Movie Reviews: The War of the Worlds (1953 and 2005)

We have already looked at The War of the Worlds novel and the radio broadcast.  Today, I'd like to share with you two movies based on the novel.  One was made in 1953 and the other was made in 2005.  Both of these movies were loosely based on the novel in that they take the events that occur in the novel but follow different characters during those events.  Also, they events take place in different areas.

Title:  The War of the Worlds
Year:  1953
Director:  Byron Haskin
Genre:  Science Fiction
Rating:  3 out of 5 heat rays

This was the first film adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel.  Dr. Clayton Forrester befriends Sylvia Van Buren at the site of the first Martian landing, and we follow them during the assault on the Earth.

This movie feels a lot different from the novel.  The novel focused more on the individual during the alien invasion.  However, Dr. Forrester spends a lot of time talking to government officials and generals in the field.  This gives the movie a much heavier feel.

There are a few parts of the book that I wish the movie incorporated.  The first has to do with the Martians using human blood as food.  This fact paints them in a much more terrifying light.  There is something much more foreboding about humanity being captured and held prisoner as a food source compared to simply being destroyed.  The second point that I missed was the focus on the hysteria that the citizens of the world feel when the planet is invaded.  The only time the movie mentions this is in a small montage, which is disappointing since it was a big part of the novel.

Finally, I need to talk about the special effects.  I'm sure they looked amazing back in the 50's, and there is nothing wrong with old school scifi.  However, the limitations of technology unfortunately altered points of the story.  For instance, instead of large tripods, the aliens ride around in what look like spaceships.  I imagine this is because moving legs would have been to hard to animate.

In all, The War of the Worlds may not be the best movie, but it definitely has a certain charm about it.  Check out the trailer!

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Title: War of the Worlds

Year:  2005

Director:  Steven Spielberg

Genre:  Science Fiction

Rating:  4 out of 5 lightning bolts

In 2005, another film was made based on H.G. Wells' classic.  Dock worker Ray Ferrier struggles to protect his two children as the aliens invade New York.

Spielberg took many more liberties with the story than the 1953 movie did.  First of all, the term "Martian" is never mentioned in the movie, and in fact Spielberg said that his aliens didn't even come from Mars.  Instead, they come from a place much more far away and malevolent.

Also, instead of the aliens crash landing on our planet because of the fact that the habitat on their planet was inconducive to life (as in the book), we quickly learn that the tripods were buried under the Earth - possibly millions of years ago.  This makes the motives of the aliens feel much more sinister.  Instead of fighting to survive in a new environment, they are taking back what they believed to be theirs all along using as much force as necessary.

One of the things that I loved most about the movie is the focus on the individuals and the mass hysteria that the invasion caused.  Instead of a famous scientists being the main protagonist (as in the 1953 version), we follow the journey of a middle class guy and his two kids.  They are forced to fight for their lives against the aliens and the humans.  And yes, the threat from their fellow man is just as real as the extraterrestrials.  What would happen if someone had the only working car in the country?  Or if there was only so much space on a ferry that was leaving an alien infested area?  When people's lives are threatened, there is no telling what they will do.

If you are a fan of Wells' novel, then I think you will enjoy this movie.  It is similar enough to appease die-hard fans, and fresh enough to feel new and exciting.  Check out the preview!

Spotlight: The War of the Worlds Broadcast of 1938

The year was 1938 - 40 years after H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds was originally published.  On the evening of October 30th, families tuned into their radio programs just in time to hear of a horrible alien invasion taking place in New Jersey and New York City...  At least that's what many listeners thought.  In reality, what they were listening to was simply a dramatization based on The War of the Worlds.

In the 1930's, CBS had been regularly airing a theatrical radio show called Mercury Theatre on the Air.  One of the masterminds behind this radio show was actor Orson Wells.  Every week, Wells and his company of actors would put on shows for their radio listeners.  On that October evening, Wells decided to put on a show based on The War of the Worlds.  It begins with an introduction taken from the novel, and is presented as a series of news broadcasts in which a Martian invasion occurs in New Jersey.

Many of the families listening to the broadcast, however, were confused and thought that the invasion was actually happening and that they were listening to actual news broadcasts.  This confusion was due to a few different factors.  The first is that Wells' show only mentioned the fact that it was fiction three times throughout the hour-long broadcast:  once at the very beginning, once 40 minutes in, and once at the end.  So anyone that missed the beginning of the show would have had no idea of its true nature.  This was compounded due to the fact that many people missed the first 10-12 minutes of the show because they were listening to another show that was airing concurrently on ABC.  By the time that they changed the dial to CBS, they were lost.

Listen to the entire broadcast!!!

Although many events have not been confirmed, there were supposedly many cases of fear and hysteria on the part of the ignorant listeners.  People could swear that they smelled the poisonous gas that the Martians were spreading across the country.  Some people were terrified to leave their homes, while others swarmed to the site of the supposed Martian landing.  There is also a story that a group of armed individuals shot at a water tower, thinking that it was a Martian tripod.  The New York Times published an article describing the chaos and fallout:

Click to read the entire article!

After the night of the radio broadcast, the public became irate.  They believed that Orson Wells intentionally deceived the listeners.  Neither CBS nor Mercury Theater on the Air were officially punished, and the entire fiasco served to propel Orson Wells to fame.

Orson Wells' reaction to the supposed hysteria his show caused...

I hope you enjoyed this look into one of the greatest "hoaxes" in history!

Book Review - The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells

Title:  The War of the Worlds
Author:  H.G. Wells
Genre:  Science Fiction
Rating:  5 out of 5 tripods

The War of the Worlds is one of the most evocative science fiction novels of all time.  It is also one of H.G. Wells' most popular works.

The War of the Worlds takes place in England in the late 1800s.  It describes a series of events in which intelligent beings from Mars come to Earth.  Their technology and weapons far outclass our own, and all they have on their minds is complete and utter domination of the human race.  They do not want to destroy our world:  rather, they want to take it over and use us as food.  Reduced to nothing more than glorified cattle, man kind is tasked with the most difficult objective yet:  to stay alive in the face of overwhelming odds.

This novel is written in the first perspective, from the view of an educated writer of philosophy.  I have said it in other reviews, but I am a big fan of the first-person view in science fiction and horror novels.  The fact that the reader is limited in their knowledge to what the narrator knows greatly increases the suspense.  There are two points in the novel in which this scheme changes, however.  Instead of the narrator describing his journey, he talks about the journey of his brother in London.  Although these sections are just as enjoyable, ping-ponging between characters decreases the immersion one feels when reading the book.

One of the most interesting aspects of The War of the Worlds is the way in which the Martians are described, and the manner with which they take over the world.  The aliens are not depicted as an all-knowing and all-powerful race.  On the contrary, they have evolved to be the most dominant species on Mars, a planet with a completely different set of environmental obstacles than Earth.  For example, the gravity on Mars is only a third of that on Earth, so the Martians are sluggish on our planet - their breathing shallow and labored.  However, they compensate for their weak physical stature with their technology.

And that is where War of the Worlds comes into its own as a depiction of a terrifying scenario.  The aliens erect gigantic metallic tripods, capable of razing entire cities.  They unleash a devastating "heat ray" on humans, which instantly turns them into a blazing corpse.  Finally, they shoot canisters of dense, poisonous black smoke, which kills anyone unlucky enough to breathe it in.  What is most horrifying is that the Martians use humans as food - collecting our blood and transfusing into their veins for sustenance.

The reaction of the humans in Wells' vision is also very interesting.  At first, people are curious about the extra-terrestrials.  Then, they become defensive and attempt to destroy them with force.  When force proves useless, all of humanity erupts into a mass hysteria - people flee, loots stores, and trample their neighbors underneath carriages and trains.  The War of the Worlds is more than just a silly science fiction book about aliens.  It is a kind of thought experiment about how Earth would react to such an event.

This brings us to the conclusion of the book, and although I will not spoil anything, I must admit that the ending has always seemed a bit like a cop-out to me.  It is as if Wells wrote himself into a corner, and without any other options, he elects to take the easy way out in order to supply us with a satisfying conclusion.

The War of the Worlds is one of the most entertaining science fiction novels that I have read in a long time!

5 out of 5 tripods!