The War of the Worlds (1953)
Genre:
Action / Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller (more)
Tagline: Mighty panorama of Earth-shaking fury as an army from Mars invades! (more)
Plot Outline: The film adaptation of the H.G.Wells story told on radio of the invasion of Earth by Martians. (more) (view trailer)
User Comments:
An Effective Sci-Fi Thriller
(more)
User Rating:
7.1/10 (5,276 votes)
Also Known As: Guerre des mondes, La (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr] Kampf der Welten (Austria) (West Germany) [de] Guerra de los mundos, La (Spain) [es] Guerra dei mondi, La (Italy) [it] Maailmojen sota (Finland) [fi] Oorlog der werelden (Belgium: Flemish title) [un] Världarnas krig (Sweden) [sv] Wojna swiatów (Poland) [pl]
Runtime:
85 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor) / Black and White
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording) / Stereo (Western Electric Multi-Track Magnetic Stereophonic)
Certification:
USA:G (video rating) / USA:Approved (PCA #16011) (original rating) / Australia:PG / Finland:K-16 / Norway:16 (1954) / Sweden:15 / UK:PG (video rating) (1986) / UK:X (original rating) / West Germany:12 / Canada:G
Trivia:
The heat ray was burning welding wire with a blowtorch forcing the sparks off of it.
(more)
Goofs:
Continuity: Strings can be seen suspending the Martian War Machines in the air.
(more)
Quotes:
[first lines]
Radio Reporter:
[voiceover] In the First World War, and for the first time in the history of man, nations combined to fight against nations using the crude weapons of those days. The Second World War involved every continent on the globe, and men turned to science for new devices of warfare, which reached an unparalleled peak in their capacity for destruction. And now, fought with the terrible weapons of super-science, menacing all mankind and every creature on the Earth comes the War of the Worlds.
(more)
Awards:
Won Oscar.
Another 2 wins
&
2 nominations
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User Comments:
30 out of 32 people found the following comment useful:-
An Effective Sci-Fi Thriller, 13 July 2003
Author:
Lechuguilla from Dallas, Texas
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. The martian machines, vaguely
resembling "legless swans", are both beautiful and terrifying. They move
slowly, in a graceful but calculating manner. They warn of their approach
with an eerie, unearthly "pinging" sound.
In the scene where the priest walks toward one of the "swans", the aliens do
not impulsively open fire. Instead, they wait. The cruel "eye" peers down
on the priest, studying him, in a foreboding prelude to his inevitable
annihilation.
Other scenes in the first half also convey this needed sense of alien
coldness. We can, therefore, forgive the film for its somewhat corny
plot.
The film's second half is weaker because the aliens have to compete for
screen time with Los Angeles mob scenes, a showy and irksome display of
American military hardware, and dry narration of military war tactics. 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".
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