War of the Worlds Analysis

War of the Worlds

A New Jersey crane operator and hopeless father, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), has

his weekend with his kids interrupted by alien invaders who have come to destroy Earth

and its inhabitants. We follow the Ferrier family as they struggle to survive the

extermination attempt as they herd along the east coast. Along the way their relationships

are tested as they learn more and more about each other, and mankind.

Accompanying Cruise on the screen is a very impressive Dakota Fanning as

Ray's 10 year old daughter, Justin Chatwin is his typical teenage son, and Tim Robbins

plays a paranoid survivor that the family bunks up with for a few nights. Over all the

acting is suffice, like I said; Fanning takes the cake in her role, where everyone else pulls

off the performances needed. However I am not telling you to see this movie because of

the acting. It is the special effects, sound effects, action, and mainly the techniques used

by Spielberg to tell the story is what you will enjoy.

The entire film is from the one family's point of view. This works great because

the audience is more able to attach themselves to the characters. Unlike Independence

Day, which had several "main" characters and just as many story lines, the audience had

to settle as more of an omniscient observer than a participant. This also contributes to the

pacing of the movie. War of the Worlds stays well paced with action and exposition, until

a slow spot when Robbins's character is introduced. In ID4, because of all those

characters and story set up, that film goes forty-five minutes before any real action scene,

where the first action sequence is only fifteen minutes into War of the Worlds.

War of the Worlds opened in theaters June 29th and has a DVD release date of

November 11th, 2005. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, who has a few films under his

belt that I am sure you have heard of, not to mention a film which deals with aliens,

though of a different motivation, E.T. It is based on the novel written by H.G. Wells, who

also penned novels like; The Time Machine, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. Wells's book

was adapted to screenplay by David Koepp, who also adapted Jurassic Parks 1 and 2, and

Spider Man. The film's executive producer was Paula Wagner, and was distributed by

Paramount Pictures.

This movie is good for a number of reasons. It is very entertaining and can be

watched and enjoyed on that level alone. However there is a multitude of sublevels

intertwined into this film and that is what I found most interesting. A brief history

reminder, Orson Welles, the actor, writer, and director of Citizen Kane, used to have a

radio theater show. On October 30th, 1938, they broadcasted a dramatic news account

version of H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds. His "play" about invaders from Mars,

caused a panic as people hid in basements, fled from the city, loaded their guns, and even

went to the radio station to see the event. This situation has since been studied and is a

source for trying to predict how a mass amount of people might react or handle

themselves in state of wide emergency. Spielberg's movie is no different. It embraces and

experiments with a modern day panicking public. Koepp uses miss communications,

society break down, attitudes of survival of the fittest, where even with an outside force,

we can be a threat to each other. These themes are to demonstrate how he thinks that even

in our advanced technological state, as a species, we have learned very little in the last

sixty-seven years.

Another comment I think Koepp makes with his script is why the aliens have

come to Earth. The entire movie never answers this question directly, but I think Koepp

shows the audience the alien's motivation through his writing and imagery. As

mentioned, Cruise's character, Ferrier, sits a