The father of all alien movies.

Rating: Null/10 (7 July 2005)

I have been a fan of this story since 1979 when I was in the second grade. I first saw the 1953 film on the late show, heard the radio play on vinyl and then read the book all in that year. Spielberg's telling of "The War Of The Worlds" is equally as thrilling and rewarding as the others. As far as alien invasion stories goes it is hard to choose a favorite among the four. It is, however, the superior version in its focus on the human element, surpassing even H. G. Wells' outstanding first person narrative in 1898.
We can look at Steven Spielberg's alien films as a trilogy. Not necessarily as a "story about aliens" trilogy, but as the story arc of a divorced father. In "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" we see healthy father Roy Neary fall apart at the seams and lose his family. In "E.T." we hear only references to Elliot's absentee father, he is long gone and is missing from family dynamic. Finally in "War Of The Worlds" we witness deadbeat father Ray Ferrier's epiphany about what it means to be a father as he struggles to protect his children in a crisis of global proportions. The opening of Ray's heart was the true heart of this film and I, for the first time, forgot I was watching Tom Cruise in a "Tom Cruise" movie. I believed everything about his transformation. I believed his every revelation, his every growth spurt and the pain, terror, confusion and wonder that came with them. And I believed in his redemption.
In my personal, final analysis of Spielberg's alien trilogy, the alien is the father of the story; and in the end I heaved a sigh of relief at his un-alienation.