Spielberg: The invasive reconstruction

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2005)

WAR OF THE WORLDS, Spielberg's 23th film, again in full shape after shameless turkeys(Catch me if you can 02,The Terminal 04), reconstructs an exterminating invasion done by beings from an unknown planet to the Earth, all of this seen through the eyes of the divorced father Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), his son Robbie (Justin Chatwin)and her daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning surprisingly bearable and intense), avoiding all kinds of dangers, almost miraculously.
A sober and fancy Science Fiction and End of the World master's film work reconstructs itself avoiding successfully, like one car alone on the highway, the cheap cheese in Deep Impact (Leder, 98), the cocky cynicism in Armaggedon (Bay, 98), the patriotic propaganda in Independece Day (Emmerich, 96), and even any kind of emotional manipulation, a thing that Spielberg is so endeared with, like in Saving Private Ryan(98) or Schindler's List (93) and denying all the way any kind of ideological trash, moralize, or verbal vomit.
The heart-wrenching post 9/11 pessimism, as destructive as the lights coming down from the tripods, reconstructs the darkest Apocalypse fantasy where the hope in religion to bring salvation is forever lost and almost so, is the faith in the human race.
Strange metaphysics on clear and present Destruction reconstruct beautiful poetry on Chaos and Panic, with every member of the cast properly installed in Hysteria, middle shots with hundreds of horrified and desperate extras, escaping or assaulting mobs and fear-frozen faces.
Spielberg's unconscious betrays him reconstructing a cruel and brutal war in imperial American soil and not forgetting out of his personal film imagery, the Holocaust, being doomed to be repeated for ever and ever, with that gray dust as a result of the fulminating rays, the victim's clothing falling slowly, thousands of refugees traveling by foot, corpses floating quietly in the Hudson river.
A narrative device apparently rooted in Hollywood's neoclassicism reconstructs itself paradoxically, not by psychological motivations, but by Fate or Randomness, in the style of the great European and Asian auteurs.
And the most clever notes criticizing American imperialism, reconstructing themselves with amazing subtlety, shed new light on truths and intuitions on the essence of the human beast, as beautiful and as terrible as the film itself.
8/10. War of the Worlds. ***1/2