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Summary: Award Winning Special Effects, and a Classic SF Adaptation
Review: Okay. It's 1953. America has been prospering after the war, and a new threat abounds: The Soviet Union. What could be better to stir the collective fears of Atomic annihilation than to film an updated version of H.G. Wells' classic book, "The War of the Worlds?" It was the right film at the right time, and audiences loved it.It's about as threatening a scenario as you could imagine at the time. Mysterious invaders with seeming invincibility, invade the Earth, destroy cities, vaporize soldiers, and mess up the lives of a few square dancers in a small town. There is a jingoist streak throughout the film where the sturdy Americans think that they are able to stop these invaders without mussing up their little hair in the process. (To paraphrase George C. Scott in "Dr. Strangelove.") There is also an innocence among the destruction that is quaint when viewed in these cynical times. A small town social includes inoffensive dancing, and drinks with the powerful kick of cola syrup and caffeine. But enough of the negatives. The film is a tour-de-force of 1950's special effects. As a boy, I marvelled at the red bolts of the Martian heat-rays, and the rapid disintegration of their victims. It's the prime example of a story where the characters come up with solution after solution, but fail, fail, and fail again. Despite it's more innocent moments, this is a film that still packs a nasty punch. Heaven forbid that a similar situation, whether it be an Earth-bound threat or not, EVER happens to us similar to that shown in "The War of the Worlds." I doubt we would fair any better than the characters featured in this film.
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Summary: Be sure to see this one!
Review: This is one of the best science fiction films ever made. It tells the story of an alien attack against Earth by Mars. The film stars Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. The special effects are superb and very effective. This is a great film that also stars Les Tremayne and is narrated by Sir Cedric Hardwicke. This is a must have for all science fiction fans. Even if you're not a sci-fi fan, the special effects and performances of its lead actors will surely win you over! Don't miss out!
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Summary: Best SciFi for 1950s
Review: Although the acting is a bit tacky, it is typical of 1950s SciFi. What sets this movie apart and above the crowd is Parmount's use of the former "full up" Technicolor system (dye transfer color quality), and great special effects models. The DVD captures the Technicolor in its all its splendor; probably better than most audiences saw the color during the movie's original release.
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Summary: Only 1 complaint
Review: A sci-fi movie classic. Excellent special effects considering the film was made in 1953. Only disappointment with the DVD is that it can't be viewed in widescreen format, unlike ~99% of DVDs currently on the market.
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Summary: Buyer Beware! This DVD is NOT closed captioned as advertised
Review: The movie itself is great. The DVD quality is no better than the VHS video, but more importantly, the item is falsely advertised and stamped as being Closed Captioned. It is not subtitled either. French language is the only available option to select. The CD itself is stamped CC for closed captioned. The jacket is labeled as well. Many deaf and hard-of-hearing people are being deceived and disappointed! To add insult to injury, Paramount is not responding to emails about this matter.
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Summary: Celebrated Film!
Review: Great Film, Great Effects, Great Acting! One of the fav films of the 1950's. The movie also inspired and brought apon the achievements of many special effects artists in Hollywood.
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Summary: DVD left me disappointed
Review: I won't repeat the plot details since there are so many viewer reviews here. I'm a home theater buff. I actually saw this film in 1953 when I was a little kid but that's not so important right now. I have the laserdisc special edition of this film mastered in 1993 and it's terrific. They took a lot of care creating a new IP for the film transfer and retrieved the archival original full coat mag sound elements to create a high quality stereo soundtrack for the laserdisc edition. Apparently, when the DVD master was created, they either lost all this or they just didn't care. The film transfer for the DVD is very grainy and the audio is awful, sounds like a mono optical track pulled off a release print. What a shame! And what a sucker I feel like for buying the DVD and thinking it would be technically better than the old laserdisc. Someone at Paramount cut too many corners on this one! If you are a quality freak like me then avoid this DVD version. It is not very good. Look for the 1993 laserdisc with the "1st time Stereo Soundtrack" label prominently displayed on the back cover art.
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Summary: Here is a story begging for a remake
Review: If you like cheesie "classics", this is for you. But the book is filled with richly described, hair-raising scenes that this movie lacks. Why can't Merchant & Ivory team up with ILM special effects and really do this story right!
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Summary: Whaddaya mean it wasn't a documentary?
Review: Wow, I sure glad when I found out 'War of the Worlds' wasn't a documentary. Sorta feel stupid too...been hiding under the house since I first saw it in the late 50's. Actually, I got so scared at the first part, I never saw the end. Guess I have egg on my face, huh? Man the mail sure piled up too. And so many changes...like when did Lucy go off the air? And Ike is dead? Who is Al Gore. And I see all these weird-shaped cars now...guess my DeSoto is all out of style too. Good thing though, I got almost 50 years of Social Security checks to cash, so I think I'm gonna buy one of them new corn-pooters that Bob Gates guy keeps talking about and 'Smurf the Shed' like they say nowadays. Anybody out there know if fen we won the Korean War?
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Summary: Good movie, but quite different from the book.
Review: I read the H.G. Wells book War of The Worlds quite a few years ago. I don't remember it too well, but I do remember it well enough to know that this movie, which I just saw for the very first time, is very different from the book. In the book, the aliens were only around for a fraction of the story. The book concentrated mainly on ideas. (Hmm. If I remember correctly, most of the H.G. Wells books that I read seemed to have a pro-socialist and pessimistic theme to them. That was probably why I didn't like his books! I much prefer the work of Jules Verne, who was pro-freedom and an optimist.) But in the movie, the aliens take up a much larger percentage of the story. But that's OK, because in this case the movie is done quite well. In fact I enjoyed the movie much more than I enjoyed the book. The plot of the movie is interesting, and the story moves along at a good pace. The human characters are well developed and well acted. The special effects are quite good. In particular, the laser shots look very real. And the sound effects are excellent. In fact I think that the sound effects are better than the visual effects. Anyway, I like this movie quite a bit. Oh yeah, if the book did in fact have that political stuff as I think it did, then it was removed for the movie. Thank goodness for that!
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