The War of the Worlds (1953 film)
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
The War of the Worlds (1953) was produced by George Pál (the second of three H. G. Wells science fiction stories to be filmed by Pál) and directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon, and starred Gene Barry, Les Tremayne and Ann Robinson. It runs for a taut 85 minutes.
This movie adaptation of The War of the Worlds is considered to be one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s. It won an Oscar for its special effects.
Contents |
Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. The story is updated to the 1950s for this film, and the setting is moved from London to southern California. The first meteorite lands near a small town called Pine Summit, and the climax takes place in Los Angeles. The Martians face more impressive weaponry, including an A-bomb (dropped by a "Flying Wing"); but, unlike the book, the human weapons have absolutely no effect on the Martian fighting machines. All is lost, with humanity defeated, until the Martians succumb to the "smallest and humblest of Earth's living creatures" (viruses and bacteria).
There were many efforts to make the war machines tripods, as in the novel, but proved problematic for various reasons. Eventually, it was decided to make the machines float on three invisible electronic legs, represented by sparks seen underneath the machines throughout the film. The machines were also intended to emit sparks from the underside, to prove existence of the legs, but this was abandoned for fear of a fire hazard (the actual "legs" are only seen when the first machine emerges). The machines were redesigned additionally, but with a conscious effort to avoid the look of UFOs. The machines themselves are presented as sleek, sinister-looking bowed crescent-shaped spaceships that float above the ground. Tipped with glowing green and featuring a towering mobile eye, pulsing, peering around and firing beams of red sparks, all accompanied by thrumming and a high-pitched clattering shriek [1] when the weapon is fired. In addition to the "Heat-Ray" fired from the mobile eye, the new Martian war machines used rapid fire green blasters from the tips of the war machines. The green blasters had a sort of booming sound [2], instead of the shrieking heat-ray. This latter feature seems to replace the machines' lack of the black smoke, which did not appear in the film. The Martians, rather than being octopus-like in appearance, are instead presented as small, brown hulkish creatures, with two hands and three fingers on each. The Martians have no head mounted on their shoulders; their single eye with three distinct lenses, one colored blue, one red and one green, peers out from the middle of their chests.
The movie is one of the few science fiction films that does not talk down to the audience, as there is plenty of scientific debate, while the Martians rampage across the Earth. It is also one of few science films to show a full-fledged invasion by an extraterrestrial army, and World War II stock footage was skillfully used to produce a montage of destruction to show the worldwide invasion, with armies of all nations joining together to fight the invaders.
Wells used the second half of his novel to make a satirical commentary on civilization and the class struggle. Pál did not write the satire into the movie, though he did add a religious theme to the film.
The movie stars Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester (whose name was also used in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV series as a homage to the film), Robinson as Sylvia Van Buren, and Tremayne as Major General Mann. The voiceover commentary was by Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Haskin, the director, was a veteran of television who directed episodes of a number of TV series, including several episodes of The Outer Limits.
Special effects
The film's special effects are the film's highlight feature. Both audiences and critics alike have praised the effects, and are still seen as standing up to the test of time, even in spite of the claims of seeing the strings that hold up the machines. Though many fans believe that the briefly glimpsed Martians are rather weak, at least by contrast of their fighting machines.
Trivia note: For many years, the distinctive sound-effect of the Heat-Ray was utilized as a standard "ray-gun" sound on children's television shows.
Pal wanted to the tripod war machines. But pal did not know how a tripod walked. So he went with the flying machines.
3 Martian war machines were made for the film. Sad fate for the machines they were taken to a copper drive and melted down.
Fictional influences
- The 1983 television mini-series V, its 1984 sequel, V: The Final Battle, and the subsequent weekly series (1984-1985), all seem to have been inspired by War of the Worlds.
- The 1988 War of the Worlds TV series was essentially a sequel to this film, and employed several elements from the film, including Ann Robinson to reprise her role as Sylvia Van Buren in three episodes.
- Independence Day (1996), directed by Roland Emmerich. The aliens (not from Mars) use Earth satellites for their communication system. They were defeated by the plucky heroes installing a computer virus onto one of the motherships, a "clever" update of the microbes that wipe out the Martians in The War of the Worlds. The film also features an attempt to use the atomic bomb that fails as well, and in the ruins of what was once Houston, a downed streetlight is made to look like the gooseneck of the war machines.
- Mars Attacks! (1996), directed by Tim Burton, a more humorous treatment, and very loosely based upon the original story, but adapted from Topps' famous 1962 trading card series, the Mars Attacks. The film primarily spoofs 1950s alien invasion films. In this version, the aliens are repelled not by the natural germs on Earth, but by Slim Whitman's yodeling, which causes their heads to explode, an obvious parody of the film's (and novel's) ending.
- Steven Spielberg's 2005 updated adaptation features cameo appearances from Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. In addition, the movie features a few scenes that mirror this film, as well as the aliens' hands having the same three-finger structure and a scene where an alien surveillance device searches the house where the heroes take refuge.
- Ann Robinson reprises her role of sorts in two latter films: first as Dr. Van Buren in 1988's Midnight Movie Massacre and in 2005's The Naked Monster as Dr. Sylvia Van Buren.
External links
- War of the Worlds Movies.info
- The War of the Worlds at The Internet Movie Database
- The War of the Worlds Movie Site
- Making of the movie at site dedicated to all things War Of The Worlds
Copyright
"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 10, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen Here."
