Mars in the Movies

A substantive book about Mars movies—Finally!

MARS IN THE MOVIES is the first volume to bring together in one book nearly all the Mars movies. There are dozens of books about Godzilla movies, science fiction movies, Sherlock Holmes movies, war movies, and just about any other subgenre, but for some inexplicable reason, there has never before been one solely about Mars movies. Hopefully someday there will be others that focus on this exciting and topical subgenre. In the meantime, this is the first out the gate, and it deserves credit for that. At last all these movies are under one cover so that you can compare them side-by-side and revisit them in your memories. It is mainly a compilation of the opinions and perspectives of a life-long Mars movie fan. Each movie begins with lists of factoids such as production companies, cast, and crew, followed by a sentence or two summarizing the points of views of the film’s “Naysayers” and “Enthusiasts”—those who hate the movie and those who love it. Then comes a summary of the plot in the author’s own words. All this is pretty straightforward stuff. But then comes the meat! What makes MARS IN THE MOVIES important is its comments sections—the book is built on a mix of mini-essays describing 90+ science-fiction movies about the Red Planet, mainly “Voyage to Mars” and “Invasion from Mars” adventures. These essays vary from expository and analytical to persuasive and argumentative. In all cases, the author never merely makes claims, expecting his readers to believe his remarks. Rather, he marshals the opinions and expertise of 150 or so cinema and literary authorities and provides and combines their thoughts and quotations to bolster his own often unique points of view and conjectures, for example, he argues that Woody Woodpecker may well be the father of, or inspiration for, Marvin the Martian. Either you like the essay style or you don't. As I said, there has never before been a book that focused on this important subgenre of science-fiction movies, and I am grateful that there is finally one now. Obviously, no one is going to agree with Miller all the time or even most of the time. He is strongly opinionated, and in that respect, his writing is similar to Bill Warren’s exhaustive KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES! AMERICAN SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES OF THE FIFTIES. Warren often made me see red, yet there can be no doubt that KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES! is important. One thing that shines through every section of MARS IN THE MOVIES is the author’s passion for the subject. When he likes a film, he’ll dwell on it for pages and pages, often casting a light on angles hardly considered before. If he doesn’t care for it, he dismisses it in a few sentences. One last nugget to chew on: Just as it is well-documented that screen writer Edmund H. North intended the alien “Mr. Carpenter” in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to evoke Jesus Christ, Miller suggests that it is not difficult to perceive a sort of calculated anti-Virgin Mary in the dress and character of Nyah, the Devil Girl from Mars. How cool is that?`