War of The Worlds - Steven Spielberg

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Originally Posted by Revoltor

That's a pretty cool tidbit. I never really thought about the impact it would have on simpletons.

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Yeah, it's been widely documented about the panic it caused in a lot of people. Of course, mainly a *few* people actually killed themselves but it caused more than a little pandemonium in some areas, believe you me. Lots of people were calling the police worried, asking what they should do, arming themselves, ect.

And I dunno about the people who killed themselves being outright dummies. Back then when all the news media you have besides newspaper and movie newsreels is radio (factor in that the only comedy/"pranking" in media was um, Amos and Andy and Fibber McGee and Molly?) and a man comes on the wire *pretending to be a reporter on site* doing a reeeaaally good job acting like he is witnessing a rural area of NY state having a violent encounter with a deadly space creature (making it out to be a REAL news story, nothing like that had ever been done before in radio or mass media), you might have gotten a little nervous too. :p Different times and a totally different pre-information age. The concept of aliens/sci fi itself was still relatively new.

Speaking of Fibber McGee and Molly, remember the Newsradio when Mr. James bought everyone sports cars for XMas but just got Matthew (Andy Dick) Fibber McGee and Molly tapes? lol I won't spoil the ending which is a nice twist.

I have the original broadcast on my computer, it's amazingly acted. But they announce that it's a show at the very beginning, but never again until the very very end. God I love Orson Welles.

too bad after his career went down the shitter he didn't go back to radio.

But yeah, apprently police came, and the station head came in his pajamas to the recording studio and they told Orson to tell everyone it was just a show, and he said "No fucking way man."

They started off with some nonsense, and timed the "breaking news bulletin" of the alien invasion just as their huge rival radio show took a commercial break. Fucking brilliant. Everyone flipped channels to skip the commercials and wound up in the middle of their fake news of the alien invasion.

Most people listened to a different show that was on at the same time, so they didn't hear the initial statement that it was a show. You have to realize that back then all phone calls went through an operator. It was hard to get information around. Today this would never happen even without the law because everyone who knew it was just a show would call other people, post online, or people with cell phones would call someone and figure it out.

if your looking forward to War of the Worlds be ready for a little wait inbetween, we got a new updated release schedule at work (work at one of the biggest theaters in the OC) and it lists

War of the Worlds Volume I
War of the Worlds Volume II

That's news to me.

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Originally Posted by Kosh_H

Yeah, it's been widely documented about the panic it caused in a lot of people. Of course, mainly a *few* people actually killed themselves but it caused more than a little pandemonium in some areas, believe you me. Lots of people were calling the police worried, asking what they should do, arming themselves, ect.

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Orson Welles is an ass. If it wasnt for him pulling this little stunt,and making people scared of aliens, the government would have told us about Roswell,Area 51, and the little green men from the Alpha Centauri system a long time ago.

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Originally Posted by Jetman

Orson Welles is an ass. If it wasnt for him pulling this little stunt,and making people scared of aliens, the government would have told us about Roswell,Area 51, and the little green men from the Alpha Centauri system a long time ago.

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lol Never thought of it that way. :p

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Originally Posted by RDM Brian

if your looking forward to War of the Worlds be ready for a little wait inbetween, we got a new updated release schedule at work (work at one of the biggest theaters in the OC) and it lists

War of the Worlds Volume I
War of the Worlds Volume II

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So the movie will be split into two parts? Crazy.

Also, I forgot some ultra-indie little film company made their own 19th Century WotW movie based closely on the book. Saw it months ago linked offa Dark Horizons. Gonna see if I can dig up a link...

EDIT: Here it is, very low budget but it's supposed to be a direct adaptation and looks interesting, a gallery at this link:

http://www.pendragonpictures.com/WOTWpic1.html

Figured I'd bump this up as I rented the 1953 film version which I have never seen. Gonna watch it with friends tonight. Can't wait. I'll post impressions tomorrow. One cool thing is I know one of the characters is named Dr. Clayton Forrester which is where MST3K got the name for Dr. F. :D

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Originally Posted by Kosh_H

Figured I'd bump this up as I rented the 1953 film version which I have never seen. Gonna watch it with friends tonight. Can't wait. I'll post impressions tomorrow. One cool thing is I know one of the characters is named Dr. Clayton Forrester which is where MST3K got the name for Dr. F. :D

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Heh, I saw it on AMC once, it's pretty... well, yeah it's a 1953 science fiction movie.

Oh and I'm not sure if I could get over the really terrible CG that's in that indie adaptation of the novel. It's pretty bad. Looks kinda cool other than that.

OK, watched the movie last night with two friends after we watched MST3K. The MST3K was Riding With Death, made in the late 70s. Guess which movie ended up looking much, much better? Yup, the movie from 1953.


Simply put, War of the Worlds is a great movie. The special effects are surprisingly good for an old sci fi movie. I love the way the ships just slowly and eerily hover and mow everything down. My favorite part is when Dr. Forrester and his girlfriend are in a half dilapidated farmhouse while the aliens try to find them. The acting is good too, except for when the Dr.'s gf freaks out whenever she sees an alien, she sounds like an overacting spaz.

Now I know why Spielberg praised this movie in a recent interview.