H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds had been on Paramount Pictures' docket since the silent era, when it was optioned as a potential Cecil B. DeMille production. When Paramount finally got around to a filming the Wells novel, the property was firmly in the hands of special-effects maestro George Pal. Like Orson Welles' infamous 1938 radio adaptation, the film eschews Wells' original Victorian England setting for a contemporary American locale, in this case Southern California. A meteorlike object crash-lands near the small town of Linda Rosa. Among the crowd of curious onlookers is Pacific Tech scientist Gene Barry, who strikes up a friendship with Ann Robinson, the niece of local minister Lewis Martin. Because the meteor is too hot to approach at present, Barry decides to wait a few days to investigate, leaving three townsmen to guard the strange, glowing object. Left alone, the three men decide to approach the meterorite, and are evaporated for their trouble. It turns out that this is no meteorite, but an invading spaceship from the planet Mars. The hideous-looking Martians utilize huge, mushroomlike flying ships, equipped with heat rays, to pursue the helpless earthlings. When the military is called in, the Martians demonstrated their ruthlessness by "zapping" Ann's minister uncle, who'd hoped to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the standoff. As Barry and Ann seek shelter, the Martians go on a destructive rampage. Nothing-not even an atom-bomb blast-can halt the Martian death machines. The film's climax occurs in a besieged Los Angeles, where Barry fights through a crowd of refugees and looters so that he may be reunited with Ann in Earth's last moments of existence. In the end, the Martians are defeated not by science or the military, but by bacteria germs-or, to quote H.G. Wells, "the humblest things that God in his wisdom has put upon the earth." Forty years' worth of progressively improving special effects have not dimmed the brilliance of George Pal's War of the Worlds. Even on television, Pal's Oscar-winning camera trickery is awesome to behold. So indelible an impression has this film made on modern-day sci-fi mavens that, when a 1988 TV version of War of the Worlds was put together, it was conceived as a direct sequel to the 1953 film, rather than a derivation of the Wells novel or the Welles radio production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Special Features
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Commentary by actors Ann Robinson and Gene Barry
Commentary by film director Joe Dante, film historian Bob Burns and Bill Warren, author of Keep Watching the Skies!
The Sky Is Falling: Making The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells: The father of science fiction
The Mercury Theatre on the Air presents The War of the Worlds radio broadcast
Original theatrical trailer
Full-screen format
Dolby Digital English 2.0 Surround, English Mono and French Mono
English subtitles
Region
1
Languages
English
French
Audio
Dolby Digital w/ 4 channels of sound from a 2-channel stereo mix.
Dolby Digital Mono
Chapters
Disc #1 -- The War of the Worlds
1. Main Title and Prologue
2. Meteor Strikes at Pine Summit
3. Martians Reveal Themselves
4. The Military Arrives
5. War Begins
6. The Farm House
7. A World in Retreat
8. Captured Martian Electronic Eye Examined
9. The A-Bomb
10. Los Angeles Evacuated
11. Mob Rule
12. Martian Attack on Los Angeles
13. The Beginning of the End
Menu
Disc #1 -- The War of the Worlds
Play
Set Up
English 2.0 Surround
English Mono
Français Mono
Commentary by Actors Ann Robinson and Gene Barry
Commentary by Film Director Joe Dante, Film Historian Bob Burns and Bill Warren, Author of Keep Watching the Skies!
English Subtitles
No Subtitles
Special Features
Commentary by Actors Ann Robinson and Gene Barry
Commentary by Film Director Joe Dante, Film Historian Bob Burns and Bill Warren, Author of Keep Watching the Skies!
The Sky Is Falling: Making The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells: The Father of Science Fiction
The Mercury Theatre on the Air Presents The War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast
DVD Release Dates
