War of the Worlds Review

WAR OF THE WORLDS
DIRECTED BY: Steven Spielberg
WRITTEN BY: David Koepp & Josh Friedman
STARRING: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto & Tim Robbins.

Whether we’re talking Independence Day or the TV series V (which Independence Day plagiarized outright), Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Thing or even the Alien films; the concept of mankind falling prey to a dominant alien species is one that seems to massage the film-going public’s paranoia in a highly profitable way. Despite attempts at originality, all alien invasion films unavoidably riff on the one original story that spawned them: H.G Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

A member of the socialist Fabian society in London, H.G Wells’ writing allowed him to espouse his left wing ideals on the state of contemporary society and politics within the confines of a fantasy adventure story. Wells’ was inspired to write The War of the Worlds, ostensibly a damning of British Colonialism, after a conversation with his brother, regarding the 8,000 Aboriginal inhabitants of Tasmania who were decimated after the arrival of English settlers in Australia. Wells’ idea for The War of the Worlds sprang from the thought of what might happen if such an indifferent and technologically superior race was to land in England and exterminate the populous with such unsympathetic determination.

Orson Welles’ 1938 Halloween radio play of The War of the Worlds set the scene for the alien invasion at Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. This stateside tailoring of the quintessentially English story cemented the pre-WWII paranoia that was latent in the hearts of the American public, when the broadcast caused widespread panic and mass evacuations. George Pal’s 1958 version of The War of the Worlds (like Orson Welles’ radio play) also set the invasion at Grover’s Mill, New Jersey and tapped into the cold-war paranoia that was creeping across the globe. Fast-forward 46 years and uber-auteur Steven Spielberg is exploiting post-9/11 tensions in his own interpretation of the story: mixing hard-core science fiction and intimate familial drama.

In 2005’s War of the Worlds, screenwriter David Koepp has (once again) set the U.S invasion epicenter in New Jersey, focusing the story on Ray Ferrier (Cruise) a crane operator at the local dockyards who’s late picking up his young daughter Rachel (Fanning) and teenage son Robbie (Chatwin) from ex-wife Mary-Anne (Otto) for a rare weekend stay with their Dad. This further widens the already huge gap between ‘dead-beat Dad’ Ray and his kids, who think their father is an irresponsible loser who only cares about himself. After a ferocious lightening storm strikes in the town centre, the inhabitants worst nightmares are realized as huge ‘Tripods’ – alien walkers, ascend from deep underground and begin to systematically destroy every living thing in their path. A terrified and dumbstruck Ray loads his kids into the only working truck he can steal
and they hurriedly evacuate as the Tripods advance, destroying everything behind them. Thinking that he’s not up to the task of looking after his kids in a crisis, Ray heads for Boston in order to drop off his kids with someone infinitely more responsible than he is, his ex-wife. But in the ordeal that awaits Ray, he begins to find a semblance of the fatherhood that he’s lost and therefore some kind of redemption; to become the sort of father he should have been all along.

There are some great performances here; most noteworthy is Fanning, who’s extraordinarily naturalistic as Rachel, particularly in her opening scenes with Cruise. Cruise is always willing to take risks in his roles and in the kinds of films he appears in (which is something he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for) and he’s always up for portraying less-than-likeable characters, yet somehow he always allows an audience to connect. This has been most obvious in roles like P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia (the misogynistic Frank TJ Mackey was a role that could well have backfired) and in Michael Mann’s Collateral as the sociopath killer Vincent. Here, as the deeply flawed, not-so-great father Ray Ferrier, Cruise is in top form and make no mistake, he’s no action hero, Cruise plays him as an average guy just trying to keep his family alive.

Typically for Spielberg, family is the primary theme here yet the films undeniable attractions are its set pieces. There is no other filmmaker alive today who can pull off an action set piece as well as Spielberg and once the films spectacle kicks into high gear, it is jaw dropping. In keeping with the disturbing and dark tone, the destruction comes thick and fast and there are many sequences that stick in the mind such as a particularly harrowing sequence featuring a Tripod attacking a car ferry laden with hundreds of survivors and a surreal sequence featuring captured survivors and their ultimate use for the alien invaders. Longtime Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski’s Cinematography in these sequences is surprisingly similar to the style he employed with Saving Private Ryan, shooting handheld, gritty and low, making the audience feel like eyewitnesses rather than mere observers. For the most part, everything is shot from the perspective of Ray and his family, if they don’t see it, we don’t see it. This almost-documentary style works particularly well during the first Tripod attack scene as people are disintegrated and turned to ash as they run in terror; their ashen remains and shredded clothing billow in the wind and settle on the survivors who run behind them. This is a particularly visceral sequence amplified all the more by the familiar 9/11 images of ghost-people covered with ash. Although the story’s similarity to H.G Wells’ original is tenuous, there are major plot parallels and all in all, it’s an admirable update. The tone (and denouement) of the book remains intact, as do the formidable images of the Tripods and the Red Weed. It’s also worth noting that this film took seven months to complete, from cameras first rolling in 2004 to the release in theatres for summer 2005; a stunning achievement for any filmmaker but given that this was the biggest budget Spielberg’s worked with to date, it’s no mean feat. Despite the hype (and the Katie/Tom overkill) War of the Worlds shows that Spielberg can still roll this kind of accomplished entertainment out of his sleeves in a matter of months, at a time when many of his contemporaries (Revenge of the Sith anyone?) can barely manage a passable intelligent summer blockbuster. War of the Worlds is a visually stunning, disturbing and visceral piece of work and it’s a fitting addition to the finer films in Spielberg’s oeuvre.

JARROD WALKER