Why not as in the 1976 music version. Much better story!

Rating: 1/10 (4 July 2005)

I found it very disappointing, raised as I was on the '76 rock music version. That story was special, and from in telling the story in an old fashioned narrative form made if sound more believable, as if it has really happened. Why must Hollywood always set old stories in the present day? It surely would have been just as easy to set it in the original era of the story (1938) and it would be no less gripping. The movie loses all of that impact and the result of setting it the current day is that it feels.. well like a movie.
In fact the Music album version from the 70's is much more gripping then the movie. Just adding the soundtrack from the album would have improved the movie immensely.
One thing that Spielburg did try to capture from the original and what came across in the music version very well, was the effect of the shock on the populace and the inscrutable actions and motivations of the invaders. People go crazy in subtle or interesting ways and there is no easy "Hero finds out all of the answers in time to save the day" here. But unfortunately he does not succeed in capturing the atmosphere and so people see it as a plot or story weakness instead.
In the original the result in people was a sort of noble despair (beaten, despair, but still woman and child first on the steamboat) rather then the violence, and fight for myself actions that automatically assumed by Hollywood today.
My conclusion; Go listen to the album and save your money at the box office!