The War of the Worlds (1953)

The War of the Worlds (also known in promotional material as H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds) is a 1953 American science fiction film directed by Byron Haskin, produced by George Pal, and starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It is the first of several feature film adaptations of H. G. Wells' 1898 novel of the same name. The setting is changed from Victorian era England to 1953 Southern California. In the film, Earth is suddenly invaded by Martians, and American scientist Clayton Forrester searches for any weakness to stop them.
The War of the Worlds won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and went on to influence other science fiction films. In 2011, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress, who deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
==Plot==
In Southern California, Dr. Clayton Forrester, a well-known atomic scientist, is fishing with colleagues when a large object crashes near the small town of Linda Rosa, California, southeast of Corona. At the impact site, he meets USC library science instructor Sylvia Van Buren and her uncle, Pastor Matthew Collins. Later that night, a round hatch on the object unscrews and falls away. As the three men standing guard at the site attempt to make contact while waving a white flag, a Martian heat-ray obliterates them. The United States Marine Corps later surrounds the crash site, as reports pour in of identical cylinders landing all over the world and destroying cities. Three Martian war machines emerge from the cylinder. Pastor Collins attempts to make contact with the aliens, but he is disintegrated. The Marines open fire, but are unable to penetrate the Martians' force field. The aliens counterattack with their heat-ray and skeleton-beam death ray weapons, sending the Marines into full retreat. Air force jets next attack the Martian war machines, but are annihilated.
Attempting to escape in a small, single engine military spotter plane, Forrester and Sylvia crash land and hide in an abandoned farmhouse. They begin to develop closer feelings for each other just before the house is buried by yet another crashing cylinder. A long cable with an electronic eye explores the farmhouse from a nearby war machine and eventually spots them, but Forrester cuts off the lens housing using an axe. Later, when a Martian enters and approaches Sylvia, Forrester injures it with the axe and collects its blood on a cloth. They escape just before the farmhouse is obliterated by the Martian heat-ray. Forrester takes the electronic eye and blood sample to his team at Pacific Tech in the hope of finding a way to defeat the invaders. The scientists discover how the Martian eye works and also note that the alien blood is extremely anemic.
Many of the major world capitals fall silent, and global Martian victory is estimated to be only six days away. The United States government makes the decision to drop an atomic bomb on the original group of Martian war machines advancing towards Los Angeles from the east near the Puente Hills. The atomic blast, however, is totally ineffective as the Martian war machines are protected by electromagnetic shields, resembling glass domes as they become briefly visible. As the aliens continue their advance on Los Angeles, the city is evacuated. The Pacific Tech trucks are stopped by a mob bent on escape, and all the scientific equipment is destroyed. Forrester, Sylvia, and the other scientists become separated in the chaos.
Forrester searches for Sylvia in the deserted city. Based on a story she had told him earlier, he guesses she would take refuge in a church. After searching through several, he finds Sylvia among many praying and injured survivors. Just as the Martians attack near the church, their machines suddenly lose power one after the other and crash. Forrester sees one of the aliens expire while trying to leave its fallen war machine. The narrator observes that though the Martians were impervious to humanity's weapons, they had "no resistance to the bacteria in our atmosphere to which we have long since become immune. After all that men could do had failed, they were destroyed and humanity was saved by the littlest things, which God, in His wisdom, had put upon this Earth".
==Cast==
==Reception==
===Release===
The official Hollywood premiere of The War of the Worlds was on February 20, 1953, although it did not go into general theatrical release until late that year. The film was both a critical and box-office success. The film accrued $2,000,000 in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals, making the film the year's biggest science fiction hit. ("Rentals" refers to the distributor and studio's share of the box-office gross, which, according to Gebert, is roughly half of the money generated by ticket sales.)Gebert 1996 
===Critical reaction===
In The New York Times, A. H. Weiler's review commented: "[The film is] an imaginatively conceived, professionally turned adventure, which makes excellent use of Technicolor, special effects by a crew of experts, and impressively drawn backgrounds ... Director Byron Haskin, working from a tight script by Barré Lyndon, has made this excursion suspenseful, fast and, on occasion, properly chilling".Weiler, A. H. (as A. W.), "The Screen in Review: New Martian Invasion Is Seen in War of the Worlds, Which Bows at Mayfair." The New York Times, August 14, 1953. Retrieved: January 11, 2015. "Brog" in Variety said, "[It is] a socko science-fiction feature, as fearsome as a film as was the Orson Welles 1938 radio interpretation ... what starring honors there are go strictly to the special effects, which create an atmosphere of soul-chilling apprehension so effectively [that] audiences will actually take alarm at the danger posed in the picture. It can't be recommended for the weak-hearted, but to the many who delight in an occasional good scare, it's socko entertainment of hackle-raising quality"."Brog".Variety, April 6, 1953.Willis 1985 The Monthly Film Bulletin of the UK called it "the best of the postwar American science-fiction films; the Martian machines have a quality of real terror, their sinister apparitions, prowlings and pulverisings are spectacularly well done, and the scenes of panic and destruction are staged with real flair". Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called it "to put it gently, terrific", and "for my money, the King Kong of its day".
The War of the Worlds won an Academy Award for Special Effects as the sole nominee that year. Everett Douglas was nominated for Film Editing, and the Paramount Studio Sound Department and Loren L. Ryder were nominated for Sound Recording."The 26th Academy Awards (1954) Nominees and Winners." oscars.org. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
The War of the Worlds still receives high acclaim from some critics. On the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 89% rating based on 35 critics, with an average rating of 7.20/10. The consensus states: "Though it's dated in spots, The War of the Worlds retains an unnerving power, updating H. G. Wells's classic sci-fi tale to the Cold War era and featuring some of the best special effects of any 1950s film"."'The War of the Worlds'." Rotten Tomatoes (Fandango). Retrieved: July 10, 2022.
==4K restoration==
In 2018, a new, fully restored 4K Dolby Vision transfer from the original three-strip Technicolor negatives was published on iTunes. In July 2020, the film was reissued on Blu-ray and DVD by The Criterion Collection in the United States using the same 4K remaster and restoration. The Blu-ray documentation says the transfer process and careful color and contrast calibrations allowed the special effects to be restored to Technicolor release print quality.
==Legacy==
The War of the Worlds was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant in 2011 by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry."Artsbeat:'Silence of the Lambs', 'Bambi', and 'Forrest Gump' added to National Film Registry." The New York Times, December 27, 2011. Retrieved: January 11, 2015. The Registry noted the film's release during the early years of the Cold War and how it used "the apocalyptic paranoia of the atomic age"."2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates." Library of Congress, December 28, 2011. Retrieved: January 11, 2015. The Registry also cited the special effects, which at its release were called "soul-chilling, hackle-raising, and not for the faint of heart".
The Martians were ranked the 27th best villains in the American Film Institute's list AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains.
The 1988 War of the Worlds TV series is a sequel to the Pal film. Ann Robinson reprises her role as Sylvia Van Buren in three episodes. Robinson also reprises her role in two other films, first as Dr. Van Buren in 1988's Midnight Movie Massacre and then as Dr. Sylvia Van Buren in 2005's The Naked Monster."Ann Robinson Biography." Film Reference. Retrieved: January 12, 2015.
The 1996 film Independence Day has several allusions to Pal's 1953 War of the Worlds. The failed attempt of a dropped atomic bomb is replaced with a nuclear-armed cruise missile launched by a B-2 Spirit bomber (a direct descendant of the Northrop YB-49 bomber in the 1953 film) and Captain Hiller being based in El Toro, California, which Dr. Forrester mentions as the home of the Marines, which make the first assault on the invading Martians in Pal's film.Aberly and Engel 1996, p. 86.
The Asylum's 2005 direct-to-DVD H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds has mild references to the Pal version. The Martian's mouth has three tongues that closely resemble the three Martian fingers in the Pal film. The Asylum film has scenes of power outages after the aliens' arrival via meteorite-ships. As in the Pal film, refugees hide in the mountains, instead of hiding underground as in the Wells novel, and the protagonist actively tries to fight the aliens by biological means.Breihan, Tom. "=Mockbuster video." Grantland.com, October 10, 2012. Retrieved: January 12, 2015.
Steven Spielberg's 2005 version, War of the Worlds, although an adaptation of the Wells novel, has several references to the 1953 film. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson have cameo appearances near the end, and the invading aliens have three-fingered hands but are reptilian, walking tripods. A long, snaking, alien camera probe is deployed by the invaders.Desowitz, Bill. "War of the Worlds: A Post 9/11 Digital Attack." VFXWorld, July 7, 2005. Retrieved: January 12, 2015. In his 2018 film Ready Player One, Spielberg included a fallen Martian war machine more akin to the 1953 film.
Tomohiro Nishikado, creator of the breakthrough 1978 video game Space Invaders, stated that seeing the film in childhood was one of the inspirations for the inclusion and the design of the aliens in the game.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 named one of its lead characters, the mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester, as a homage to the 1953 film."Mystery Science Theater 3000." Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved: January 12, 2015.
In 2004, War of the Worlds was presented with a Retrospective Hugo Award for 1954 in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation — Short Form (works running 90 minutes or less).http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1954-retro-hugo-awards/ . Retrieved February 20, 2018.
==See also==
* List of works based on The War of the Worlds
==References==
===Bibliography===
* Aberly, Rachel and Volker Engel. The Making of Independence Day. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1996. .
* Adamson, Joe. The Walter Lantz Story: with Woody Woodpecker and Friends. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985. .
* Booker, M. Keith. Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Cinema. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010. 
* Gebert, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. .
* Hickman, Gail Morgan. The Films of George Pal. New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1977. .
* Miller, Thomas Kent. Mars in the Movies: A History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2016. .
* Parish, James Robert and Michael R. Pitts. The Great Science Fiction Pictures. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1977. .
* Rubin, Steve. "The War of the Worlds". Cinefantastique magazine, Volume 5, No. 4, 1977. A comprehensive "making of" retrospective and review of the film.
* Strick, Philip. Science Fiction Movies. London: Octopus Books Limited, 1976. .
* Warren, Bill. Keep Watching The Skies Vol I: 1950–1957. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1982. .
* Willis, Don, ed. Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985. .
==External links==
* 
* The Complete War of the Worlds Website
* The War of the Worlds: Sky on Fire an essay by J. Hoberman at the Criterion Collection
* Making of the movie
* Interview with War of the Worlds star Ann Robinson
* The War of the Worlds on Lux Radio Theater: February 8, 1955. Adaptation of 1953 film.
* The War of the Worlds (1953) in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies. at Angry Alien Productions
* The War of the Worlds - A Radio and Film Score Remembrance 
Category:1953 films
Category:1950s science fiction films
Category:Alien invasions in films
Category:American disaster films
Category:American science fiction war films
Category:Apocalyptic films
Category:Films about extraterrestrial life
Category:Films about nuclear war and weapons
Category:Films about the United States Marine Corps
Category:Films about the United States Army
Category:Films adapted into television shows
Category:Films based on The War of the Worlds
Category:Films directed by Byron Haskin
Category:Films produced by George Pal
Category:Films scored by Leith Stevens
Category:Films set in Los Angeles
Category:Films set in the 1950s
Category:Films shot in California
Category:Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:1950s English-language films
Category:1950s American films