowley. Editor Eric Zumbrunnen. Costume Designer Mayes C. Rubeo. Casting
Marcia Ross. Visual Effects Supervisors Peter Chiang, Sue Rowe. Animation
Supervisor Eamonn Butler. Special Visual Effects Double Negative, Cinesite,
Moving Picture Company, Nvisible, Destroy All Monsters. Character and
Creature Design Legacy Effects.
CAST: John Carter Taylor Kitsch. Dejah Thoris Lynn Collins.
Sola Samantha Morton. Tars Tarkas Willem Dafoe. Tal Hajus Thomas Haden Church.
Matai Shang Mark Strong. Tardos Mors Ciaran Hinds. Sab Than Dominic West.
Kantos Kan James Purefoy. Powell Bryan Cranston. Sarkoja Polly Walker. Edgar
Rice Burroughs Daryl Sabara.
With
practice, he is virtually flying around the city-states of Mars. (John Seelye
in his introduction to Penguin Classics 2007 printing of A Princess of Mars
suggests that Superman’s ability to “leap over tall buildings” is a borrowing
of John Carter’s new-found skill.). He soon learns that he has somehow been
transposed to Mars and that his leaping is the consequence of Mars’ lesser
gravity. He befriends the first Martians he encounters, the giant four-armed
green nomad tribe called Tharks. Quickly he’s saving the life of
human-appearing beautiful, world-class scientist Dejah Thoris, his second
encounter with Martians, and then battling an army from the evil,
planet-trampling city of Zodanga, which is being manipulated by a race of
all-powerful Therns.
He learns that the princess (whom he calls “professor”) is
a leader of the city of Helium, and that she (1) doesn’t believe a word he says
about his origins, and (2) she will deceive him, lie, and manipulate him—all
for the purpose of making her way home to Helium. Chased by all manner of
Martians they stumble upon the secret of the River Iss (always thought to only
be a mythic post-life destination). Though she finds it despicable that her
father has promised her in marriage to the terrible ruler of Zodanga (in
exchange for peace), she is finally willing to go through with it, but then she
and Carter realize that they’ve fallen in love. Dejah Thoris arranges for
Carter to abduct her from her wedding ceremony. Following a gigantic battle,
John Carter and Dejah Thoris are married. They are only just getting used to
being happy when Carter is attacked by the duplicitous Thern, Matai Shang, who
sends him back to Earth. Carter then literally travels the world over,
dedicating many years seeking the means to return to Mars, at times depending
on his dear nephew, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Eventually John is able to return to
Barsoom and his Dejah Thoris.
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| The ironic flying transports of Barsoom, |
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