wow

THE FLICK: As the rather shoddy cover art on the new collector’s edition DVD implies, George Pal’s The War of the Worlds was the Independence Day of its time. All action, spectacle, blinding light and booming sound, it was the invasion film that subsequent B-movie producers aspired to create but never achieved. Working from H.G. Welles novel (which set the action in Victorian London and accessorized the alien ships with tentacle-like legs), Pal expertly transposed the story into ‘50s American culture and emulated the newsreel docudrama success of Orson Welles 1938 radio broadcast. And while Pal, the producer who made sci-fi respectable with When Worlds Collide and The Time Machine, gets most of the accolades, he shares credit here with director Byron Haskin and a team of effects technicians that deliver otherworldly destruction on a grand scale. From the first appearance of the alien ship, a snake-like appendage poking out of a glowing meteor, War of the Worlds creates a tangible menace; indestructible, unstoppable, and bent on wiping the Earth clean of its native residents. Sure, the new DVD transfer makes it much easier to see the wires, but the alien onslaught is still intense in its progression from mysterious meteors to scout ships to a full on armada that shrugs off the power of the atom bomb. And the human element is far from ignored. Although stars Gene Barry and Ann Robinson don’t make it on most highlight reels of the film, Haskin provides them with dramatic moments (the farmhouse sequence comes to mind) that go far beyond the “dedicated scientist” and “pretty assistant” roles prevalent in the genre. In fact, it’s the blossoming of their relationship in the midst of a worldwide apocalypse that makes the film infinitely more relatable than Earth vs. The Flying Saucers or any number of pure effects films. But speaking of effects, War of the Worlds is a landmark (for which it won an Oscar), not only in the sheer number of shots, but in their inventiveness and execution. The design of the ships, cyclopean death machines that float on waves of magnetic energy and protect themselves with invisible force fields, is ingenious and menacing. And while the brief glimpse of the Martians themselves is “rubbery” to say the least, the creatures have become an icon in science-fiction cinema. And so, justifiably, has the film itself. THE FEATURES: This is better than the most ardent fan could have hoped for. The first thing that should be mentioned is the wonderful transfer of the film itself, vibrant in its red, green, blue Technicolor glory. The soundtrack, meanwhile, is available in old-school Mono or a remixed 2.0 stereo track. But for a one-disc special edition, the DVD is really packed with extras. There are two commentaries, one with stars Ann Robinson and Gene Barry, and another with director Joe Dante and film historians Bob Burns and Bill Warren. You couldn’t ask for a better host/moderator than Dante, whose knowledge and love of genre films is legendary. Plus, he delivers “just the facts” commentaries, even on his own films, and keeps the experts on track. Extremely worthwhile! The Sky Is Falling: Making the War of the Worlds is a half-hour documentary with interviews from working directors and elder-statesmen of the fantastic (like Ray Harryhausen). It’s a bit surface-level in deconstructing the film, focusing more on the popular impact, but there’s some priceless footage in the form of Harryhausen’s stop-motion sample footage of the aliens that was never used. H.G. Welles: The Father of Science Fiction touches on the authors prescient tendencies in literature, which included books like The Invisible Man. The film’s original trailer is also included. But perhaps the most endearing extra is the addition of The Mercury Theatre’s 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, starring Orson Welles and his cast of players. This is the same program that sent large sections of the country into a panic, believing that “real” aliens were invading the Earth. It’s a nice extra touch to have it included here!