The War of the Worlds

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with a voice (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) telling the audience that greedy eyes are watching the blue planet. They envy our water, clean air and plenty of resources. The race of beings watching the blue planet had considered moving to another planet in the Solar System but were unable because every other planet is uninhabitable. Also, it tells us that there has been a WWI and a WWII, but that there is going to be another kind of war, The War of the Worlds. At a time when the Earth and Mars were closest to each other in orbit, the Mars beings begin to attack.A strange fireball streaks across the southern California skies and lands in a gully in the San Gabriel mountains east of Los Angeles. Firemen quickly extinguish the fire that has broken out, but authorities are puzzled by the long, cylindrical object that fell to earth and started the fire. The object attracts tourists--and also the attention of Dr. Clayton Forester (Gene Barry) of the Pacific Technical Institute. While everyone else regards the object as anything from a tourist attraction to a potential treasure trove, Forester knows that something is wrong: the object did not come down like an ordinary meteor, and was much more lightweight than any meteor ever reported. What's more, the object is not only hot, but also radioactive.Forester stays in the nearby town at the home of Pastor Matthew Collins (Lewis Martin) and his niece, Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson). Three men are left in the surroundings of the object when a hidden lid on the cylinder unscrews, and a long-necked probe rises out. The three try to approach the probe, declaring their friendly intentions--and the probe spits out a heat ray that incinerates the men and starts another fire. At the same time, power and telephone service fails in town, and everyone at the social discovers that his watch has stopped. Forester determines that the watches have been somehow magnetized, and also notes that someone's pocket compass points not to the north, but to the meteorite. Forester returns to the site with the sheriff and another deputy. They find the ashes of the three men, and then the probe attacks again, killing the deputy as he tries to drive away. Forester then determines that they are dealing with something from another planet and need to call in the military, especially as another fireball lands nearby as he is talking to the sheriff. While everyone waits for the soldiers to arrive, Forester appears on a radio program and deals with the increasing speculation on the otherworldly origin of the cylinders. A consensus arises that the cylinders come from Mars, now at its closest approach to Earth.Marines from El Toro Marine Base roll in and surround the site, and an Air Force plane drops a flare on it from above. The long-necked probe fires its heat ray at the plane, and then sweeps the area, destroying a radio truck. The Marine colonel calls for reinforcements, and the 6th Army Command arrives, with artillery and tanks. Major General Mann, the commander, tells Forester that other objects like the one they are surrounding have landed in cities all over the world, and that all communication fails after that. Then the probe rises again, and we now see that it is part of a swan-like magnetically levitating low-altitude craft. Two other such craft rise out of the cylinder to join it. The officers give the order to prepare to fire, but Matthew Collins objects, saying that no one has tried to offer them peace before. Disregarding his own safety, he walks toward the three metal swans, reciting the 23rd psalm--and before his niece Sylvia's horrified eyes, the lead swan burns him to death. At once General Mann (Les Tremayne) and Marine Colonel Heffner (Vernon Rich) give the order to fire.The soldiers unleash a barrage of artillery and missile fire--and none of it is effective. The swans possess a magnetic force shield that deflects any bombardment. The swans quietly take the measure of their opponents and then start to return fire, with heat rays and meson-disrupting energy bursts that disintegrate anything they touch. Forester urges Mann to inform Washington that conventional military forces would be outmatched. Mann leaves, and Heffner fights a holding action before finally ordering a complete retreat--and being disintegrated in mid-order.Forester takes Sylvia with him in an Army plane. Flying low to avoid the Air Force jets flying in to try their hand, he clips some trees and crash-lands. He and Sylvia barely have time to escape before a squadron of swans surround the plane. General Mann returns to the city, where skeptical reporters cannot believe his reassurances--and of course he knows better, because nothing has proved effective.Alone in the brush, Forester and Sylvia take shelter in an abandoned farmhouse. There Sylvia confesses her fears and her deep sense of loss following her uncle's death. In the middle of this tender conversation, another cylinder crashes into the side of the house. Hours later, Forester wakes up, and a terrified Sylvia tells him that the house is surrounded. Forester works diligently to clear a way out, while also trying to observe as much as he can. The Martians lower a different kind of probe, an eye-like camera; Forester, at first taking this for yet another weapon, chops the camera head from its extender, which swiftly withdraws. A Martian crewman enters the house and touches Sylvia on the shoulder; Forester blinds it with a flashlight and then throws an axe at it, putting it to flight. When Forester realizes that he is holding a scarf now stained with Martian blood, Sylvia loses all control, and Forester has to shout at her to calm down. They then escape, just before the Martians burn down the ruins of the house.As more cylinders come down all over the earth, the Martians' goal becomes painfully clear: to drive all of humanity before them and eventually to kill us all. In Washington, the Secretary of Defense prepares to order the dropping of an atomic bomb on the Los Angeles-area nest. Forester and Sylvia finally arrive at Pacific Tech and turn over the alien camera and the blood-stained scarf. The blood turns out to be anemic, and the camera yields little insight other than that the Martians perceive color a lot differently from humans and that their ability to see is hampered by bright light. At the time, Pacific Tech officials think all this is a moot point, because the atom bomb is going to stop them anyway. But even the atom bomb proves ineffective against the Martians' magnetic force fields.General Mann, clearly frustrated, orders an evacuation of Los Angeles. Forester tells his colleagues that now the anemic blood is important, because only biological weapons will stop the Martians now. The plan is to take as many lab instruments as possible into the mountains and set up another laboratory. But that plan comes to nothing, as looters seize the Pacific Tech vehicles and scatter or beat up all the personnel, including Forester, the pathologist who found out about the anemia, Dr. Dupre (Ann Codee), and Sylvia. As the swans arrive and start systematically burning every building in sight, Forester rushes about, going from church to church, hoping to find Sylvia waiting there, as she once waited after running away as a child. He finds church pastors everywhere praying for deliverance, comfort, or both, and at one church he even finds two of his colleagues. At last he finds Sylvia--and as the two rush toward one another, a nearby swan burns out a stained-glass window, frightening everyone inside.But the attacking swan abruptly heels over, fires only two more seemingly half-hearted bursts, and then crashes into a building and falls to the street. Dead silence descends. Inside the church, Forester leads the people out into the street to see what has happened. They find the downed swan, and as they watch, a door opens and a Martian arm appears, trying to move out. Another swan crashes on the other side of the street and, as Forester watches, the Martian arm turns a mottled gray and falls still. Forester touches it and pronounces it dead.And in fact, this story is repeating itself everywhere. The Martians had very underdeveloped immune systems, and as soon as they were exposed to Earth's atmosphere, they became infected with germs that a humans have long since developed immunity to, but which proved uniformly fatal to Martians. The metal swans stop and fall where they are, and the invasion is over even more swiftly than it began.

Tags: good versus evil, realism, cult, murder

Review:
To be an effective thriller, a sci-fi film absolutely must impart to the viewer a sense of --- coldness, either the physical coldness of outer space or other worlds, or the emotional coldness of science.Cedric Hardwicke's opening narrative in "The War Of The Worlds" is brutally cold, and the added images uninviting.
But even in this second half, suspense filters through, as we watch the heartless "swans" eject their heat rays on a helpless Los Angeles.For sci-fi films made before "2001: A Space Odyssey", "The War Of The Worlds" is one of my three favorites, along with "Robinson Crusoe On Mars" and "Forbidden Planet"..
So many scenes in this film are strong: the army fighting the Martian space ship while a man of God tries to make peace with the strangers, the old farmhouse, and the ending as the aliens attack Los Angelos.
But despite a first-rate script, solid direction from Haskin, and good acting, The War of the Worlds owes its greatest debt to producer George Pal. Pal knew how to put films like this together and was a driving force in the film's innovative and unique special effects.
From the moments the first Martian pod lands and the three poor guys get toasted by the infamous heat ray, to the final thirty seconds where it looks like it's all over for humanity, this is how to do an Alien Invasion film!
George Pal redeems himself after the appalling special effects from "When Worlds Collide" by giving us one of the best science fiction movies from the 1950's.
Gene Barry over emotes in the lead now and then but the martian invasion is handled very well and the tension rises to the final scenes where the surviving populace huddle in the church as the buildings crash and burn around them.'War of the Worlds' deserves its place as both a highly regarded novel and a well-remembered movie.
Producer George Pal and director Byron Haskin certainly reached a creative plateau back in 1953 that is seldom attained even now in the current age of CGI effects and ear-splitting soundtracks.I was lucky to attend the 50th anniversary screening in Hollywood recently, with Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, other actors and production people from the film, and 'Mr. Sci-Fi' Forrest J.
To see it on a full size theater screen for the first time, and with these people there, was the thrill of a lifetime, for sure!The Martians and their war machines in this movie are still some of the best and most memorable designs in the history of science fiction films.
War of the Worlds is the only movie I can watch again and again, never get tired of, and always find something new every time I see it.The special effects are brilliant.
Martians invade Earth with total destructive powers, seemingly unstoppable, mankind must find a way to beat them before all is Lost.In spite of the uproar and considerable success of Orson Welles' 1938 radio adaptation of the H.G Wells novel, War Of The Worlds was a topic that directors were staying well away from.
Enter producer George Pal, noted for puppetoon shorts, he managed to sway the big wigs at Paramount that it could indeed be done, and thus the chain of big colour spaceships blasting, sci-fi creatures lurking and blockbuster bums on seats movies began.Directed by Byron Haskin, this version of the source moves the location from Edwardian England to 20th Century America, and this works a treat because the watching American public were genuinely unnerved at the sight of contemporary America being reduced to rubble by an invading force.
But War Of The Worlds 1953 still stands proud as a brave and hugely enjoyable picture thats importance has never been (nor should it be)understated, and even allowing for nostalgic fervour from this particular viewer, I heartily recommend this film to anyone interested in template movies for the sci-fi genre.
The George Pal-Byron Haskin production of War Of the Worlds is none too faithful to the H.G. Wells novel it's based on, yet it's an excellent movie in its own right.
The destroyed urbanizations , the deserted towns with the inhabitants getting away and the large lethal rays which emerge from aircrafts and the martians themselves, come joined and brought to life in astounding special effects and exciting spotlights .It is based on H.G.Wells novel that stays as landmark in the sci-fi history .
It's an overwhelming movie but there's also a sub-plot of the wonderful couple : Gene Barry and Robinson developing a agreeable love story.The picture deals about the survival of human being , the basic issue results to be humanity fighting an extraordinary event : a terrible martian invasion .
The story is very scary, with the indestructible Martians invaders destroying everything and everybody; the heroine screams in danger situations and looks for the arms of the hero, as usual in the movies of those years; and my only restriction refers to the religious connotation of the end of the film.
However, I can still enjoy the story with the re-make which came out in 2005, which I recently watched and enjoyed.For its day - over 50 years ago - I still think this 1953 movie had amazing special-effects.
H G Wells is rightly regarded as the creator of modern science fiction because unlike Jules Verne he was the man who introduced the concept of subtext to the genre , his novels FIRST MEN ON THE MOON and THE TIME MACHINE are really about evolution and class distinctions while WAR OF THE WORLDS is about European imperialism.The film version of WOTW is more simplified and far less interesting than the novel but still contains a subtext , though it's no longer about about European colonialism but about communist aggression .
Battles between the Martians and the army, Martian death rays frying huge numbers of people, the destruction of Los Angeles, there had been little like it before, and all this on a moderate budget, which is why the cast is strictly B Movie, although they are adequate to the film's needs.Of course to a modern audiences many aspects are dated and may even seem laughable.
All true WOTW fans know that the sounds of the "cobra" and the weapons fire are sounds you never forget..like the antenna sounds of "Them".Try to look past the re-locating and re-dating, kick back and enjoy a film that was king for 20-30 years, not topped until "2001", "Star Wars", "Close Encounters" and "Alien" came along..
The special effects are outstanding, especially the design of the Martian spaceship.****** The War of the Worlds (7/29/53) George Pal : Byron Haskin ~ Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne.
Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), aided by Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson), urgently work to find a way to defeat the invaders as the armies of the countries across the globe fall to the technologically superior Martian's war machines.In "War of the Worlds", director Byron Haskin gives a heavy nod to family and religion.
Through the use of special effects, which were state of the art for its time, the viewer comes to realize the awesome, unstoppable power of the Martian war machine..
I believe this movie won a Special Effects Academy Award.A great science fiction film faithfully depicted.
H.G. Wells wrote in 1898 a novel called The War of the Worlds.In 1953 they made a movie of that book.It tells about the Marsians invading the Earth.Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) and Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson) are two people trying to survive those angry aliens.None of the human arms seems to work for those creatures from outer space.Byron Haskin directed this thrilling sci-fi movie.Gene Barry and Ann Robinson make a terrific couple in the lead.All the other actors are great too.I could mention Lewis Martin as Pastor Dr.Matthew Collins, who's brilliant as the man of religion.Wells was an amazing writer and this movie is wonderfully made of his classic book.There are many great scenes.When the troops start to evacuate the town the people go nuts.Clayton runs in the empty streets looking for his gal.Then the Marsians come destroying the streets and it all starts to seem like the world is coming to an end.I recommend you look up in the skies every now and then....
Based on H.G. Wells's bestselling novel, which I have also read and come to enjoy."The War of the Worlds" is perhaps, even today, one of the best science-fiction movies.
You really want the army to blast these Martian creatures to kingdom come.The character the audience usually follows (especially after the war begins) is Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) who is not just the routine superfluous character (with boring personal problems) of recent horror films, but a scientist who is trying to solve the mystery of how the people of Earth can fight back before they're annihilated.
Wandering through an empty, alien-haunted wilderness with the fading reminders of human civilization would have given it a wonderful surreal touch, but it would not have been really possible given the time - and the depicted feel - of this film.Still a great sci-fi movie - a classic, and destined to remain that way.
I saw this movie as a kid in 1956 and it has left an indelible mark on the memories of my childhood.Perhaps,I am romanticizing but I think the latest version does not compare to the standard set by it.The present version revolves totally around the lead actor and thus limits characterization.Also,the ending is far too abrupt.In the earlier version,I remember scientists pondering over the invasion and at the end a fairly clear rationale for the Martians'failure.Spielberg's version depends far too much on special effects at the cost of the story.I don't think proper justice has been done to H.G.Wells seminal work.The 1953 version,I think will continue to remain the novel's definitive cinematic interpretation for the future..
The War of the Worlds is an excellent science fiction motion picture that though even at this date in history provides for an emotional as well as intellectual experience.This film had much going for it due in principal to the machines,and ray guns,not unlike what even today might excite our imagination even if you will the special effects made this a very interesting film to watch.I believe the film actually won a Oscar for its special effects.The acting is worthy of note because it is not overly slick and though this is a motion picture we are not smirking as to who do they think there fooling.It is in a manner of speaking done well,however there is more to this picture than just the capable acting and the special effects,it is a story however stretched that happens on a summer night when meteor like events come crashing down to the Earth.They don't really crash however because as we are going to learn they somehow might call this a rough landing.These events unknown initially are occurring all over the globe and both local as well as military personnel are in a hurry to oversee this unbelievable event.That event is that these are in fact the equivalent of flying saucers and a question as to mans place in the universe is made real through the picture.I don't want to take this so seriously however Iam usually not pleased when there is such firepower made available which provides for an absolutely devastating realization that the end of the world may very well be at hand.Though this is simply an interesting observation the human attempts to defeat these martians is almost meaningless.We could not penetrate there defensive shields and as smart as some of the thinking is the martians moved to quickly for an adequate counter to be developed.There machines and weapons were clearly something that was beyond this worlds ability to understand and quickly there was the end of time approaching the human race,at least here on earth.This idea of gallant in defeat is in fact unacceptable, yet it is frequently employed as a underpinning to some such set of circumstances.This is not meant to sound dubious but the rub provides a glimpse in another psychology which does not include a meaningless effort.However this is what I believe is a double edged sword and that is why I really care for this picture.It is why these pictures of another era stand up so well over time and why even today they are still so very popular.If you recall there is the religious influence had in this film which provides for a deeply felt conviction as to who we are and indeed what we in fact believe in.It is usually hard at times to determine just how we separate the wheat from the chaff however this picture provides for morality that wins the day and the salvation of the world.When the Martians lose there grip and there machines falter,it occurs as they are but a moment from putting an end to our place in the sun.The blessing brought upon the human race caused steeple bells to ring across the earth as a real injustice was attempting to lay claim to our home.This victory had is not a victory as such but a miracle not of science but of faith.This type of underpinning is worthy of long standing value and as well the solution that the picture offers is worthy as a real intelligent alternative to meaningless effort, worthless and without resolution.The fact that the martians could not breathe our air without themselves dying as a result is not the only accomplishment but one of greater value is that they were in fact the disease to begin with as they sought to conquer in order to survive.That apparently is not the best answer other wise they would of prevailed and still the picture claimed we were the world who was dirty.Ann Robinson who plays a interest of Gene Barry is very moved by her uncle(the priest)who in his very faith sought the martians out claiming that they might be nearer the creator and should be communicated with-I felt that scene was excellent and why you want so much for all the bluster to knock there block off.A loving tribute to the cloth is had in this picture and very deserved,that is because we are humbled by the darkness and made to plead in the last places left on earth which are protected by our Father who art in Heaven.There is good reason to like this film and good reason why this film is still so very respected.This though is only the movie and the ways and the hows are part of the motion picture industry,not necessarily evident but not needing to be as we have a witness that is unflinching in his dare to the night.This is not about boasting or showing off because the near death experience is a bit much and as well there is clearly shown that though we were given a reprieve as to judgment the promise is that we have work to do!There may be some ability to define love or romance however that is not what here is most important and that is salvation communicated through the merciful pleadings addressed to Our Father Who Art in Heaven.What we have is the humbling characteristic of mercy and that is why we can love.It is also not stated outright but in a manner of speaking man is put in his place with a lesson not soon to be forgotten.A very commendable attitude is had by this picture as a result of this victory..
I recently purchased the "Special Edition" DVD of the original "War of the Worlds" and with the remixed surround soundtrack and crystal clear picture it is STILL one of, if not THE best sci-fi martian invasion movie ever made.
Scientists quickly predict that unless a way of stopping the Martian attack is found they will have taken over the entire Earth in just six days times...Directed by Byron Haskin The War of the Worlds is surely the Grandfather of all alien invasion films.
Looking at "The War of the Worlds" now, it's clear that many alien invasion stories owe a big debt to this smashing H.G. Wells adaptation.The action is reset in (then) present day California, where intelligent Martian monsters land their enormous, strikingly designed vehicles.
The War of the Worlds was one of the first movies that actually gave me the creeps the first time I watched it.From the excellent special effects to the eerily futuristic-looking spaceships (which many refer to as Swan-like), this "Doomsday" film isn't the result of a wayward planet or asteroid, but from intelligent beings from another planet.
Whenever you see the name George Pal on a movie you know you are in for a special effects extravaganza and that is exactly what you get in this milestone in Science Fiction cinema history.The story needs little introduction;Martians invade Earth , emerge from their ships and set about destroying anything that stands in their way [including people] only to be killed by an invisible foe.The acting is a little hammy and you will have to hit the volume control when Ann Robinson [playing Sylvia Van Buren] starts to scream,but the special effects dominate the film!
10 years after the end of World War II, the people of Earth find themselves confronted by an even bigger enemy: the Martians.The movie is based on the novel with the same title written by H.
Aliens land, blow up various cities, are nuked (to no avail), but are defeated by a simple  thing: A common cold (just like in the novel.)This movie has great Special effects for the time, and it's update of the 1898 wells story was great.