[spoiler]
the inexplicable survival of Cruise’s idiot son at the end of the movie, when he was clearly heading for death, was a freaking cop-out.
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That said, I don’t believe the alien machines were buried underground for millions of years. If I recall aright, the chief proponent of that theory was
the lunatic survivalist portrayed by Tim Robbins, eventually killed by Cruise’s character
who hardly counts as a reliable or expert witness. I think the first of the soi-disant “lightning strikes” were part of a fast-acting fabrication device (like Star Trek replicators), while later strikes were transporter beams.
Yeah, and we still start threads on movies like Plan Nine from Outer Space, and that one’s fifty years old. Make of that what you will. Manos, Hands of Fate, anyone?
Well, why would you assume that? The tripods appeared to have limitless power. Until the aliens got the flu, their plan seemed to be working wonderfully for them, whatever it was - after all, we don’t actually know WHAT the plan was. Maybe the batteries in those things last a thousand years or seven trillion heat ray shots.
Why bother going after “strategic military, economic and military headquarters first,” as you put it, if your opponents’ attempts to stop you are so irrelevant as to be unnoticeable? The effect of an Abrams tank appeared to be no more substantial to them than the effect of a Toyota Corolla.
“War of the Worlds” really doesn’t answer, or even much address, any questions of tactics, strategy, or intent on the part of the aliens. Despite people assuming the aliens came from here or there or did this or that, we actually have no idea where they came from, or why, or when, or what they’re trying to accomplish. All the viewer knows is that they’re here, they’re kicking a lot of ass, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them. That’s all you need to know, because the movie’s point, really, is how people react to the alien invasion.
I haven’t read the entire thread, so forgive me if I repeat. But I think this, like all of Speilberg’s sci-fi movies in the last decade, is a good, thought-provoking movie dressed up in thriller’s clothing.
By the way, there’s spoilers below, which I’m not boxing.
First of all, most of the movie isn’t about the aliens, it’s about how easy the thin veneer of civilization can be shattered. The ending brings this home in the most powerful way – people have criticized the film for having no third act, but I believe the time-compression at the end is on purpose – Cruise spends the whole film keeping a remarkably strong grip on his humanity until near the very end when he murders an innocent man who was only trying to help Cruise and his daughter. What are the consequences of this action? Cruise immediately becomes a hero, fighting off a tripod, the alien menace is defeated, and Cruise’s surely-dead son is returned to him, safe, sound, and with a better paternal relationship than they’ve ever had. If that whole sequence takes more than 10 minutes I’d be awfully surprised. It’s a tragedy that the only way to be successful in Cruise’s world (and, by extension, ours) is to lose your soul. Given the consequences of morality, anyone would be a fool to behave morally. And so where does that leave us? Not anywhere pleasant, that’s for sure.
Thanks for bringing that point up in this thread. Although I disagree about Tim Robbins’ character being all that “innocent.” From the time he was introduced, I thought there was a skeeviness to him that became all too clear when he had that conversation with Dakota Fanning that Cruise broke up. (By the way, while Robbins was good I thought this was a role that called out for Steve Buscemi.) He was also batshit insane and about to do things that would’ve certainly gotten them all killed.
As for your point about how people in times of crisis often do unherioic–and sometimes downright nasty–things, I believe that was this movie differed from other aliens-invade-Earth films. The humans are not noble and often pose as much of a threat as the aliens do. Still, since this is Steven Speilberg, this theme was not as fully explored as perhaps another more misanthropic director would’ve done. For example, at the end, there were no scenes featuring a mob dragging a dying alien out of its ship and going to work on it with “pliers and a blowtorch” or somebody driving down a street dragging an alien corpse from his bumper.
But that’s my point – Cruise does this terrible, immoral act and we none of us can gainsay him, although we recognize it as wrong. But the movie shows that the only way to get ahead is to cast aside morality and compassion for others – that’s the horror of it.
I would find that all a bit on the nose. I enjoyed the subtler approach more, although of course that means that a lot of the audience isn’t going to get it. It was the same thing with A.I. and Minority Report, both of which, IMO, are similarly distopian. The audience objects to certain scenes and themes in the film, thereby accusing Speilberg of making an objectionable film. But I believe he means for you to object to these things.
I’m now imagining a movie made out of all the really bad big-budget science fiction movies of the last decade or so. A mish-mash of War of the Worlds, Independence Day, Contact (well, mostly the ending, which pissed me off so much in the book I never saw the movie), and Signs would be a start.
It’s discussed in the book that came with the 50th Anniversary edition video tape of Citizen Kane, and I’ve also seen it discussed on a Biography-type program about Welles. Don’t forget that at the time Welles was doing radio in NYC, he was doing back-to-back broadcasts on different stations and to get from one station to the other on time, he hired an ambulance to drive him, so he knew the radio programming schedules cold. There’s newsreel footage of this, IIRC, (still photographs at the very least), and there’s newsreel footage of Welles making his apology (with a decidedly bemused smirk on his face).
I think that’s exactly why I hated the movie. I love apocalyptic fiction; I love exploring the different ways our civilization can end and how people react to it. I think this movie had intentions of making an examination like this, but basically never got around to it (too much shit to blow up, I guess.) I think Speilberg could have done a lot more with this film, but it has all the hallmarks of a throw-away money-maker he tossed off so he could go on to making his next vanity project.
Oh, I forgot to mention one (actually, two) of the other reasons I was so disappointed with this movie - the gratuitous kids. I dislike child stars at the best of times, and I really dislike them getting written into films where all they do is bog down the storyline.
Especially if you are going to change to story to say that the invaders had actually visited before and planted the machines. When they were here the first time, did they not bother to check the microbial life existing on the planet?
“Germs” do evolve.
However, it seems to me that we are just as likely to catch something from the invaders as they are likely to catch something from us.
In the original, it’s the Martians. So naturally Earth would be the first planet they would try and take and naturally, they could make a mistake like that.
Amen! Beyond Cruise’s initial mugging for the camera, the children were poorly cast in this film and were scripted as massively annoying ninnies. You needed to make some adjustments form the original story for minimal levels of credibility. That all that advanced science was for constructing 100 foot tall blood sucking juggernauts that lay in wait for millions of years… What? Oh it just goes on and on.
Deliberately scheduling the program to hook viewers is one thing. Deliberately creating a panic is another. I believe I’ve seen the same newsreel footage of Welles apologizing, but his look of bemusement seems to me more like “I can’t believe people actually thought that was real!” rather than “Ha! My plan to create mindless mayhem worked!”
The thread title doesn’t say anything about spoilers, but it seems that we’re fairly well spoiling the movie, so I’ll dispense with the black boxes.
Like everyone else, I went into the movie expecting the aliens to die by microbial hands- and I was wondering how Speilberg would manage to pull it off without it seeming monumentally stupid. Unfortunately, he didn’t- yes, Virginia, aliens really ARE that stupid.
I got so excited, however, close to the end, when TC sees the red vines dying on the statue. For like a split second, I just KNEW that Speilberg had pulled a fast one on us- instead of microbes killing off the invaders, COPPER could do it! The statue was composed of copper- a mineral which is not found in large quantities on Mars’ surface! When TC noticed the dying vines, I fully expected him to point them out to the soldiers- and everyone would realize that he’d found a weapon to use against the aliens.
I’ve seen the footage, too, and it seems to me like his bemusement is a rather arrogant “I can’t believe how stupid you massses are” type of bemusement. Easy to read almost anything into that look. But one thing does come thru loud and clear in virtually every interview I’ve ever seen or read from him, he KNEW he was smarter than anyone else in that room. Hey, maybe he was … *
As for the book with the video, any idea as to the title? I would love to find a real qquote for us to sink our teeth into.
Another thing about the broadcast is that at a crucial moment the radio broadcast was ‘interupted’ for a message from the White House. Then an actor, impersonating FDR, made an announcement about Martians landing and the Army going to fight them. Remember, FDR used the radio to address the nation frequently, so this lead to the panic.
Later a station in Mexico redid the broadcast and there was a panic and a riot when the truth was discovered and IIRC, 2 people who worked at the station were killed.
I didn’t like WotW very much, but I didn’t hate it either.
It was a real popcorn-movie, leave your brain at the door.
A few things that did annoy me :
the son : this character was just infuriatingly (is that even a word?) annoying. I also don’t understand why he needed to pop up in the end again. This detracted greatly from the movie.
the aliens : why, oh why, did they leave their tri-pods? If I recall in the story they used to be quivering, sluglike creatures of some kind, right? They needed these big metal tripods to get around because they were just too vulnerable.
the whole Tim Robbins sequence. I used to love Tim Robbins. The Jacob’s Ladder is one of my all-time favourite movies along with the Player. But this character was just so extremely poorly written and performed. I think Tim Robbins should be ashamed of this portrayal.
Tom Cruise didn’t do much for me, he is not a bad actor, but not a very good one either.
Dakota Fanning is getting over-exposed but will probably soon go the way of Macaulay Culkin and Haley Joel Osmond.
At the end of the broadcast, Welles does explain that it was, in fact, a tale they cooked up, and not an actual newscast, so clearly he thought that it was possible that someone would think it was the real thing. (Though, IIRC, Cecil has stated that the levels of hysteria were greatly exagerrated later on.)
NCB, I’m scheduled to work about 100 hours this week, so digging that up is going to have to wait until I get some free time (I’m supposed to be sleeping right now,)
Now, it seems that most people here felt that War of the worlds had both its ups and downs. I saw the movie in the theater last summer and all I could think of was that it was very poor. It wasn’t thought through, it was more gross than scary and it was annoying at times. I rank it one of my worct cinema experiences of last year
I did like the novel however and I agree that it would be interesting to see it in original time setting.
Maybe they were operating on the “Star Trek” manual of Xenobiology, where you can go to any planet in your everyday uniform and no protection at all and do whatever you like there without any harm to you or the planet’s ecosystem. (And all alien species are capable of having sexual intercourse with humans. )
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