June 30, 2005 -- More than a century after Herbert George Wells wrote the book and half a century after Hollywood first attempted it, “War of the Worlds” is back on the big screen and better than ever. The new film, featuring one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Tom Cruise, and one of its best directors, Steven Spielberg, owes much of its power to fears of terrorism. Spielberg has crafted a powerful film by emphasizing the powerlessness of its hero and showing how little he knows about what is menacing the world. The way the people in this film seem to feel about the terror that stalks them must be the same way that New Yorkers felt immediately after the attacks of September 11, or the way that Iraqis feel now.

Cruise stars as Ray Ferrier, a dock worker who is saddled with his kids, Robbie and Rachel (Justin Chatwin of “Taking Lives” and Dakota Fanning of “Man on Fire”) for a weekend while his divorced wife and her husband travel to Boston. Shortly after the kids arrive, alien invaders strike the city in giant machines which walk about on long tripod legs, spewing death rays. The invasion starts with electromagnetic pulses which fry all electronic equipment. The Ferriers flee the city in one of the few working automobiles.

There is no letup in the action for the rest of the movie. The Ferriers are constantly on the run for their lives. There is no television, no newspapers and little information on the radio. Ray is able to get a little bit of news from a TV news van, but he is able to learn very little about the worldwide menace which threatens to wipe out all humans. He hears conflicting rumors. All he knows is that everyone is in terrible danger and that all weapons seem useless against the monstrous tripod machines. This sense of constant anxiety is the most potent effect of the film.

Spielberg embraces the long history of this story with several poignant homages to past works, including the famous Orson Welles 1938 radio broadcast. The character of Ogilvy (played by Tim Robbins of “Mystic River”) seems to be directly lifted from the famous radio play (Ogilvy was also a character in the book). Ogilvy, who has gone mad, plots in his farmhouse cellar, planning the overthrow of the aliens. Several scenes in the same cellar are strikingly similar to scenes from the 1953 film, including the periscope-like alien device and actual aliens poking about. The aliens are marvelous digital animation effects. Another scene with a three-fingered alien hand emerging from a tripod machine is almost exactly the same as a scene from the 1953 film. Ann Robinson and Gene Barry, who starred in the 1953 film, have cameo roles in the 2005 film. The 1953 film had marvelous special effects, but terrible acting and dialogue. Yet another homage is for a movie that Spielberg watched repeatedly as a child, “Invaders From Mars” (1953). A scene in the 2005 film with a silhouetted rail fence on a hillside is very similar to a fence that figures prominently in the earlier film. “Invaders From Mars,” like the 2005 film, also featured alien invaders lurking underground.

As in previous adaptations, Spielberg has wisely retained the elegant, off-screen narrations at the beginning and end of the film. This time the narrator is Morgan Freeman of “Million Dollar Baby.” He reads the famous, chilling opening lines from the book, which include the following:
“Yet, across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”

Production values are high, as you would expect from this kind of top-shelf project. Spielberg has his usual merry band of collaborators, including cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and the musical score is by the great John Williams. The impeccable production design is by Rick Carter (“Artificial Intelligence: AI”). The acting by Cruise and the others is solid. The story is tight, powerful, suspenseful and lean. This film rates a B+.

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Copyright © 2005 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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