WAR OF THE WORLDS

A series of terrifying lightning strikes heralds the awakening of some gigantic alien machines that begin to sow panic among humans. The worker Ray Ferrier will attempt to escape the hostile intentions of the invaders and save his two children whom his ex-wife had left with him for the weekend. "War of the Worlds" is one of the most famous titles in the history of science fiction, but not only in cinema. In 1898, H.G. Wells wrote a short novel that became a great success and is still recognized today as a classic; the title of the novel was precisely "War of the Worlds". But the public success and the reputation of a classic were increased by a curious episode that entered the history of mass communications as a perfect example of how the media can influence the public's consciousness. It was 1938 and a young Orson Welles conducted the radio broadcast "Mercury theatre on air"; on October 30, Welles decided to read "War of the Worlds" live, narrating it as if it were a radio news broadcast. The result was that many listeners believed that the Martians had actually attacked the United States and in a small town in New Jersey (the place that Welles had described as the scene of the event) mass panic even broke out. "War of the Worlds" first appeared in cinema in 1953 in the eponymous film directed by Byron Haskin. The film was a huge box office success and is considered one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s, even winning an unexpected Oscar for special effects. In 2005, with the intention of evoking and exorcising the ghosts of September 11, Steven Spielberg attempts the remake card and we find ourselves facing a new "War of the Worlds". In reality, Spielberg has done more than a simple remake; he has completely reinvented a story already known, giving it a new depth and a new meaning, as well as the unsettling realism that only modern special effects can confer. First of all, Spielberg visibly deviates from the original genre to which "War of the Worlds" belongs and thus contaminates classic science fiction with modern disaster cinema and the more typical suggestions of horror. "War of the Worlds" can therefore be considered for many reasons to also belong to the horror genre, becoming in some points really unsettling, such as in the very successful scene of the boat or the long sequence in the basement. Elements of desperate terror and pessimism emerge from the macabre scene of the bodies in the river or the apocalyptic train on fire that crosses the level crossing. Of course, "War of the Worlds" is essentially a Spielberg film and although it belongs to "adult" Spielberg, one can read an innate underlying goodwill, further emphasized by a somewhat ineffective moralistic framework (directly from the novel). The theme dearest to Spielberg, namely the family, is also present here and is explained through the disastrous family situation of Ray, played by a convincing Tom Cruise. Ray Ferrier is a worker with a failed marriage behind him and two children. His ex-wife (played by Miranda Otto) has remarried and periodically brings her children to Ray, as decided by the court. But Ray has a difficult relationship with his children, especially with the older one, a teenager who considers his father a failure. Therefore, Spielberg presents us with a broken family, somewhat distant from his usual optics of a happy family embodying the achievement of the American dream, although, as is the classic tradition, horror and the situation of danger will at least partially mend family relationships. If the characters of the new "War of the Worlds" have been completely rewritten compared to the old version and the tone seems definitely more adult and less "pop" compared to the past, the basic goal may nevertheless seem similar. Essentially, the two films are equivalent as a metaphor for rampant xenophobia. In Haskin's film, the alien invasion, which begins precisely in the United States, was read as a metaphor for the fear of a communist victory during the Cold War (not coincidentally, the aliens come from Mars, the red planet, the color symbol of communism). The same reading, often abused, was attributable to a good part of the science fiction films produced in those years and it seems that this "political-social" tendency has returned punctually following the US intervention in the Middle East and the terrorist attacks against the West. In the 2005 version of "War of the Worlds", the true horror emerges precisely from the catastrophe, the destruction that the alien invasion causes to man and his territory. In a significant scene, the young Dakota Fanning, who plays Ray-Cruise's daughter, terrified asks her father if they are in the middle of a terrorist attack. Beyond any sociological reading, Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" is nevertheless an excellent entertainment film, adequately exciting and adrenaline-pumping. Excellent direction, excellent actors, and excellent special effects. Perhaps the look of the aliens is slightly disappointing, too little unsettling in their physical appearance, especially when compared to their mechanical extensions, the tripods (but the look of the Martians in Haskin's film is also disappointing), but the choice to make them a sort of vampires is certainly spot on. Great spectacle and fundamental piece in the renewed trend of contaminating fantastic cinema with contemporary societal fears: "War of the Worlds" is a remarkable film and, although far from perfect, deserves more than one viewing.