In a small California town, a meteor crashes on the outskirts that while of considerable size carries several aberrations that defy explanation even with the expertise of Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) who is vacationing in the vicinity when the meteor impacts. Eventually the meteor reveals itself to be a transport of alien origin and unleashes war machines that are invulnerable to attack and fire weapons that leave nothing in their wake. With professor of Library Science Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson) in tow, Dr. Forrester attempts to escape the alien onslaught as military forces the world over struggle to contain the invasion which is affecting every continent across the globe.
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science-fiction film that is an adaptation of the 1897 H. G. Wells story of the same name. Paramount had acquired the rights to Wells' novel in the 1920s as a possible vehicle for Cecil B. DeMille, but the project was eventually shelved and fell into development hell with a number of various parties such as Alfred Hitchcock and Gaumont-British all trying and failing to make adaptations of the film, but Orson Welles did adapt the story as a radio drama in 1938. Eventually the rights circled back to Paramount who assigned producer George Pal to the project whom Paramount had experienced success with their previous collaboration When Worlds Collide. Upon release the film was a critical and financial hit despite the earlier release of a similarly themed film, Invaders from Mars, earlier in the year with critics lauding the film's scale and effects work with Gordon Jennings who died prior to the film's opening posthumously winning an Academy Award for his work. The War of the Worlds encapsulates many of the tropes of 1950s sci-fi, but it's also one of the largest and most visually audacious of that wave.
In terms of characterization, the movie gives us two not particularly deep but nonetheless likable characters in Dr. Clayton Forrester (a source of a certain character from MST3K) and Sylvia van Buren played by Gene Barry and Ann Robinson respectively who while they're not the richest in terms of characterization are quite likable and engaging leads who do their job in serving as audience proxies. The real star of the movie is the effects work and scale presented with Jennings' realization of the Martian invaders visually impressive with a rich display of colors and effects that provide a unique and memorable experience. As the movie takes us through the large scale invasion where all of Earth's weaponry including the atomic bomb are thrown at the invaders with no success, the movie gets bleaker and more apocalyptic while still remaining visually beautiful.
The War of the Worlds isn't the best sci-fi film of the 50s (that honor belongs to The Day the Earth Stood Still), but it's undeniably the biggest and most visually memorable of that era of sci-fi filmmaking with unique designs of the alien ships and creatures and fully realized destruction with good usage of stock footage, miniatures, and pyrotechnics. A solid film that while definitely a time capsule of its cold-war era remains enjoyable.
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science-fiction film that is an adaptation of the 1897 H. G. Wells story of the same name. Paramount had acquired the rights to Wells' novel in the 1920s as a possible vehicle for Cecil B. DeMille, but the project was eventually shelved and fell into development hell with a number of various parties such as Alfred Hitchcock and Gaumont-British all trying and failing to make adaptations of the film, but Orson Welles did adapt the story as a radio drama in 1938. Eventually the rights circled back to Paramount who assigned producer George Pal to the project whom Paramount had experienced success with their previous collaboration When Worlds Collide. Upon release the film was a critical and financial hit despite the earlier release of a similarly themed film, Invaders from Mars, earlier in the year with critics lauding the film's scale and effects work with Gordon Jennings who died prior to the film's opening posthumously winning an Academy Award for his work. The War of the Worlds encapsulates many of the tropes of 1950s sci-fi, but it's also one of the largest and most visually audacious of that wave.
In terms of characterization, the movie gives us two not particularly deep but nonetheless likable characters in Dr. Clayton Forrester (a source of a certain character from MST3K) and Sylvia van Buren played by Gene Barry and Ann Robinson respectively who while they're not the richest in terms of characterization are quite likable and engaging leads who do their job in serving as audience proxies. The real star of the movie is the effects work and scale presented with Jennings' realization of the Martian invaders visually impressive with a rich display of colors and effects that provide a unique and memorable experience. As the movie takes us through the large scale invasion where all of Earth's weaponry including the atomic bomb are thrown at the invaders with no success, the movie gets bleaker and more apocalyptic while still remaining visually beautiful.
The War of the Worlds isn't the best sci-fi film of the 50s (that honor belongs to The Day the Earth Stood Still), but it's undeniably the biggest and most visually memorable of that era of sci-fi filmmaking with unique designs of the alien ships and creatures and fully realized destruction with good usage of stock footage, miniatures, and pyrotechnics. A solid film that while definitely a time capsule of its cold-war era remains enjoyable.