“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s.”
Words which in one incarnation or another, to fans simply drip with nostalgia and are as evocative in their own way as John Williams opening bars to Star Wars and which like those cords have ignited the imagination of both old and young, but for a lot longer.
Now thanks to the latest big budget remake they look set to capture the hearts and minds of a whole new generation.
Orson Wells:Don't panic the Martians are drinking our blood! Ok...Panic!
Since the original novel was written in 1898, War of the Worlds has undergone many reincarnations and been brought back into the public eye again and again in various guises from radio to comics and from theatre to film. Perhaps among the most well known would be;
•The infamous radio broadcast by Orson Wells on the Halloween of 1938. Notorious for causing wide spread panic among thousands of listeners, convinced that they were listening to actual news footage covering an alien invasion. Often accompanied by a smile and comments of “only in America” what is seldom pointed out is that the medium of Radio was still in its infancy at the time and for many listeners the phenomenon of radio was completely new.
•The classic War of the Worlds movie, directed by Byron Haskin and starring Gene Barry was released in 1953. This is the one which gave me nightmares as a child but was still one of my favourite movies when I was growing up in the sixties and seventies. Responsible for prompting me to read the book, its lush colours and iconic floating Martian machines were at once set for ever in my mind and endured as my definitive image of Martian invaders until…….
•Jeff Wayne’s concept album hits the shelves in 1978. Its striking accompanying booklet of artwork by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim redefined my mental images. It’s storyline a close adaptation of the original book re-awoke my interest prompting me to read it for a second time and with its diverse cast from Geoff Wayne to Justin Hayward, from David Essex to Richard Burton, was then and still is totally unique listening.
The Artwork with the 1978 concept album was striking.
The 2005 Movie begins with an extreme close up shot of a raindrop (and insinuation of its contents for those of us in the know.) and the well cast voice of Morgan Freeman giving us an adaptation of those immortal opening lines.
Morgan Freeman is no Richard Burton of course, but still excellent and delivers a fantastic opening with suitable gravitas. Truth be known though I found myself wishing that they had offered the part to Sean Connery.
The story itself is light on dialogue and heavy on action, with the massacre of mankind beginning within 15 minutes of the opening titles and continuing right through to the end with very few moments of respite.
All the cast are excellent and the film is incredibly atmospheric, sucking you into the story and keeping you gripped throughout. Replete with stunning special effects and a number of haunting scenes guaranteed to stay with you long after you leave the cinema.
Without wanting to give too much away, particularly striking are scenes involving the mob mentality of the fleeing populace, mass bodies floating down river, the whole of the cellar scene which is marvellously realised, but there are many others.
Crucially the film totally succeeds in suspending disbelief and this was a huge question mark in my mind before seeing it. It goes without saying that all big budget remakes are guaranteed to make changes to the original story line. Some are obviously for the better, some dubious, some darn right inexplicable in their stupidity and the question is whether or not the diehard fans will accept them or shake the dust from their feet as they leave.
War of the Worlds is of course no different in this respect and some of the changes include;
•The setting is no longer Victorian England but contemporary America.
•The hero (Tom Cruise) is no longer a “single” writer, but a divorced dockworker.
•Rather than being alone the hero has a family to protect.
•Three characters from the original story are inexplicably merged into one as Tim Robbins plays a part which encompasses Ogilvy the Astronomer, The Artilleryman and the Curate all in one spade wielding package.
•The Martians no longer arrive in cylinders but…….. Ahh, now you see this is where it gets tricky, because I naturally want to tell you all about it, but don’t want to spoil the surprise. Well suffice to say that they have a different form of transportation which I actually thought was rather clever and I’ll leave the rest to you to discover.
•I’ve left this final point till last because it’s the most fun of the group…… there are no Martians!
A 1953 Martian...well he was scary then!
In fairness this last point deserves a little clarification. In 1898 mankind could only speculate as to the possible existence of life on Mars. But now in 2005 we know that there isn’t, so a plot change was obviously in order. Despite my insisting on referring to the “Martians” throughout these pages, the film in fact never specifies where it is that they actually come from. Safe to say though that it’s probably not Kansas.
Despite all the above, the answer to the acceptance question at least in my case was a resounding yes! For once I was quite happy to accept the aesthetic changes on offer, both because I was so drawn into the film so as not to really think too much about them, which of course is a triumph. But also I suppose because of a revelation I had a while ago.
After years of bemoaning various cult movies for betraying the original flavour of their predecessors in favour of rewrites intended to bring the subject matter up to date. It suddenly struck me “mid rant” on one occasion that as a generation we never truly owned any of our heroes from book, comic or screen, we only leased them.
They were ours for a time and lived in our hearts and minds, but eventually we were supposed to let go. We were supposed to smile our goodbyes and pass them onto a new generation who would love them as much as we did. Some people found that more difficult to accept than others, some people never managed it at all and to them the changes that came with a generational shift became sources of irritation.
So now I have a quite different way of looking at updated versions and as far as I’m concerned War of the Worlds acquitted itself admirably in this respect.
Swapping shovel for shotgun, Ogilvy prepares for a close encounter.
All in all I can heartily recommend War of the Worlds to you. Be careful with the kids because some of the images are scary, but aside from this I recommend it unreservedly and without hesitation.
Newcomers will be entranced by HG Wells’s ageless adventure and old hands will once again thrill as the Martians “slowly but surely draw their plans against us.”
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