'You won't beat me now'
Welcome back to my Dark Corner of this Sick World.
‘You can see the possibilities for entertainment,’
Red Planet Mars is a real oddity amongst 1950s sci-fi
and it’s difficult to just review the film because it is so ideological.
But we’re going to give it a try.
‘Do not allow yourselves to become emotionally disturbed by these messages.’
We open by looking at the Martian canals .
‘All going from North to South’
except for those that aren’t. But this is preamble to the work of husband and wife scientists the Cronyns.
‘But do you seriously believe you’ve established contact with Mars?'
They do, but…
‘Sometimes my wife is less than enthusiastic about this project’
Really? I hadn’t noticed.
‘It’s like having a grandstand seat for the creation of the world’
‘Or it’s death’
That’s what you get for marrying the prophet Cassandra.
‘You’ll be the next to advance science and maybe us - right into oblivion!’
I love Mrs Cronyn. Finding the dark side of everything.
‘For over 2000 years the symbol of war’
But I do wonder if it’s affected her children, this one has a head mounted on his bed post.
I mean it’s a doll’s head, but that’s still weird right?
‘One of my grimmest memories’
The Cronyns work out how to communicate with Mars, obviously a cause for celebration.
‘Linda we’ve done it!’
‘Dear Lord, don’t make us sorry’
Seriously; love her. Possibly more than her condescending husband.
‘Poor Linda with all her silly fears’
The messages are translated by a team of Pentagon codebreakers, but when they are translated
‘One Half acre of land yields sufficient food to feed one thousand martians for a year’
This could mean an end to famine.
Everybody panic.
Although even ina crisis this guy delivers a quality pun.
‘The future of the livestock industry is at stake’
Don’t even get me started on energy.
‘The martians have now announced that for the last 3 centuries they have not used coal, oil, electricity’
I am definitely not an expert in global economics – talk to my brother –
but leaving aside the fact that Martians might be this big so not need much food,
I have to hope that just the idea of sustainable food and fuel for everyone would not result in the downfall of western civilisation.
‘This Cronyn has done more to smash the Democratic world in the last 4 weeks than the Russians have been able to do in 11 years’
Most 1950s sci-fi movies are to some extent subtly influenced by the Cold War,
this one is not so subtle.
‘We will build our new world on the ruins of the west.
’The technology the Cronyns are using was developed by a Nazi war criminal now working for the soviets.
‘Are you talking to me?’
and while the Cronyns are a perfect 50s family.
‘My diet’s already taken care of’
Franz Calder gets drunker every time he appears.
'Ever lasting life!'
He’s monitoring the messages while the Communists laugh at the fall of the west, but then...
‘7 lifetimes ago you were told to love goodness and hate evil’
the Martians start quoting the sermon on the mount.
‘This one can’t go out’
'Why not?'
Yeah, let’s keep the message of peace to ourselves.
‘Don’t talk nonsense Linda’
Sadly Mrs Cronyn now stops being a prophet of doom
as the films skews from overtly political to evangelically religious.
‘Now we’re following the Star of Bethlehem’
Because the implication is not that Mars is lecturing us, the implication is; God is from Mars.
’This leads to instant world peace, with a polite nod to other religions .
‘While to us the words from Mars seem the very essence of the Christian doctrine, let us not forget they are the essence of all other religions’
except in Russia where it leads to horrendous violence.
Poorly shot, but still horrendous,
'That will silence their hymns'
– then world peace.
‘The miracle of a nation finding its soul’
The communists were the only stumbling block. But then, Calder drops a bombshell
‘And there was I alone, giving you answers’
‘You sent the messages. The whole thing was a fraud’
That’s a pretty good twist, the Nazi Calder has revenged himself on the both Russians and Americans.
‘That’s my God Mrs Cronyn, Satan.’
But there’s another twist to come.
‘He did not send the religious messages’
I’m less impressed by this one.
‘It was the Prophet speaking to us’
It’s not so much that for weeks God didn’t reply then suddenly did.
‘Today’s message reads ‘Ye have denied God’s words, and worshipped false Gods.'
thy torment is the price of thy sin’
It’s not so much that Calder is completely ignoring the activity on Mars seen at the start.
‘In a week, Martians have melted ice caps thousands of feet high and used the water to irrigate the planet’
It’s that the messages arrived in a language Calder made up,
and the Martians or God or whoever, use the same language, because they wanted to be mistaken for a Nazi war criminal.
‘Shut up you fool’
Now it’s clear from reviews on IMDB that how you view this film is very influenced by your politics and religion,
and that’s fine – how we view any film is affected by our life experience.
‘Well that’s rubbish Lyn’
But, trying to focus on the film as a film, it’s novel, even interesting.
But not good.
'GET OUT'
Thanks for watching. For more discussion of this film’s unique aspects, join the Dark Cult.
What other sci-fi movies push the ideology a bit too hard. Suggestions in the comments below, and play nice.
'Turn it off I said.'