STUDIO 360

Movies on DVD -- War of the Worlds (2005)   by James Emery Vigh

There have been several adaptations of H.G. Wells' classic "War of the Worlds". On Sunday, October 30th 1938, Orson Welles' famous Halloween radio broadcast managed to scare many listeners into believing that the Martians had actually invaded our planet. In 1953 a film adaptation starring Gene Barry had good special effects for its day, but the "scare" factor wasn't particularly high.

In 2005, Steven Spielberg tried again with his version of War of the Worlds.

The 2005 version of War of the Worlds stars Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, and Tim Robbins.

The movie starts off in New York and travels its way up towards Boston as opposed to H.G. Wells' London and southern England. But what's important to note is that Spielberg managed to capture the feel of the original work, and the scare factor from Orson Welles' radio broadcast.

He did it by making it personal - personal to an individual family.

Tom Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, an arrogant and self-centered dock worker. He is divorced and has two children from the union. Rachel (Fanning) is an intelligent and precocious 10 year old, and Robby (Chatwin) is a rebellious teenager who is also highly antagonistic towards his father.

Ray's pregnant ex-wife (Otto), along with her new husband ask Ray to take care of the kids while they make a trip up to Boston to visit her parents. It doesn't take Ray long to re-antagonize Robby, after which he informs Rachel that he is going to take a nap and that she should order food as he doesn't seem to have any in the house.

On awakening, Ray is informed by Rachel that Robby has "borrowed" his car. Infuriated, he storms outside to see his neighbors and passers-buy looking up at the sky.

There's a storm coming in. But it's unlike any storm anyone had ever seen. He calls for Rachel so that she can witness with him this unexpected and "cool" event.

But the wind is blowing away from the storm instead of coming from it. And there are repetitive lightning strikes - all seemingly at the same spot off in the near distance.

By now somewhat frightened, Ray and Rachel retire inside and hide under the kitchen table hoping for the end of the storm. Finally the storm does end, but now the power is out.

His mobile phone doesn't work either, and neither does his wristwatch.

Telling Rachel to stay inside, Ray ventures outside to investigate and encounters the returning Robby - on foot.

Robby tells him that all of the cars had stopped running and that he knows where the lightning strikes were concentrated - all on one little spot in the pavement that created just one small hole.

As it's not very far away, Ray rushes over to see for himself. When he arrives on the scene, a small crowd has already gathered.

But now rumblings are beginning to be heard from underneath. The pavement begins to crack, then crumble. Cars are flung outward from the expanding hole in the ground. The crowd is caught between fear and fascination as a huge web-footed tentacle shoots out from the opening, followed closely by another.

Now a machine emerges from the ruins in the middle of the street and rises up from the ground supported by three tentacle type legs. The machine has what appears to be a large "eye" in front. Two stubby "arms' flank the sides. It now towers over the buildings in the area.

For a long moment, the crowd eyes the "Tripod" machine in horrible fascination, then the Tripod suddenly opens fire on them from its two arms with some kind of ray gun. On contact with humans, the ray literally explodes them into a white ash-type substance.

Panicked, the crowd tries to run away from the scene, the Tripod picking them off one by one while destroying buildings as it advances.

Ray, covered with the ash remains of one of the victims, manages to escape back to his house where he tells Rachel and Robby that they are leaving.

The kids are naturally confused and skeptical regarding Ray's behavior, but they can see that he has been badly frightened - and this frightens them in turn.

They manage to find a working RV at a repair shop, and drive off just as the Tripod comes into the area blowing everything up and killing people.

As it turns out, there are a whole bunch of tripods. And they are all bent on destroying everything in their path.

They also feed on human blood.

For Ray Ferrier, it now becomes a struggle for survival. Everything he knows is now all wrong. His previous self-centered existence has been shattered. He must now figure out how to keep his family together and alive in the midst of sudden war and the deterioration of society caused by an alien invasion.

Tom Cruise does a fine job portraying Ray Ferrier as a man in transition from an arrogantly assured self-centered jerk to a nurturing father. Dakota Fanning plays Rachel as intelligent and precocious yet vulnerable. Justin Chatwin plays Robby as being torn between the hostility towards his father, his natural protectiveness towards his sister, and his almost maniacal desire to "get back" at the Tripods. Tim Robbins makes his appearance about two-thirds into the film as a man who has been broken by events into a psychotic with plans of his own on how to deal with the Tripods. Morgan Freeman handles the narration for this film and does his usual great job.

The camera work in this film has a grainy home-movie feel to it (a lot like the Omaha Beach scene in "Saving Private Ryan") that brings an extra element of realism to the viewing experience.

The special effects are spectacular, but the Tripods are not a constant presence. They are on-camera sparingly at just the right times to accentuate the horror of events. We also get to briefly meet the creatures themselves.

This is a film about one man's redemption and about how a family tries to cope with sudden extraordinary events.

"War of the Worlds" is well worth seeing again and again.

About the Author

Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to read my article. My name is James Emery Vigh, and I am an author of guitar method books for kids and adults as well as history books on famous battles. I am also an independent film maker. My current project combines animation and live action to teach the guitar to kids.
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