Why Does Mark Constantly Make Fun Of The Situation?
I already talked about this at length in my review of the film, but it's such a potent and unique part of The Martian, and so dominant right through to the end, that it needs further discussion. The Martian is a funny movie. Like, an unexpectedly funny movie. We open with banter between the Ares III crew, which is by-the-by in films about a close-knit group, but as things get more life-threatening it only becomes sharper and sharper, leading to some incredibly memorable scenes, both on Mars as Mark cracks wise about his impending doom and down on Earth where NASA deals with the most unique of situations. Obviously all the laughs make for a more engaging watch and allows for a more fully-rounded exploration of the characters, but what's the real purpose of this? Well, the reason for such prevalent humour is two-fold. The first is to keep Mark Watney sane. Being isolated from any form of human connection for such an extended period of time is crushing, and talking to himself is a great way to keep himself alert and his spirits up (imagine being home alone times 225.3 million km). He falls back on humour because, well, it's the only way to keep going. But that doesn't account for NASA. Yes, that joke about Project Elrond is clearly made funnier by having Sean Bean involved, but throughout those scenes characters, particularly Chitwel Ejiofor's Vincent Kapoor, are throwing out gags about this high-profile, life-or-death situation. It's done out of a sheer inability to fully comprehend the enormity of this massive problem, releasing tension and stopping the team back on Earth getting overwhelmed, just like Mark.
And Why Is The Music All Disco?
One of the most unexpected questions to come from The Martian is in regard to the soundtrack - in amongst the classical score you'd expect from an epic sci-fi, the film is punctuated by a bunch of seventies-era music (although I wouldn't call Starman disco). It's certainly fun, but why that genre? The simple purpose of this is to provide a bit humour and less-fantastical grounding to Watney's adventures (and allow for more banter between the crew), but the internal logic of it doesn't quite hold up. Assuming Commander Lewis, owner of said music, is the same age as Jessica Chastain and that the film is set in the same year as the book (2035), the character was born in 1997 (feel old?) and thus her being obsessed with ABBA is the same as Chastain in real life only listening to Elvis and Nat King Cole. It's by all means possible, but clearly there's another purpose to using these songs (aside from ABBA being great travelling music). The key is timing. All the music in the film comes from the original space race era (or just a little after), audibly taking the audience back to a time of wide-eyed, scientific advancement where exploration of the stars was a gleeful, publicly adored idea. It's a wistful reminder of an ethos gone by, but, as we'll later see, something the film promotes a return to.
