Invaders from Mars

Possibly the most misleading tagline I've ever seen is the above, "A Nightmarish Answer to The Wizard of Oz!" Invaders from Mars has nothing whatsoever to do with The Wizard of Oz. Not a single similarity. And it came out 15 years later, too, so it wasn't even striking while the iron was hot. This is like if a marketing campaign for Thor boldly declared it, "A Thrilling Tribute to My Best Friend's Wedding!"

William Cameron Menzies' Invaders from Mars was a movie for little boys made in a time where science fiction was believed to only be interesting to little boys. I assume little boys in the 50's had very low standards because they had never seen Star Wars, and this was all they could get. There's a little bit of body snatchers Cold War paranoia thrown into the mix as well.

The story follows a little 50's kid, not unlike every other 50's kid, with his "gee whiz!" and his "neato!", who sees a UFO landing by a fence outside the house. He tells his parents. His father goes out to check on it to placate him, and he disappears. After a short panic, and calling the police, the dad turns up, but his behavior is slightly off.

By slightly off, I mean he's mean and cranky, and he just totally swats the kid in the face and knocks him down. The weird thing about this part is from the context, it doesn't feel like the audience was supposed to react with "OH MY GOD, THE DAD JUST SMACKED HIS KID", they're supposed to think, "Strange, the dad just smacked his kid, and he barely even had a good reason."

So, the kid knows something is up with his parents, and the police are acting weird too, so he needs to find someone who believes him. This leads to an astronomer, a pretty lady, and an army guy. They're the kid's allies, but they all talk to him very condescendingly, the way that would have made me angry when I was that age. There's a part where the kid tells an army guy to "please hurry", and the army guy, saying nothing, reaches over and pats the kid on the head, then drives away. Together, these people must stop an alien invasion and save his mom and dad. By which, I mean, describe what other people are doing while they stand around doing nothing.

And that's the thing. The movie was made for next to no money, obviously, and as a result, we don't see anything happen. Or we see stock footage. There's even a car chase that never shows two cars on camera at the same time, because getting two cars would have cost too much. The spaceship is conveniently hidden underground and accessed through a sandtrap.

The first three quarters of the movie is like this. Long, static shots of characters standing still and talking about things that are only interesting if we see them. Finally in the last 15 minutes or so, there's some action. We see some aliens. They're basically two guys in loose-fitting, green jumpsuits that even cover their faces and actually look rather cozy. And a betentacled head in a jar that looks a lot like Tony Harrison from The Mighty Boosh.


I have no idea how this could have held a kid's attention. But the filmmakers had an idea: TANKS. TANKS TANKS TANKS. They cram in as much stock footage of army men transporting tanks as humanly possible. "Daddy, they've been talking for 20 minutes, when is something going to happen --TANKS!"

I don't know if I'm being hard on it. I probably am. It's considered a B-Movie classic of sorts. I guess it's because of the Cold War paranoia. The thing is, it's just the standard American reaction of "These aliens are invading, so we better shoot the shit out of them and then blow them away to the land of explodia!" (my words, not theirs)

Other, better Cold War-era sci-fi movies from around this time have a much more urgent message. The Day the Earth Stood Still has the whole "we have to make peace or we will all be destroyed" ultimatum. Gojira had the utter terror that comes with a nuclear explosion, and the hero who is willing to sacrifice himself to make sure his destructive weapon doesn't fall into military hands.

I didn't really enjoy this movie, even on a campy level. It has a couple moments here and there, I guess. It wins a point or two for historical context. There are much more enjoyable movies from this period, both for their goodness and their badness. This one didn't work for me. D