Mission accomplished Dream Glover
The stars align for Scott and Damon…
THE MARTIAN 12
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Ridley Scott has madE SO many films, in so many different genres, that it’s easy to assume there’s no through-line in his career beyond that famously fastidious attention to design. One of the delights of The Martian is the way it reveals the design behind the design. As stranded astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) begins his arduous quest to survive, he grows food and sources water from the inhospitable surface of Mars. It is world-building in the most literal sense, and practically autobiographical for a director who has made world-building his career-long mission.
Sure, on paper, the story of The Martian is pretty thin: astronaut gets stranded; figures out how to survive while NASA tries to reach him. Indeed, had the title not already been taken by a cult 1960s sci-fi flick, this might have been called Robinson Crusoe On Mars. Yet Andy Weir’s novel made a virtue of nerd-level detail in explaining the hows and whys of Watney’s survival. If The Martian is a lesson in how to “science the shit out of it” – as Watney’s instant-classic quote puts it – then Scott is also teaching us how to “cinema the shit out of it”. After all, what else is making a movie but problem-solving on a massive scale?
Key to the film’s success, against all Hollywood logic, is that it doesn’t dumb down. Here’s a sci-fi film that delights in the science, placing the audience as willing pupils of Watney’s casually exhilarating lessons. Unlike Interstellar – and comparisons are unavoidable given the presence of a marooned Damon, let alone Jessica Chastain taking a key supporting role – the mysteries of the universe are never treated as awe-inspiring impossibilities. Here, the film walks us through every obstacle and solution, and it’s a matter of tenacity, patience, trial and error and (literally) getting your hands dirty. While we doubt Scott has ever grown potatoes out of poo, otherwise it feels exactly how you’d imagine a film set to be.
Keeping it together
Crucially, Sir Ridley is having fun – enough to bag him Best Musical Or Comedy at the Golden Globes. Prometheus might have been billed as the return to classic sci-fi territory but its darkness jarred slightly, given that the director had long since abandoned the pessimism of Alien and Blade Runner in favour of more hopeful narratives.
The Martian recaptures the vital jeu d’esprit of Thelma & Louise, of Matchstick Men’s con men, even of Russell Crowe’s attempts to conquer the French property market in A Good Year – and then adds spaceships.
It’s an irresistible combination and deservedly Ridley’s biggest hit since Gladiator – his highest-grosser of all time, in fact. The Martian buzzes with bonhomie, not least for its music; like Guardians Of The Galaxy, here’s a film that savours the vintage appeal of ’70s pop, including a mighty montage set to the late, great David Bowie’s ‘Starman’. A film about a guy stuck on his own might seem a paradoxical crowd-pleaser, yet as much as the premise favours Watney’s individual ingenuity, it’s also a joyous ode to teamwork. Noticeably, the crew of the Hermes are equals, thrilled to be travelling in space; a utopian riposte to the unions-vs-suits bitchiness aboard the Nostromo.
Even if Scott is the guvnor, he still needs help – as anybody who has grappled with the wayward narratives of much of his CV will testify. Fortunately, here he has an exceptional blueprint to pursue his crowd-pleasing instincts in screenwriter Drew Goddard’s fast, funny adaptation. And an enviable supporting cast provides pleasures beyond Damon’s one-man show, even if this marks the latter’s finest work
since Jason Bourne went swimming. The film is propelled by Damon’s cheeky charm, a conspiratorial guide via extensive video log address – a conceit that would quickly pall as expository overdrive were it not for the star’s twinkling, Globe-winning delivery. This is a rare old-school star vehicle and suits Damon to a T, locating a sweet spot between jock (ularity) and geek, as if your cool older brother were put in charge of the Christmas science lectures. (It helps that it plays like Damon’s greatest hits: you could call it ‘Saving Will Hunting’.) Ironically, with Damon at his disposal Scott doesn’t really need to wow visually; for all the fascinating detail in the production design, this is the director in low-key, actor-led mode.
Faced with the challenge of how to make the sequences away from Mars as interesting as Damon’s, Ridley does the math: one A-lister equals an army of character actors. The strength in depth is simply ridiculous, with Chastain (as the commander of the Hermes) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (leading the efforts on Earth) marshalling some of the most reliable players out there. Both are typically strong but the real pleasures lie further down the cast list, be it a warm, gruff Sean Bean or a typically sparky Michael Pena (confirming after Ant-Man that he’s the go-to guy for blockbuster comic relief). The stand-out, though, is Community regular Donald Glover, high on being slingshotted into the orbit of this amazing cast, who comes closest to stealing the show from Damon.
Extras disappoint: the two Blu featurettes (on adaptation and casting) feel like the intro to a larger Making Of that’s gone AWOL, while five of the six ‘in-world’ shorts (the gang doing mission prep etc.) are already online. Nice big production gallery, but this is one Blu-ray they haven’t bonus-featured the shit out of. Extras › Featurettes (BD) › In-world pieces › Gag reel › Production gallery (BD)
‘This gives Ridley Scott an exceptional blueprint to pursue his crowd-pleasing instincts’