Cinema as an art-form

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2005)

I just saw War of the Worlds after reading and hearing countless accounts of people who either loved it or hated it. Well, for those who hated the film because it didn't have a good plot or an idea to drive it forward, you missed the boat. Literally. Spielberg makes a lot of important points throughout the entire film. His main characters, Ray and Rachel are very well defined and his key scenes are priceless. Lets take, for instance, the scene in the basement. We see a little self-referencing when the alien machine goes down there - easily reminiscent of Jurassic Park's kitchen scene. We see very real character development - Ray committing murder to save his child. And, above all, there end of the film is foreshadowed - yes, through aliens drinking water and going through "earthly things". What many skeptics don't seem to realize, that these three aliens were not the only ones going into houses and drinking water and eating food - that's what happened to the entire army. The speech on occupation is not incidental either - Spielberg is quietly making a point on Iraq - NOT the war on terror. People, always viewed from Ray's perspective either get "heroic", "frightened" or "crazy" as they would in real life - each instance well defined by the filmmaker. But even if you refuse to acknowledge all those subtle touches that give the film a third dimension, the cinematography is breathtaking. A film, unlike a book, needs more than just a plot. In fact a "simple" or a "weak" plot can be saved by the film-making process itself. As Hitchcock said before, each shot is there to evoke emotion, Spielberg does a fantastic job of that, continually refining his craft. Film as an art-form (and especially of this genre) is a spectacle to be seen and Spielberg provided us with a spectacle in the best sense of the word.