Mark Watney died once before. He was hit with debris during a storm on Mars that knocked him out leading his crew to abandoned him and leave his corpse lying there for all the world to see. You might actually think he died, because a lot of people did. They even held a funeral for him back on Earth. They had press releases about his death and they all went about their business. But guess what. Mark Watney didn’t die. Mark Watney survived by thinking outside the box. The opposite of what we in the silly little universe known as “Awards punditry” do. Take Jeff Wells for instance. He was happy to dance a jig on the presumed death of Mark Watney. He never did like The Martian. He said it was a movie “people who watch the Super Bowl might like.” You see, that’s probably true, because the beauty of The Martian is that it slyly used the magic of the movies to bring science to the masses. That’s no easy feat considering everything else out there vying for attention. I have to correct Jeff’s assumption about the film, however, as it takes a smart person to appreciate what’s great about it. Only a stupid person would mistake how entertaining The Martian is without seeing the importance of it.
Now, granted, The Martian may not be “important” like film critics movies are. It isn’t going to inspire a 5,000 word cover story (although I’d be happy to write one). It doesn’t suckle the teet of awards voters who like to feel like they’re actually making a difference by highlighting and underlining that which they deem best represents their values. It doesn’t ram its nozzle up the ass of the elites either. It just entertained, informed, and educated a lot of hard working people out there – oh right, you remember them? The ticket buyers?
It’s also President Obama’s favorite movie and I know why. Mark Watney is a thoughtful problem solver, just like our president. Obama also knows that the space program is dying fast and it doesn’t look like we’ll be trying very hard to revive it. Obama probably has smartly done the math, like Andy Weir did the math and so many scientists, anthropologists and yes, botanists have done – they know we are the sixth extinction. We are heading towards a planet that will not be able to sustain 11 billion people. Or that when the sea level rises 100 years from now it could set into motion a warming trend that would make life unbearable for maybe the next thousand years. We can’t seem to stop people from contributing to the accelerated greenhouse gas effect. So really, the only answer will be to get off this planet if we hope to keep the human race around for a while. And by god, Andy Weir found a way.
It wouldn’t be such a great movie with just Andy Weir’s book to go on. Drew Goddard wrote a witty, streamlined script that, again, delivers a heavy science message wrapped up in wit. The Martian is a pleasure to watch thanks to the writing and of course, Ridley Scott’s direction. If this is a movie only people who watch the Super Bowl would like, I’m proud to stand among them. I would much rather be down here than up in that rarefied air of the place perfectly good films go to die.
I miss the days when I was growing up where movies were for everybody. My mom — a single mother of four children with no money would hide us in the trunk to go to the drive-in. We’d throw our blankets down on the still concrete and balance the car speaker on it. We’d watch the big movies of the week because that’s what you did back when movies were a communal experience. The Oscars used to be part of that experience. They aren’t anymore. The critics have their own little island and so do the industry voters. They get films made special for them every year. Custom fit for their tastes with no hope nor desire nor need to reach a broader audience. To be a healthy industry, though, there has to be an appreciation for the popular successes too. Straight Outta Compton is one of those successes. So is Creed. And yes, so is The Martian.
Most people don’t know this about me but I’m actually someone who is far more interested in science than the Oscars. I’m so into science, in fact, that much of my time is spent reading books on evolution, mutation, speciation, the upcoming extinction. Science is the most important thing we got going right now – it’s bigger than everything and will be the only thing that can and will save us and the rest of the life forms we threaten and have all but wiped out. I take it seriously. It’s a good thing scientists mostly don’t. The Martian captures their spirit so beautifully and perfectly – but you would never know this if your whole dismissal of the film had to do with it being popular among “the people.” Above and beyond this awards stuff? This is big.
Here are some great films that didn’t get a SAG ensemble nod since Oscar expanded in 2009:
Avatar
District 9
A Serious Man
Up
127 Hours
Inception
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Hugo
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
Amour
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Zero Dark Thirty
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Her
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street
Selma
The Martian might be rescued yet again from oblivion to land on the Best Picture list for the year. It certainly deserves to. Until then, I’m going to keep a lookout, draw my hexadecimal alphabet and keeping telling everyone I know to go see The Martian.
