This IS the best "War of the Worlds" movie! Such a fantastic cast with a fantastic story! This was turned into a tv series in 1988 that lasted for 2 seasons that showed that In "War of the Worlds" the aliens from the 1953 invasion are brought out of suspended animation when radiation kills the infecting bacteria. Now the aliens launch a genocidal war against an unsuspecting Earth, using their ability to take over human bodies to allow them to move freely. It was a good series!
Me I didn't care for it. They also made it seem like the people didn't know about the invasion back in 1953. Also that's a cheap plot to take over the body's. Sorry but I didn't buy it.
I loved that show in the first season. Had some growing pains, but it was a fantastic concept and a great cast of characters. Also got the aliens' point of view in every episode, which was wonderful. (Unfortunately, like most 80s villains, they were a little too "Cobra Commander" and calling off good ideas when they met a little resistance!)
The dance was called square dancing. The singer is called a "caller." He was telling everyone what the next steps were. So everyone knew the choreography as they are dancing. It could change at any time. The caller has to have enough experience so that the calls merge together well.
You Brits may not know this but in many parts of the USA Square Dancing was taught in many public schools until the 70s. Being 59 yrs old...Pepridge Farm Remembers...
I remember being taught square dancing all the way back to kindergarten. They taught it the same way they taught children fire drills, and military formation drills. Cultivating, and conditioning their next generations of unquestioning, obedient, soldiers, and "citizens". In the 1960s a new generation caught on to the trick, and the authorities have had a devil of a time getting that genii back in the bottle.
In the original story, the Tripods didn't have energy shields. They were added in the movie because the military pointed out that the weapons of that then-modern time would have annihilated the Tripods as they were in the book, which was tough and resistant against most of the technology of the time (barring the H.M.S. Thunder Child). They were also changed from walking Tripods to the floating machines held up by three energy beams here because it would have been too expensive and time-consuming to stop-motion animate or marionette animate them as Tripods.
I liked the way the book handled it, the Martians weren't invincible, but they always had an answer for what we did. Artillery had some success against them at frist, then they started spreading the black smoke ahead to take out the gun crews. The Ironclads were holding them at bay, but after the bacteria got to them, we learned that they had started to build flying machines to bypass them.
As a child of the 1950s who was born and raised in the Midwest, I can tell you that Square Dancing was a known thing back then. As one of Heinlein's characters in one of his juvenile novels pointed out ""Square Dancing" was when squares dance.
There is a fascinating video on the Special Effects Artist of this movie. It is an interview with his daughter and she tells how there were no aliens planned until after the filming had begun and how her father and her built the alien out of Paper Mache and Chicken Wire over a weekend so it could be on set the next Monday.
Did you know that before this movie, this book was written in the 1880s, by HG Welles? Set in Victorian England, it is considered to be one of the first science fictions ever written (other than Jules Verne), and the first to involve an alien invasion. Also, there was a radio play of this story, broadcast by Orson Welles in the 1930s, that presented it in the style of a news broadcast. Because it sounded like a news broadcast, many people in America, famously believed that a Martian invasion was actually happening. Some even committed suicide because they were afraid of being eaten by Martians. I know - it's an odd coincidence that two people famous for this story had the last name of Welles. Then, when this version of the movie came along in the 1950s, it was exceptional, because it was one of only a handful of big budget, color, science fiction movies that had ever been made at that time (when sci-fi movies were typically low budget, black and white movies, that were made for kids). Anyway, the point is that this was already a famous story before this movie, and certainly before the Tom Cruise version of this movie was ever made. The original HG Welles novel might also be the inspiration for steampunk, if you know what that is.
The elast E in Wells belongs to Orson, whom Paul Dubov is giving us a call back as the radio news guy, voice wise. They sounded a l Herbert Geoge's last name was spelt Wells, alike anyway...still a nice call back to the 1938 Halloween Eve Broadcast,
H.G. Welles and Orson Welles once met. Both were in San Antonio at the time and an enterprising radio guy got them together for a brief on-air chat. There is an excellent recording of the meeting (Arthur Clarke introduced me to it). Wells is fanboying while H.G. is playing the witty international star author.
There is also Jeff Wayne's awesome "The War Of The Worlds" album. Narrated by Richard Burton originally and lately by Liam Neeson. With music by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues and Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzie.
Hi Will. To improve hearing in the 17th century we had the ear-trumpet. (Beethoven used one). in 1895 The Electric Acouphone was invented. so there have been hearing aid devices for a long time. Jacques Mexico
One of the scientists points out that the blood of the aliens was quite anemic. so they had a supressed immune system to begin with. Thanks Will, loved your reaction!!
The first screen adaptation and transfers the story to the US whereas the novel is set in Victorian London. For a fairly accurate adaptation, the Jeff Wayne 1978 album actually does the book and is fabulous.
The exterior of the church at the end is only about a mile away from me in Altadena. HG Wells wrote WotW in 1898 as a parable about British colonization in that the Brits were the Martians with unmatchable warfare technology and no consideration of the people they conquered and displaced in places around the world like India and Africa, but were eventually hobbled by local diseases like malaria that their superior warfare technology was useless against.
The Martians are coming! The Martians are coming! Orson Welles provides the narration and his influence is all over this film in subtle ways. Gene Barry does a great Orson Welles impersonation during the radio interview minutes before all hell breaks loose. The scene where the machines emerge from the crater as a group is iconic, second only to the scene later in the film when the Martians tear apart the city while the survivors gather in church. The first full scale thermonuclear weapon, which back then was called the hydrogen bomb, was detonated over the Enewetak Atoll in the South Pacific in late 1952. It generated a 10 megaton explosive yield that was over 450 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. The Soviet Union first tested theirs in 1953. The subtext to this version of War of the Worlds is the Cold War that was developing between the United States and the Soviet Union. For a taste of where that went also check out the 1964 Stanley Kubrick political satire black comedy film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Proceed logically touching all bases of interest including microscopic study of captured Martian's anemic blood (tip-off for the end). Plus the clumsy tripods of the book were vastly improved.
The Martian hardware and ship models were actually made of copper. Scrapped unfortunately, they were top notch. There's a great documentary here on UA-cam.
You could buy the plans to build a model of the War Machine in the 70ies. I have a set around here somewhere. They were over my head when I got them, you built them out of fiberglass and vacuum forming for the hull and then used incandescent lights for the lights.
The Martian machines, even today, maintain one of the best special effects of alien craft in Scifi. (The same alien craft was used in a 1960's movie called "Robinson Caruso on Mars". Also note that General "Mann" represents the most power and military force in the failed attempt to save humanity. Man(n)kind can't saved itself.
At 12:08; seeing the shields, I had the thought that mines could be laid in the path of the ships and detonated when the ships are over them (hopefully all three). It's plot armor that saved humans.
I remember seeing this often on TV, in the days before the internet. Always liked this and the ships. I normally don't like remakes, but the Tom Cruise version is really good. One last suggestion for 50s sci-fi is the classic "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers" Years before this movie, the story was played on radio to sound like a real emergency broadcast. Apparently many thought it was real and it set off a bit of a panic, including some suicides.
There is a color version of "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers" it was produced about 20 years ago and overseen by Ray Harryhausen so it is a well done colorization. Harryhausen originally wanted to film it in color but the studio would not pay the extra cost for color film for a "hokey sci-fi movie". The colorization process used finally allowed him to give us his original vision for the film.
Yeah,Cruise's up to date version was well done.Have you ever seen the tv series-FALLING-SKIES ??? If not it's a tv show about aliens from another planet has taken over most of the earth and there's pockets of human resistance fighters trying to take back the earth from alien invaders.
In the HG Wells novel, the aliens arrived in Victorian era London. There is also an Orson Welles radio program of this in 1927, that terrified Americans enough, that some folks committed suicide when they thought Martians were invading the world. This was way before television.
One of the most exciting sci-fi movies ever. Probably gave 1953 audiences shivers. Emmerich's movie "Independence Day" was a puffed and padded version of "War of the Worlds."
Loved your reaction, another classic Sci - Fi film worth watching. I loved the sound effects in this one. The scream which Ann Robinson who played Sylvia gave when the alien put it's three fingers on her shoulder wasn't properly captured by the sound man during the first take so the scene had to be shot again - apparently he wasn't prepared for such a loud shrill of a scream! Ann and Gene Barry played the grandparents in the 2005 version which I thought was a great touch.
Yes, to some extent. One of the special effects employees who worked on the War of the Worlds asked George Pal if he could emulate the design, but not totally, when he got the job of producing the special effects for RCOM.. What you see in Robinson Crusoe on Mars are not models but matte paintings. Such as they were they scared the hell out me as a kid, a lot more than the martian war machines!
If you'll notice Star Trek borrowed the the sounds of the phaser and the photon torpedo from this movie. And before the heat ray fires the pulsating 'build up' sound is a electric guitar.
16:01 thats the point. The original book was a criticism on British imperialism by saying, "we do the same thing. You can’t condemn the martians for doing what our own race have been doing for millennia. The martians are no more evil than we are." And of course the martian ran. Mars has a lot less light than earth, it's eye was not used to the light of the torch, and it hurt. On top of thst it had just had a brick thrown at it, it was in pain and disoriented
This movie (as well as the 2005 remake) follows the original book surprisingly closely, save for updating the timeframe and changing the venue. The first lines and the last lines are near direct quotes from the amazing 1898 HG Wells novel.
I am surprised you didn't know how the movie would end even though you didn't see it. This was written by H.G. Welles. in the late 1800's and is well known. A radio version of this was broadcast in the late 1930's as a news program and people who tuned in without knowing that the "news" was really a fictional story thought it was real. I was born in 1950 and we were taught this in school. When I saw this movie in TV, I already knew how it ends. Welles also wrote The Time Machine and many other famous stories. What are they teaching in literature class these days?
I was born in the late sixties and I can tell you the story was still told in high school and college in the eighties. Grovers Mill was under attack!!! Otherwise, I have no idea what goes down these days in literature classes. I'm guessing the story is considered quaint and is passed over for something more recent or something more older. The Time Machine -- with Rod Taylor. Classic steam punk.
for Sci Fi, I recommend: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" 1951, "War of the Worlds" 1953, "Them!" 1954, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" 1954, "Forbidden Planet" 1956, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" 1956, "The Fly" 1958, "The Time Machine" 1960, "Planet of the Apes" 1968 "The Omega Man" 1971, "Silent Running" 1972, "Outland" 1981 "Short Circuit" 1986, "Batteries Not Included" 1987, "WarGames"1983, "The Manhattan Project"1986, "Independence Day" 1996, "Bicentennial Man" 1999
"If you have any more suggestions".... "Contact," “The Dead Zone,” "Deja Vu," “Enemy Mine,” “Fahrenheit 451,” "Frequency," "Gandhi," "Ghost," "The Green Mile," "Highlander," "Miracle on 34th Street (1947 NOT the remake)," "North by Northwest," "The Pink Panther," "Psycho," "Rear Window," "Rio Bravo," " "The Terminator," "The Thing," "The Time Machine (1960 version)," "Vertigo"
Just so you know, there was a "sequel" television series for this movie in the 1980s. It was actually pretty decent. I forget how many seasons it ran. Shouldn't be too hard to find.
The 2005 War of the Worlds is pretty good. A couple of other George Pal sci-fi classics are When Worlds Collide 1951 and The Time Machine 1960, both excellent.
My bad. I thought you saw When Worlds Collide. The George Pal sci-fi trilogy is When worlds Collide, The war of the Worlds and The Time Machine. Just like the Paul Verhoven sci-fi trilogy is RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers 😊😊😊
In the novel, the Martians capture humans and feed on them using blood transfusion. It is this which kills them, because of viruses in the blood they have no immune system to fight.
Martian 1: Send up the peace periscope! I mean its not like the humans will do something so horrifyingly evil as charge us with our only fatal weakness: the white flag. Martian 2: Oh no! Martian 3: They're coming right for us!
After thinking about your question as to what I would do during the invasion, I figure I would immediately run up and down the street pooping my pants.
If you want more George Pal and more HG Wells and a story which influenced Dr Who: The Daleks, then you should consider watching "The Time Machine" from 1960.
Great Reaction 👍👍👍 check out " This Island Earth", "When Worlds Collide", "Forbidden Planet", Earth vs The Flying Saucers, The Thing From Another World. All great 50's Sci Fi movies.
Yes, definitely check out the remake with Tom Cruise. It's very good. Also check out the 50's classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and the 70's remake starring Jeff Goldbloom and Donald Sutherland.
George Pal was not finished with The War Of The Worlds after this movie. In 1975 Paramount was floating the idea of a Paramount Network, not unlike the short lived Dumont Network of the 1950's. Among the shows in development was Star Trek Phase 2 and War Of The Worlds The Series. War Of The Worlds The Series was a joint effort by Pal and Star Trek designer Matt Jeffries, it would have dealt with a starship crew on a one way voyage to find and stop the invaders who they knew were gearing up for a counter offensive now known not to be Martians. The creatures seen in this movie would be one of many slave species forced to fight for them. There was one test scene shot for it (I saw that footage a few months ago), but despite having better sets than Star Trek it was not as riveting as the movie. Star Wars two years later killed the development of the Paramount Network as they felt they had to rush a Star Trek movie into development. The closest thing to the Paramount Network was syndication of variations on all of those developed shows - Star Trek : The Next Generation and War Of The Worlds The Series were made. War Of The Worlds The Series was not at all good, it was based entirely on modern Earth where the Invasion shows little signs of having happened as the Aliens try to infiltrate Society's infrastructure, it was a cheap looking and cheap feeling, in a word boring show that no one remembers for good reason.
other films that are essential viewing.. This Island Earth, Earth vs The Flying Saucers and the moderns 50's scifi satire by Tim Burton, Mars Attacks. Yes the remake of this is totally worth watching, I was shocked that even in the modern era Spielberg managed to make the martians scary as hell. You just need to put aside 2 of the most annoying child characters ever and a couple of typical modern hollywood tropes (eg the neglectful dad), but it's otherwise excellent. It even ads back in a plot point from the original book that was too much for 50's cinema goers, though he changed how they arrived which doesn't really make sense, but looks cool af!
Yikes, did he just mention Transformers '86 in the same breath as War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still? Pardon me, I need to go yell at kids on my lawn.
Not a fan of the 2005 movie, BUT I would enjoy your reaction to the pilot episode, "The Resurrection", of the sequel 1988 T.V. series "The War of the Worlds", which picks up 35 years after the events of this movie. Starring the late Jared Martin, Lynda Mason Green, Philip Akin, and Richard Chaves.
Gene Berry was indeed a handsome man. You can see more of him in The Time Machine, another classic. The Red Palnet and The Day Mars Invaded Earth are two "B" movies that have interesting storylines about invasions. The WotW's remake is not as good as this version IMHO.
They said the nuke was 10X bigger than anything ever detonated. I wonder if the Martians could have survived Russia's "Tsar Bomba", a hydrogen bomb 3,500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima? I don't think their shields would have protected them. But then, no other living thing would have survived either.
@sebastianbendyna2363 You can say that your team winning the game is a "miracle," but it's not. People exaggerate. They don't mean things literally all the time.
@ well as a Christian I know that when Christians talk about miracles there is no difference between supernatural miracles and things like what happened in this movie…because we believe God is author of all things. So bacteria that kills alien invaders, the birth of a human being, and Jesus walking on water are the same thing to us. I really don’t care what you believe, but you’re not going to tell me what do believe thanks.
You're sense of humor combined with your appreciation for the movie Jahre is great... perhaps an interesting choice for you would be 1951's SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN... The story isn't as black and white as the film. 😄
Great react! Can you watch Pride and Prejudice (2005)? Maybe for valentines day since it's a romance. The American version has the best ending (it's a little longer than the British one)
Finally someone watched the decent War of the Worlds movie and Not that crappy rip off movie with Tom Cruise. This is a classic, and Far better than that Spielberg, Cruise pile of junk.
As much as I love this movie, Herbert G Wells who was very much an atheist, wouldn't have been keen on how this version religiously slants the conclusion of his story. He does have the Martians undone by their lack of resistance to bacteria, but the cause is never suggested as anything other than natural contamination. The whole element of the Martians feeding on human blood, and their building of human farms (which is how they contaminate themselves) is entirely omitted from this version of the storyline, as it was probably far too strong for a 1950s US audience. The Martians in the book are not biologically primitive as such. It's more that via the "use it or lose it" mechanism of evolution, they have rendered themselves as little more than brains with tentacles. Their technology does _everything_ for them, including supporting many of their previously biological functions ranging from locomotion to digestion. Today we call that technology cybernetics, but there was no such term in the 19th century when the book was penned. The Martians had conquered all pathogens on Mars, and no doubt believed their tech could deal with any microbial threats on Earth, but ultimately evolution found a way. Curiously the scale of the invasion in the book is much smaller, covering just the South of England (even Northern England is left unmolested). The Martians lacked the resources for more than an initial bridgehead, and were digging in whilst they gathered resources for a second wave which would have seen them conquer the rest of the planet. So the war covering the whole world is very much a product of these later adaptations.
I laughed at whatever version you looked at. Since when is red planet Mars blue? I have the Criterion release and Mars is correctly red. Must be one of the lame streaming versions.
This IS the best "War of the Worlds" movie! Such a fantastic cast with a fantastic story!
This was turned into a tv series in 1988 that lasted for 2 seasons that showed that In "War of the Worlds" the aliens from the 1953 invasion are brought out of suspended animation when radiation kills the infecting bacteria. Now the aliens launch a genocidal war against an unsuspecting Earth, using their ability to take over human bodies to allow them to move freely. It was a good series!
Me I didn't care for it. They also made it seem like the people didn't know about the invasion back in 1953. Also that's a cheap plot to take over the body's. Sorry but I didn't buy it.
But I love the movie
What a Cast! Even the Horton Brothers Flying Wing gets some screen time!
I loved that show in the first season. Had some growing pains, but it was a fantastic concept and a great cast of characters. Also got the aliens' point of view in every episode, which was wonderful. (Unfortunately, like most 80s villains, they were a little too "Cobra Commander" and calling off good ideas when they met a little resistance!)
I love the TV show, but file it under "so bad it's brilliant".
The dance was called square dancing. The singer is called a "caller." He was telling everyone what the next steps were. So everyone knew the choreography as they are dancing. It could change at any time. The caller has to have enough experience so that the calls merge together well.
A very underrated sci-fi classic!
George Pal was clearly the George Lucas of mid 50s to 60s.👍👍👍
You Brits may not know this but in many parts of the USA Square Dancing was taught in many public schools until the 70s. Being 59 yrs old...Pepridge Farm Remembers...
I remember being taught square dancing all the way back to kindergarten. They taught it the same way they taught children fire drills, and military formation drills. Cultivating, and conditioning their next generations of unquestioning, obedient, soldiers, and "citizens".
In the 1960s a new generation caught on to the trick, and the authorities have had a devil of a time getting that genii back in the bottle.
Yes I remember dancing in school in the 60s in elementary school!
All us old timers also remember learning "duck and cover" in school too.
Same here. Square dancing in Physical Education classes in 1970s Moorhead, Minnesota.
@@dpsamu2000We obviously need to go back to teaching square dancing in all public schools. The last 50 years are proof.
Some of the sound effects from this were reused for Star Trek - most notably the green wingtip weapons which became the Photon Torpedo sound.
That’s a really cool fact guess it was so cool they had to use it
In the original story, the Tripods didn't have energy shields. They were added in the movie because the military pointed out that the weapons of that then-modern time would have annihilated the Tripods as they were in the book, which was tough and resistant against most of the technology of the time (barring the H.M.S. Thunder Child). They were also changed from walking Tripods to the floating machines held up by three energy beams here because it would have been too expensive and time-consuming to stop-motion animate or marionette animate them as Tripods.
I liked the way the book handled it, the Martians weren't invincible, but they always had an answer for what we did. Artillery had some success against them at frist, then they started spreading the black smoke ahead to take out the gun crews. The Ironclads were holding them at bay, but after the bacteria got to them, we learned that they had started to build flying machines to bypass them.
As a child of the 1950s who was born and raised in the Midwest, I can tell you that Square Dancing was a known thing back then. As one of Heinlein's characters in one of his juvenile novels pointed out ""Square Dancing" was when squares dance.
That "handy trench" beside the road is called a drainage ditch. Most roads in the US have them. I think there are even some in your country too.
Yes but it did come in very handy for aliens too 😂
Alot of the Martian weapon sound fx were reused on Star Trek in the 60s. You can clearly hear the 'photon torpedo' sound effect.😊
My favorite alien invasion movie. I first saw it in the early 80's, and it made a huge impression on me.
Most used line in movies, radio or TV at 5:25 "Let's get outa here!"
There is a fascinating video on the Special Effects Artist of this movie. It is an interview with his daughter and she tells how there were no aliens planned until after the filming had begun and how her father and her built the alien out of Paper Mache and Chicken Wire over a weekend so it could be on set the next Monday.
The astronomical data on planets in this movie are outdated ! but drawings are
by the great space artist Chesley Bonestell
Another great 1950's Sci-Fi movie is Them. What they did with so little is amazing .
Did you know that before this movie, this book was written in the 1880s, by HG Welles? Set in Victorian England, it is considered to be one of the first science fictions ever written (other than Jules Verne), and the first to involve an alien invasion. Also, there was a radio play of this story, broadcast by Orson Welles in the 1930s, that presented it in the style of a news broadcast. Because it sounded like a news broadcast, many people in America, famously believed that a Martian invasion was actually happening. Some even committed suicide because they were afraid of being eaten by Martians. I know - it's an odd coincidence that two people famous for this story had the last name of Welles. Then, when this version of the movie came along in the 1950s, it was exceptional, because it was one of only a handful of big budget, color, science fiction movies that had ever been made at that time (when sci-fi movies were typically low budget, black and white movies, that were made for kids). Anyway, the point is that this was already a famous story before this movie, and certainly before the Tom Cruise version of this movie was ever made. The original HG Welles novel might also be the inspiration for steampunk, if you know what that is.
The Radio Play was fantastic!
theres a fun halloween movie 'Spaced Invaders' that reverences the WOW radio play
The elast E in Wells belongs to Orson, whom Paul Dubov is giving us a call back as the radio news guy, voice wise. They sounded a l Herbert Geoge's last name was spelt Wells, alike anyway...still a nice call back to the 1938 Halloween Eve Broadcast,
H.G. Welles and Orson Welles once met. Both were in San Antonio at the time and an enterprising radio guy got them together for a brief on-air chat. There is an excellent recording of the meeting (Arthur Clarke introduced me to it). Wells is fanboying while H.G. is playing the witty international star author.
There is also Jeff Wayne's awesome "The War Of The Worlds" album. Narrated by Richard Burton originally and lately by Liam Neeson. With music by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues and Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzie.
Hi Will. To improve hearing in the 17th century we had the ear-trumpet. (Beethoven used one). in 1895 The Electric Acouphone was invented. so there have been hearing aid devices for a long time. Jacques Mexico
Buddha suggests when there's a war procure being someplace else. H. G. Wells (original story) was a genius at storytelling.
Besides being homicidal maniacs, I never noticed before how cute the aliens are. They kind of look like E.T. hehehe
One of the scientists points out that the blood of the aliens was quite anemic. so they had a supressed immune system to begin with. Thanks Will, loved your reaction!!
for a funnier take try Tim Burton's 1996 Mars Attacks!
The first screen adaptation and transfers the story to the US whereas the novel is set in Victorian London. For a fairly accurate adaptation, the Jeff Wayne 1978 album actually does the book and is fabulous.
I do like the idea that this film can be adapted for all over the world
The Tom Cruise version is mostly close ups of Cruise playing Tom Cruise as usual.
The exterior of the church at the end is only about a mile away from me in Altadena. HG Wells wrote WotW in 1898 as a parable about British colonization in that the Brits were the Martians with unmatchable warfare technology and no consideration of the people they conquered and displaced in places around the world like India and Africa, but were eventually hobbled by local diseases like malaria that their superior warfare technology was useless against.
It’s sad that not one of those beautiful models of the martian ships survived. Too bad. They’re gorgeous models.
The Martians are coming! The Martians are coming! Orson Welles provides the narration and his influence is all over this film in subtle ways. Gene Barry does a great Orson Welles impersonation during the radio interview minutes before all hell breaks loose. The scene where the machines emerge from the crater as a group is iconic, second only to the scene later in the film when the Martians tear apart the city while the survivors gather in church. The first full scale thermonuclear weapon, which back then was called the hydrogen bomb, was detonated over the Enewetak Atoll in the South Pacific in late 1952. It generated a 10 megaton explosive yield that was over 450 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. The Soviet Union first tested theirs in 1953. The subtext to this version of War of the Worlds is the Cold War that was developing between the United States and the Soviet Union. For a taste of where that went also check out the 1964 Stanley Kubrick political satire black comedy film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Excellent movie, recreation of the classical ground breaking H.G.Wells book ''the war of the worlds'' 1898, in the fifties.
I always thought...remote control mines. Exploded beneath them, inside the dome. 😊
Yes yes very good suggestion, you’d be the only one left alive 😂
Proceed logically touching all bases of interest including microscopic study of captured Martian's anemic blood (tip-off for the end). Plus the clumsy tripods of the book were vastly improved.
The Martian hardware and ship models were actually made of copper. Scrapped unfortunately, they were top notch. There's a great documentary here on UA-cam.
You could buy the plans to build a model of the War Machine in the 70ies. I have a set around here somewhere. They were over my head when I got them, you built them out of fiberglass and vacuum forming for the hull and then used incandescent lights for the lights.
Priest “Beings from another world”. That means they most be Godless.🤣
Okay. A personal favorite from 1959....
"I Married a Monster from Outer Space"
😊😊😊😊😊
That title right there describes my first and only marriage.
My sci-fi recommendations: "The Day the Earth Caught Fire", "Colossus: The Forbin Project", "4D Man", "The Incredible Shrinking Man"
The Martian machines, even today, maintain one of the best special effects of alien craft in Scifi. (The same alien craft was used in a 1960's movie called "Robinson Caruso on Mars".
Also note that General "Mann" represents the most power and military force in the failed attempt to save humanity. Man(n)kind can't saved itself.
You were right in the middle of the movie ! the little guys....virus, bacteria got the martians, the same in the 1898 book
At 12:08; seeing the shields, I had the thought that mines could be laid in the path of the ships and detonated when the ships are over them (hopefully all three).
It's plot armor that saved humans.
I remember seeing this often on TV, in the days before the internet. Always liked this and the ships. I normally don't like remakes, but the Tom Cruise version is really good.
One last suggestion for 50s sci-fi is the classic "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers"
Years before this movie, the story was played on radio to sound like a real emergency broadcast. Apparently many thought it was real and it set off a bit of a panic, including some suicides.
There is a color version of "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers" it was produced about 20 years ago and overseen by Ray Harryhausen so it is a well done colorization. Harryhausen originally wanted to film it in color but the studio would not pay the extra cost for color film for a "hokey sci-fi movie". The colorization process used finally allowed him to give us his original vision for the film.
Yeah,Cruise's up to date version was well done.Have you ever seen the tv series-FALLING-SKIES ??? If not it's a tv show about aliens from another planet has taken over most of the earth and there's pockets of human resistance fighters trying to take back the earth from alien invaders.
That was the best Scream! You can almost see what she had for breakfast
This is a favorite sci-fi movie as well as ' The Day The Earth Stood Still ' both have remakes but I prefer the originals
I swear, the sound you hear when the Martians are firing their machines sounds just like my grandma's old car from the sixties starting up, lol.
In the HG Wells novel, the aliens arrived in Victorian era London. There is also an Orson Welles radio program of this in 1927, that terrified Americans enough, that some folks committed suicide when they thought Martians were invading the world. This was way before television.
What will we do in this situation ?...RUN
One of the most exciting sci-fi movies ever. Probably gave 1953 audiences shivers.
Emmerich's movie "Independence Day" was a puffed and padded version of "War of the Worlds."
I think that this was the first movie/tv show that had the concept of "deflector shield" now so common in Sci Fi nowadays.
The actor who played General Mann😡 later played 'Mentor' on the 70s Shazam Saturday morning TV show .👍👍👍
He taught Billy. Batson well. And a rockin RV to boot.
Loved your reaction, another classic Sci - Fi film worth watching. I loved the sound effects in this one.
The scream which Ann Robinson who played Sylvia gave when the alien put it's three fingers on her shoulder wasn't properly captured by the sound man during the first take so the scene had to be shot again - apparently he wasn't prepared for such a loud shrill of a scream! Ann and Gene Barry played the grandparents in the 2005 version which I thought was a great touch.
Ah that’s really nice 2005 one is on my list to react to for comparison
The Square Dance singer is The Caller. He "Calls" the moves, some are simple, others can be very complicated.
Ok well that makes a lot of sense thank you
Great reaction! This is one of my all time favorite movies. There was a TV series in the late 80s that was a sequel to this film.
Definitely a classic!
The Martian War machines will appear without the cobra heads in Robinson Crusoe on Mars(1964)also directed by Byron Haskin.
Yes, to some extent. One of the special effects employees who worked on the War of the Worlds asked George Pal if he could emulate the design, but not totally, when he got the job of producing the special effects for RCOM.. What you see in Robinson Crusoe on Mars are not models but matte paintings. Such as they were they scared the hell out me as a kid, a lot more than the martian war machines!
This movie was rebooted as a syndicated tv series in 1988. It lasted two seasons.
If you'll notice Star Trek borrowed the the sounds of the phaser and the photon torpedo from this movie.
And before the heat ray fires the pulsating 'build up' sound is a electric guitar.
16:01 thats the point. The original book was a criticism on British imperialism by saying, "we do the same thing. You can’t condemn the martians for doing what our own race have been doing for millennia. The martians are no more evil than we are."
And of course the martian ran. Mars has a lot less light than earth, it's eye was not used to the light of the torch, and it hurt. On top of thst it had just had a brick thrown at it, it was in pain and disoriented
War of the Worlds is great. But i still think Day The Earth Stood Still is the best sci-fi from the 1950s
This movie (as well as the 2005 remake) follows the original book surprisingly closely, save for updating the timeframe and changing the venue. The first lines and the last lines are near direct quotes from the amazing 1898 HG Wells novel.
I am surprised you didn't know how the movie would end even though you didn't see it. This was written by H.G. Welles. in the late 1800's and is well known. A radio version of this was broadcast in the late 1930's as a news program and people who tuned in without knowing that the "news" was really a fictional story thought it was real. I was born in 1950 and we were taught this in school. When I saw this movie in TV, I already knew how it ends. Welles also wrote The Time Machine and many other famous stories. What are they teaching in literature class these days?
I was born in the late sixties and I can tell you the story was still told in high school and college in the eighties. Grovers Mill was under attack!!! Otherwise, I have no idea what goes down these days in literature classes. I'm guessing the story is considered quaint and is passed over for something more recent or something more older. The Time Machine -- with Rod Taylor. Classic steam punk.
Byron Haskin also directed the best episode of 60s Outer Limits, IMHO, "Demon with a Glass Hand" that was written by Harlan Ellison.👍👍👍👍
A must see on your classic movies is most definitely The Time Machine (1960) and The Thing (1951).
for Sci Fi, I recommend: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" 1951, "War of the Worlds" 1953, "Them!" 1954, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" 1954, "Forbidden Planet" 1956, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" 1956, "The Fly" 1958, "The Time Machine" 1960, "Planet of the Apes" 1968 "The Omega Man" 1971, "Silent Running" 1972, "Outland" 1981 "Short Circuit" 1986, "Batteries Not Included" 1987, "WarGames"1983, "The Manhattan Project"1986, "Independence Day" 1996, "Bicentennial Man" 1999
You forgot "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" 1961.
So happy to see someone experience this absolute classic. For more 50's goodness check out Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
"If you have any more suggestions"....
"Contact,"
“The Dead Zone,”
"Deja Vu,"
“Enemy Mine,”
“Fahrenheit 451,”
"Frequency,"
"Gandhi,"
"Ghost,"
"The Green Mile,"
"Highlander,"
"Miracle on 34th Street (1947 NOT the remake),"
"North by Northwest,"
"The Pink Panther,"
"Psycho,"
"Rear Window,"
"Rio Bravo," "
"The Terminator,"
"The Thing,"
"The Time Machine (1960 version),"
"Vertigo"
Okay. Next-The Time Machine(1960)😡😡😡😡👍👍👍👍
Absolutely!
If you can find a copy of it, the 1990q tv series by the same name is a direct sequal to this movie.
Oh wow that would be interesting to see
Just so you know, there was a "sequel" television series for this movie in the 1980s. It was actually pretty decent. I forget how many seasons it ran. Shouldn't be too hard to find.
2 seasons with 44 episodes!
@@shallendor Thank you!
The 2005 War of the Worlds is pretty good. A couple of other George Pal sci-fi classics are When Worlds Collide 1951 and The Time Machine 1960, both excellent.
Well thank you for those recommendations I will look into them :)
@@WillTalksMoviesI suggest When Worlds Collide too. Very similar in style and tone (same producer)
My bad. I thought you saw When Worlds Collide.
The George Pal sci-fi trilogy is When worlds Collide, The war of the Worlds and The Time Machine.
Just like the Paul Verhoven sci-fi trilogy is RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers 😊😊😊
Funny you say that starship troopers is next week 👀
@WillTalksMovies 👍👍👍👍
In the novel, the Martians capture humans and feed on them using blood transfusion. It is this which kills them, because of viruses in the blood they have no immune system to fight.
Martian 1: Send up the peace periscope! I mean its not like the humans will do something so horrifyingly evil as charge us with our only fatal weakness: the white flag.
Martian 2: Oh no!
Martian 3: They're coming right for us!
Great take on this grand old movie - brovo
Well thank you for watching and being so kind
@@WillTalksMovies I would avoid the remake lol.
I greatly prefer the graceful, copper war machines of this movie to the 2005 version. These are beautiful ships, despite their deadliness.
For being technically advanced the Martians weren't very bright.🤔🤔🤔😂😂😂😂😂
You can say the same about humans.
After thinking about your question as to what I would do during the invasion, I figure I would immediately run up and down the street pooping my pants.
I think we all would 😂
If you want more George Pal and more HG Wells and a story which influenced Dr Who: The Daleks, then you should consider watching "The Time Machine" from 1960.
The thing from Another World!
Great Reaction 👍👍👍 check out " This Island Earth", "When Worlds Collide", "Forbidden Planet", Earth vs The Flying Saucers, The Thing From Another World. All great 50's Sci Fi movies.
Thanks for the recommendations, forbidden planet already on the channel great movie :)
Yes, definitely check out the remake with Tom Cruise. It's very good.
Also check out the 50's classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and the 70's remake starring Jeff Goldbloom and Donald Sutherland.
Yesss definitely add them to my list
George Pal was not finished with The War Of The Worlds after this movie.
In 1975 Paramount was floating the idea of a Paramount Network, not unlike the short lived Dumont Network of the 1950's.
Among the shows in development was Star Trek Phase 2 and War Of The Worlds The Series.
War Of The Worlds The Series was a joint effort by Pal and Star Trek designer Matt Jeffries, it would have dealt with a starship crew on a one way voyage to find and stop the invaders who they knew were gearing up for a counter offensive now known not to be Martians.
The creatures seen in this movie would be one of many slave species forced to fight for them.
There was one test scene shot for it (I saw that footage a few months ago), but despite having better sets than Star Trek it was not as riveting as the movie.
Star Wars two years later killed the development of the Paramount Network as they felt they had to rush a Star Trek movie into development.
The closest thing to the Paramount Network was syndication of variations on all of those developed shows - Star Trek : The Next Generation and War Of The Worlds The Series were made.
War Of The Worlds The Series was not at all good, it was based entirely on modern Earth where the Invasion shows little signs of having happened as the Aliens try to infiltrate Society's infrastructure, it was a cheap looking and cheap feeling, in a word boring show that no one remembers for good reason.
other films that are essential viewing.. This Island Earth, Earth vs The Flying Saucers and the moderns 50's scifi satire by Tim Burton, Mars Attacks. Yes the remake of this is totally worth watching, I was shocked that even in the modern era Spielberg managed to make the martians scary as hell. You just need to put aside 2 of the most annoying child characters ever and a couple of typical modern hollywood tropes (eg the neglectful dad), but it's otherwise excellent. It even ads back in a plot point from the original book that was too much for 50's cinema goers, though he changed how they arrived which doesn't really make sense, but looks cool af!
invisible invadors great movie
Yikes, did he just mention Transformers '86 in the same breath as War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still? Pardon me, I need to go yell at kids on my lawn.
HG Wells was an Atheist. He didn't include God in the ending of the novel.
So was that a change just for the movie?
@@WillTalksMovies Yes
George Pal = genius
Not a fan of the 2005 movie, BUT I would enjoy your reaction to the pilot episode, "The Resurrection", of the sequel 1988 T.V. series "The War of the Worlds", which picks up 35 years after the events of this movie. Starring the late Jared Martin, Lynda Mason Green, Philip Akin, and Richard Chaves.
Gene Berry was indeed a handsome man. You can see more of him in The Time Machine, another classic. The Red Palnet and The Day Mars Invaded Earth are two "B" movies that have interesting storylines about invasions. The WotW's remake is not as good as this version IMHO.
They said the nuke was 10X bigger than anything ever detonated. I wonder if the Martians could have survived Russia's "Tsar Bomba", a hydrogen bomb 3,500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima? I don't think their shields would have protected them. But then, no other living thing would have survived either.
It wasn't a miracle. It was millions of years of evolution.
That is the very definition of a miracle. Everything is predestined.
@sebastianbendyna2363 Not what the word means. There's nothing supernatural about it, and no need for a design.
@ miracles don’t need to be supernatural. We call the birth of babies miracles….
@sebastianbendyna2363 You can say that your team winning the game is a "miracle," but it's not. People exaggerate. They don't mean things literally all the time.
@ well as a Christian I know that when Christians talk about miracles there is no difference between supernatural miracles and things like what happened in this movie…because we believe God is author of all things. So bacteria that kills alien invaders, the birth of a human being, and Jesus walking on water are the same thing to us.
I really don’t care what you believe, but you’re not going to tell me what do believe thanks.
There are things about the 2005 version that I like but this is by far the better of the two. It also doesn't come with that 2000s post-9/11 baggage.
if you like odd sci fi, you should watch 'Final Countdown' (1980) for Pearl Harbor Day
You're sense of humor combined with your appreciation for the movie Jahre is great... perhaps an interesting choice for you would be 1951's SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN... The story isn't as black and white as the film. 😄
The Tom Cruise version is ok, but Independence Day is another remake.
Great react! Can you watch Pride and Prejudice (2005)? Maybe for valentines day since it's a romance. The American version has the best ending (it's a little longer than the British one)
Thanks and definitely a good recommendation it was on my list at one point, looking to getting back into Rom coms
@@WillTalksMovies yay!
Finally someone watched the decent War of the Worlds movie and Not that crappy rip off movie with Tom Cruise.
This is a classic, and Far better than that Spielberg, Cruise pile of junk.
He didn’t fly the plane towards the Martian war machines those were machines from the second meteor
As much as I love this movie, Herbert G Wells who was very much an atheist, wouldn't have been keen on how this version religiously slants the conclusion of his story. He does have the Martians undone by their lack of resistance to bacteria, but the cause is never suggested as anything other than natural contamination. The whole element of the Martians feeding on human blood, and their building of human farms (which is how they contaminate themselves) is entirely omitted from this version of the storyline, as it was probably far too strong for a 1950s US audience.
The Martians in the book are not biologically primitive as such. It's more that via the "use it or lose it" mechanism of evolution, they have rendered themselves as little more than brains with tentacles. Their technology does _everything_ for them, including supporting many of their previously biological functions ranging from locomotion to digestion. Today we call that technology cybernetics, but there was no such term in the 19th century when the book was penned. The Martians had conquered all pathogens on Mars, and no doubt believed their tech could deal with any microbial threats on Earth, but ultimately evolution found a way.
Curiously the scale of the invasion in the book is much smaller, covering just the South of England (even Northern England is left unmolested). The Martians lacked the resources for more than an initial bridgehead, and were digging in whilst they gathered resources for a second wave which would have seen them conquer the rest of the planet. So the war covering the whole world is very much a product of these later adaptations.
You never read the book?
I laughed at whatever version you looked at. Since when is red planet Mars blue? I have the Criterion release and Mars is correctly red. Must be one of the lame streaming versions.
This my favorite. The one with Tom Cruz is well done., But, he is not my favorite type of human. I no longer support his movies.
The
This is my fav sci fi movie and it’s beautiful ending…God is real and he does love and protect us.
Definitely was an unexpected twist