War of the Worlds

[Fenril]

pulpmariachi said:

Actually, I think the best verison of War of the Worlds is Orson Welles's. And no other version or practically anything had that same impact.

The book is excellant too.

If adaptation to other mediums besides movies and TV count... yeah, this was by far the best adaptation. Extremely clever and boy, was it persuasive, as history has proven!

[Quorthon]

I finally saw this--got it for Christmas along with the original (seen that one before, but haven't watched my DVD yet).

I really liked it, overall. Arguably some of Spielberg's very best cinematography--the Tripods were almost how I always pictured them when I read the book.

Speaking of which, I've read two versions. One, the original Welles scripting, the other, a small comic-book stylized version.

The only problem I had with the ending was that ***SPOILER*** that damn teenage son survived. ***END SPOILER*** As I recall, in the book, our storyteller is trying to get from his home to the location of his wife--and makes it.

I'm also (like 42nd) not a big fan of the aliens being buried beneath the planet and I wasn't pleased with the way they looked--they were supposed to be more like amorphis, tentacled blobs--like an octopus God stopped making halfway through--that's how I've always seen them.

However, Spielberg did a fantastic job putting feeling and pure atmosphere into this film. One of the things missing from, maybe, 80% of all science fiction is strong human feeling--characters we empathize with. Too much dry science and logic, and not enough humanity. Ironic in that a lot of classic SF is themed around the meaning of being human. At any rate, Spielberg gave us some great emotion. For as much fun as classic 50's Sci-Fi can be, it's almost always very sterile emotionally, and I recall the 53 version of this film being that dry. I'm planning on watching it again here pretty quick, though--since I also got that one for Christmas.