War of the Worlds (1953 film)
War of the Worlds (1953); there were also numerous remakes and unofficial sequels (see War of the Worlds (1988 series) for an example)
Summary
"Mighty panorama of Earth-shaking fury as an army from Mars invades!" A small town in California is attacked by Martians.
Details
- Release Date: 1953
- Country/Language: US, English
- Genres/Technical: Science Fiction (alien invasion), Horror
- Setting: 1950s California
- Runtime: 1 hr 25 min
- Starring: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne
- Director: Byron Haskin
- Writer: H.G. Wells (novel), Barré Lyndon (screenplay)
- Producer/Production Co: Cecil B. DeMille, George Pal, Paramount Pictures
- View Trailer: (link)
- Test Footage for an unproduced 1940s version of War of the Worlds that Ray Harryhausen wanted to make: (link)
- TVTropes: (link)
- IMDB Page: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: approved (equivalent to a PG for mild Violence)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)
Not very "Lovecraftian", aside from being based on one of Lovecraft's many sources of inspiration, and containing some cool monsters and a few interesting and suggestive bits of narration ("No one would have believed in the middle of the 20th Century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than Man's. Yet, across the gulf of space on the planet Mars, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely joined their plans against us. Mars is more than 140 million miles from the sun, and for centuries has been in the last status of exhaustion. At night, temperatures drop far below zero even at its equator. Inhabitants of this dying planet looked across space with instruments and intelligences that which we have scarcely dreamed, searching for another world to which they could migrate.") Bits of this story could easily be adapted to a CoC RPG scenario.
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- (review needed)
Synopsis (SPOILERS)
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
Martians invade Earth in giant bullets fired from vast interplanetary cannon, unleashing their levitating tripod war-machines and heat-rays on an unsuspecting population in a small town in California, as well as well-known monuments from around the world in a series of nice 1950s special effects. The invaders are relentless and their machines shielded even against the effects of atomic bombs, but ultimately "the Martians were destroyed and humanity was saved by the littlest things, which God, in His wisdom, had put upon this Earth...": the Martians are vulnerable to Earth's bacteria, lending the film a "happy" ending.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
- Sequels and re-adaptations include:
- The War of the Worlds (infamous 1938 radio adaptation by Orson Wells)
- The War of the Worlds (1953, set in the 1950s US)
- War of the Worlds (1988 series) (an inventive sequel to both the radio show and the 1953 film which pretends the radio program was a real news report, and the film part of a disinformation campaign to cover up the invasion)
- The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981, Polish, set in the 1980s Poland)
- Independence Day (1996 franchise) (a thinly-disguised adaptation which substitutes a computer virus for bacteria)
- Signs (2002 film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, a thinly-disguised adaptation which substitutes water for bacteria)
- War of the Worlds (2005 film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, set in Modern US)
- H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (2005 film directed by Timothy Hines, set in Gaslight England)
- H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005 film directed by David Michael Latt, AKA Invasion and The Worlds in War), and its sequel War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008 film directed by C. Thomas Howell) (both films set in Modern US)
- Alien Dawn (2012 loose Nicktoons adaptation set in Modern US?)
- War of the Worlds: Goliath (2012 animated sequel to the original novel, set in Gaslight England)
- War of the Worlds - The True Story (2012 mockumentary pretending the Orson Wells radio program was real)
- The Great Martian War 1913-1917 (2013 History Channel mockumentary)
Associated Mythos Elements
- fiction: H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
- race: Martian (Uliri)
- location: Grover's Mill, New Jersey
- location: Mars
Keeper Notes
- For a fan-made setting loosely based on the apocalyptic dying/dead Mars of the original story and related literature, see Mars and its Dreamlands....
