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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Mars Attacks! (Danny Elfman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you are a hardcore collector of Danny Elfman's most
zany and frenetic symphonic works and are not deterred by
headache-inducing parodies of already quirky genre staples.
Avoid it... either if theremines give you nightmares or if you recognize that good parody music has to take itself seriously in order to truly function, a quality completely thrown out the window by this intentionally ridiculous score.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Mars Attacks!: (Danny Elfman) It's difficult to
definitively determine if Tim Burton was trying to make a film better or
worse than what Mars Attacks! turned out to be, but in any case,
the picture might have better if it had swung in either direction. Never
receiving a glowing response from critics and blown off in the end by
viewers already satisfied in the genre by Independence Day
earlier in 1996, Burton's tribute to the ridiculous, low-budget, B-minus
films of Ed Wood and others in the 1950's science fiction genre
(inspired as well by a series of old Topps bubble gum cards) tried just
a little too hard to actually be good, or to be above its own material.
Therein lies the main reason for the film's downfall: the combination of
a spectacular cast, magnificent special effects, overdone gore, and a
refusal by Burton to allow the film to take flight with its parody lines
causes Mars Attacks! to be little more than a bizarre spectacle.
It simply isn't funny in most of its parts, too, and while it never
ceases to intrigue in the way it tickles the perverse senses of those
inclined to find mutilation and mass death entertaining, its defocused
and lacking character development doesn't give you any reason to care
about its premise. Perhaps one of the more important and overlooked
aspects of Mars Attacks! is the fact that the project re-united
the quirky director with composer Danny Elfman. The two men had
experienced a passionate disagreement a few years earlier, spawned by
the awkwardly deep involvement by Elfman in The Nightmare Before
Christmas, and his services were therefore not utilized by Burton
for Ed Wood in 1994. Many other Burton and Elfman collaborators
had reinforced the plain and simple fact that the composer was
inevitably the perfect fit for Mars Attacks!, though. When a
mutual contact called Elfman and asked if he could fly to the film's
shooting location in Kansas, he enthusiastically (and with a sense of
relief) traveled there immediately. He and Burton sat down at a
restaurant and reconciled without any drama, agreeing to move on and
ignore their stormy episode, and that was not only a good thing for the
long-term triumphs they would go on to experience, but also in the
immediate time frame, because it's difficult to imagine Mars
Attacks! absent its incredibly wacky Elfman score.
Without missing a beat, Elfman seems to have read Burton's mind once again for Mars Attacks!, because the finished product is musically identical to the film's mutual successes and failures. Elfman dove head-first into the notion of raising Bernard Herrmann's The Day The Earth Stood Still from the dead for the occasion, taking the most famous and stereotypical elements of 1950's and early 1960's sci-fi music and beefing them up with all the power and diversity of a modern symphony orchestra and synthetic accents. The resulting barrage of alien marches, theremine statements, and genre-bending sub-themes is a marvel of creativity and ingenuity, but ultimately suffers the film's fate: a total lack of focus. At best, the most positive descriptor of Elfman's work for this film would be "fun." It keeps your attention because of its undeniably silly personality. Many film music collectors would call it effective as well, and no doubt it was, but how do you value a score that mirrors its film so thoroughly that they plunge together into failure? It's not quite as far to take the leap towards the realm of "intolerable"-related descriptors, for Mars Attacks! is a self-induced headache waiting patiently on the shelves to shatter the silence in your room with enthusiasm and zeal. If you divide the score into its major parts, you recognize the Martian march, a definite highlight of the work and a foreshadowing of the spirit of Men in Black, before moving on to the frenetic and wildly inconsistent action music, the lovable portions of source and cutesy romance music, and the two finale tracks of victorious harmony. Spread throughout all these sections are the theremine, the quintessential representative of 1950's schlock, the similar ondes martenot (an Elmer Bernstein favorite that was used as a replacement for the theremine in many places because it was far easier to find a performer for the instrument), a high-pitched female choir (which "eew's" and "ahh's" its way into an even deeper levels of fantasy schlock), an organ performing the usual menacing chord progressions, the mandatory synthetic sound effects of zipping saucers, and a perpetual presence of snare or timpani to represent the militaristic nature of the invasion. There are moments in the score when Elfman, probably inadvertently, steps on the toes of David Arnold's Independence Day in the use of male choral shades and brass solos for faux heroic scenes. While the ingredients are all there for a wildly entertaining listening experience, Mars Attacks! becomes derailed is in the inconsistent development of its strong and enjoyable title theme and the lack of its quantity of truly satisfying parody-deserving usage throughout subsequent major cues. The march is one of those oddball themes that contains a catchy melody but is ultimately overshadowed by an immensely memorable fanfare figure at the end, two-note phrases over-emphasizing their awesomeness before gloriously resolving on key, often with powerful organ in the bass (he gloriously and hilariously concludes those finale structures with wailing brass as seemingly a tribute to The Day The Earth Stood Still). If Elfman could have retained the cohesive personality that the score promises in its first quarter, this may have been a far different review. In portions of cues like "The Landing," "Invasion," and "Final Address," you hear this potential explored in passages that could probably be assembled into ten to fifteen minutes of impressive highlights. But by the time the listener reaches the "Martian Lounge" and "Martian Madame" cues, led by Latin club rhythms and bongo drums, the identity of the score has become so fragmented that the listener will likely start craving a return to the spunk and propulsive movement from the opening titles. Even the fake brass heroism of Elfman's treatment of the human military response fails to really resonate, the constant, dry snare rhythms in "First Fire Fight" and other cues sounding a bit too cheap for the magnitude of sound necessary to create a solid parody environment. The "End Credits" cue is perhaps a best representative of the score's curious and ultimate failure, not sure whether to continue the parody style of the opening titles or to take the mood down a dark and ominous path instead. All of that said, keep in mind that Mars Attacks! is a beloved score for Elfman collectors, and, to be fair, a singular highlight like "The Landing" is impressive in its bridging between the choral elements from Elfman's early career (and Scrooged in particular) and the popular percussion applications that highlight his Men in Black and Spider-Man work. The inclusion of Tom Jones, both as a character and as source music, and (literally) head-popping songs of vintage tones also break up the flow of the music in the film. Overall, the soundtrack has is a fragmented mixture of parody that isn't quite serious enough to be effective and outward carnival atmosphere that hails back to the earliest Elfman creations for film. On album, Mars Attacks! has enjoyed (or suffered, depending upon how you look at it) a long history of activity. The commercial Atlantic album of 1996 is an adequate, 40-minute survey of the highlights from Elfman's score (concluding with the two film's major songs). It lacks a couple of truly important performances of the main march, mainly in "Invasion" (even Elfman himself laments this cue's absence from the product), but that material probably wouldn't have made a difference in the score's initial rating. When that product fell out of print in the 2000's, fans turned to bootlegs that were generated from the isolated score track on the DVD release of the film. Somewhat surprisingly, the score was licensed by La-La Land Records and remastered in its expanded form for a limited pressing in 2009, surpassing the bootlegs with cleaner edits and bonus alternative takes. The 2011 set "The Danny Elfman and Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box" includes Mars Attacks! as the subject of its 7th CD, and the only additional music heard on that set that wasn't included on the 2009 La-La Land album is an assortment of three minutes spread throughout "The Landing" to emulate the film version of that cue. It replaces the alternate "Martian Lounge" track on the 2009 album. For enthusiasts of the score, the additional material common to the 2009 La-La Land and 2011 Warner sets will yield some definite highlights (with roughly the same sound quality), including a fair dose of the noble, sentimental material and explosive action cues. The synthetic demo version of the title theme, as recorded for the film's trailer, only makes you seek out the fuller, finished alternative. Aside from the reprises of the Herrmann-inspired closing bars of the title theme in these extra cues, it's the type of material that is interesting to hear once, but a 75-minute presentation of Mars Attacks! is simply too much to handle. Those seeking one of these products should be confident that the 2009 2-CD set from La-La Land, priced down to $15 or below after the label could not sell enough of its 3,000-copy run in the first few years on the market, is a far better presentation of the score than what is heard on the $500 set (where the additional tracks are not inserted chronologically into the original soundtrack order). On any album of its releases, Elfman's eccentric music for Burton's abomination flies all over the map, leaving its main titles as the only truly memorable piece. If you're trying to convert your roommates and friends into film music enthusiasts, there are a thousand scores better for that task than this nutty one.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1997 Atlantic Album:
Total Time: 46:52
2009 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 74:48
* previously commercially unreleased tracks 2011 Warner Set: Total Time: 74:11
* previously unreleased
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1997 Altantic album includes no extra information
about the score or film. The one for the 2009 La-La Land album contains
extensive notation about both. The 2011 Warner set features some notes from
Elfman about his choices of music for inclusion on the product.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Mars Attacks! are Copyright © 1997, 2009, 2011, Atlantic Recording Co., La-La Land Records, Warner Brothers Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/14/97 and last updated 6/2/11. |
