Directed by: Ridley Scott & Written by: Drew Goddard
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain
Runtime: 144 minutes
When things get so very bad, sometimes the only thing left to do is laugh. I laugh at myself all of the time, even in the moments where I want to break out into a tearful cry. I absolutely have a flare for the dramatics, there’s no dodging that fact. I get worked up very easily. Anyone who knows me well would say the following: I’m fun, I’m great, I am a loyal friend, I make people laugh, I have a temper, I overact and I tend to stir the pot. All true, however, at the end of the day, I try to stay true to myself by grounding, because I am optimistic that this is all apart of life’s journey.
How the fuck does all this babble relate to THE MARTIAN, you ask? It doesn’t, really, if you’re comparing it to the genre of science fiction. There is, however, an absolute correlation if you equate this to the will power of the main character (played by Matt Damon).
For those who haven’t seen THE MARTIAN, it’s about a manned mission to Mars. Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a horrendous storm hits and is left behind by his crew. The audience can clearly see that Watney has survived and wakes to finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. Left with some physical supplies, he must solely rely on his ingenuity, wit and spirit to survive and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and breathing.
Damon plays this character with a diligent amount of emotion. He more so crafts the character of Mark Watney with a dry sense of humor. As the audience, I believe this eases us (especially those of us with anxiety) and helps us sit still through his discomforting journey.
When Mark Watney wakes up all by his lonesome on a foreign planet he does not cry. If that were me, I would have been in full blown panic attack mode. Watney, more collected than the average person stranded in space, puts his “freak out” into a box, stores it away and figures out how to fucking survive. It helps that he’s smart and knows how to “science the shit out of his situation”, but his humor acts an aid. Damon portrays that perfectly.
The point I am trying to make, is that even in the most brutal of situations, it’s OK to laugh. Stirring over things, when you’re sad or emotional might tornado you down a dark hole and make everything feel so much worse. We all fall down and we are constantly looking for some new tools to pick ourselves up. Laughter, to me, is one of them.