The War of the Worlds (1953) (DVD)

Let’s face it, we’re all entranced by the thought of little green men (especially after a few beers). The concept of aliens from another world has fascinated us for the most part of the last couple of centuries. The 1950’s saw an explosion of hostile aliens in comics and B-movies that lit up the imagination of teenage children and day-dreamer adults. The cult of science fiction can be traced back as early as 1898 when, amazingly, HG Wells wrote the book “The War of the Worlds”. An infamous broadcast in 1930’s America caused pandemonium as thousands of listeners mistook the programme for a real invasion (only in America) whilst the 1953 movie brought wholesale galactic ...  Read the complete review

The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science fiction film directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon. The film was the first screen adaption of the classic HG Wells novel and won an Oscar for its colourful and striking special effects. This is a rather loose adaption of the story written by HG Wells with late Victorian London replaced by fifties California and the central protagonist now bespectacled square-jawed physicist Dr Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) - who just happens to be camping on a fishing holiday when a large meteorite lands in the hills around the small town of Linda Rosa. Forrester is eager and curious to examine the meteorite when it cools down ...  Read the complete review

HG Well’s novel was always going to be ripe pickings for a modern day makeover. The story of invaders from another planet has been made before but that was back in the day when even calculators were the stuff of dreams. So if you’re going to entrust a classic piece of sci-fi to someone then who better than the master of blockbusters himself – Steven Spielberg. This 2005 version stars Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier, a working class schmo who’s never really grown up, He’s a bad father to his two kids and doesn’t really have a great relationship with them. One weekend they come to stay while Ray’s ex-wife goes to Boston with her new man. Night falls and when sun rises ...  Read the complete review

This is still a very good and very watchable film even now. All the Martian "sounds" are pretty much part of the main stay of Science Fiction sound effects today. The film sets The Martians as totally different from humans, creating an "Us & Them" situation mirroring the East Versus West fears of The Cold War in an already paranoid America telling it's people to beware of Reds Under The Bed. Of course the first response is to send in the military to try and suppress the Martians. Even though only 3 men and a plane and its crew have been destroyed, it is already clear that back then the concept of "acceptable losses" had not ...  Read the complete review

"No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th Century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed that we were being scrutinized as someone with a microsope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets, and yet across the gulf of space, minds immeasurable superior to ours reguarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely they drew their plans against us....." And so the Martians attacked earth way back in 1953, the year my mother was born! In fact, I have never seen the film 'The War of ...  Read the complete review