The Martian

A long running joke on Jimmy Kimmel is that Matt Damon doesn't get to appear on the show so it was interesting to see Matt Damon make it onto the Late Late Show on CBS with James Corden to promote his movie The Martian.

The Martian is based upon a book written by Andy Weir.  Damon explained that the movie was based upon the book after a clip from the movie was shown.  As he explained it, Weir had thought about how a man would survive on the planet , but screenplay writers  take over to turn this into another exciting Hollywood flick.

There is no doubt in my mind that both Everest and The Martian are somehow or other directed right at me. I won't explain at this time but I just learned more specifically why I think that the Martian is for sure.

But I will say this much about it. Years ago on my grandparents farm in Northwestern Ohio, I learned how to plant potatoes. I learned to cut them into pieces, and to plant them in the dirt in my grandmother's garden back of her house. I can see rows and rows of potatoes growing there, and I was so happy and proud to pull up potato plants which held fresh new born potatoes in the roots. I also loved the grape arbors which were on my granddad's back porch.  I absolutely love concord grapes, so sweet. I would put each grape in my mouth, drawing the inside out from the skin, and suck the skin dry before throwing it out.

Memories I have of growing on a farm, picking eggs out from under a pecking hen's beak, and playing with the puppies in the front lawn. Looking back, it sounds as though I had a great life then.  But it was lonely.  I loved the dogs, played dead with them, so that they would run up to me, and check to see if I was all right.

My grandmother had a piano, so I learned to finger the piano, never really mastering it ever.  I eventually learned to read notes...
Hey Wait. I was talking about the Martian.

It was published in hardcover on my birthday I see.  Because my number came up pointedly in one part of the movie after the potato scenes refreshed my memory of my childhood, I knew this movie was meant for me.  I know the real reason for this...It probably does go back to when I visited the Cape Canaveral space center years ago in Florida, and probably also, because I have been into esp experiments,  mental telepathy, electronic wiring, and what ever.

Yes, the movie is about the space program, NASA, JPL, and an imaginary story of what happens to an astronaut if he is left alone to survive on a hostile planet such as Mars.  On that note I will say that Mexicans who try to cross over the desert in Arizona in the summertime can not survive so why think that even a highly skilled and well trained astronaut can survive on his own the harsh climate of Mars. I ask ya.

Yes, I went to see the movie on the very day that the news media is discussing another mass murder that happens all too often in this gun happy nation.  While I do not identify with MW ( could that be that they left the B off so that it is a BMW?)  to think that the whole world is listening to everything I say, I might begin to think that after awhile.  I chose rather to think that I was meant to think that maybe it is more like the planet Mars that I can think that this book or movie is intended to make me realize.

I do cuss and swear I admit.  It is one of the things that I liked best was to think that these were people with whom I could like.  Granted, when I was a paid English teacher, I would say "Watch your language" and discouraged cursing and swearing in the classroom.  I grew up learning how to cuss and swear very easily, and have found only a few who can even swear harder and wore than I can.

So I relaxed a lot in the movie because I have been doing a lot of that lately.

A movie after my own heart, as I say.


Well, so the Martian is a thriller, suspenseful, and full of Hollywood drama and special effects.

The reality is that it is only another piece of celluloid, that Matt Damon does a great job of keeping people interested in his survival tactics,  that Jeff Daniels acts like the prick that he is supposed to be, and that the women in the film finally make Sally Ride look heroic to those of us who remember her.

See the film in 3-D.  It is the only way it will satisfy your desire to know.  It is a great study in friendship and camaraderie!  I loved the fact that China plays a big role in this film.  Good flick!