Watching Tripods Fall
The following contains spoilers on Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. The two people reading this blog should be aware of this and only read on if they don't mind being told stuff that could impact their enjoyment of the movie.
I really didn't expect War of the Worlds to be anything but a special effects laden Hollywood summer blockbuster. And while it fits this bill, it is also something more. There are scenes in there which are really frightening, the whole movie reeks of paranoia and fear. The whole thing has an air of realism, the crowd scenes are very intense. The panic of the people seems real and there is no hero figure rising up to vanquish the enemy.
A very nice touch was the whole "don't look" thing with Rachel (the daugther, played superbly by Dakota Fanning). Everytime destruction and death are shown, the girl's eyes are shielded from it by her father. The audience on the other hand, does get the full view of the carnage, until the big battle against the tripods. While Ferrier's son "has to see" it, suddenly the audience is cast into the role of the girl and doesn't get a view of the battle raging behind the hill. Nice comment on the "disaster watching" mentality fostered by CNN and other news stations. Also the scene with the News team at the plane crash site seems to be a comment on the strange set of priorities "news" reporters have nowadays.
"Were you in that plane?"
"No."
"Pity. Would have made a great story."
Another highlight of the film is the cellar scene with a great Tim Robbins playing Ogilvy, an ex-amubulance-driver gone over the edge. While the suspense scene with the alien eye dragged on a bit too long, the interaction of Cruise and Robbins was perfect. Here, too, the death of Ogilvy isn't shown on screen, the audience is as shielded from it as Rachel.
My only real point of criticism is the ending, which is just too sugary-sweet for the rest of the film that preceded it. The scene where Ferrier's son runs to his death just to see what's happening was very poignant and hit quite hard. Having him show up at the end invalidates that. People died left and right in the millions, but the family of the protagonist goes unharmed. But I don't like happy endings, so maybe that's just me.
I really didn't expect War of the Worlds to be anything but a special effects laden Hollywood summer blockbuster. And while it fits this bill, it is also something more. There are scenes in there which are really frightening, the whole movie reeks of paranoia and fear. The whole thing has an air of realism, the crowd scenes are very intense. The panic of the people seems real and there is no hero figure rising up to vanquish the enemy.
A very nice touch was the whole "don't look" thing with Rachel (the daugther, played superbly by Dakota Fanning). Everytime destruction and death are shown, the girl's eyes are shielded from it by her father. The audience on the other hand, does get the full view of the carnage, until the big battle against the tripods. While Ferrier's son "has to see" it, suddenly the audience is cast into the role of the girl and doesn't get a view of the battle raging behind the hill. Nice comment on the "disaster watching" mentality fostered by CNN and other news stations. Also the scene with the News team at the plane crash site seems to be a comment on the strange set of priorities "news" reporters have nowadays.
"Were you in that plane?"
"No."
"Pity. Would have made a great story."
Another highlight of the film is the cellar scene with a great Tim Robbins playing Ogilvy, an ex-amubulance-driver gone over the edge. While the suspense scene with the alien eye dragged on a bit too long, the interaction of Cruise and Robbins was perfect. Here, too, the death of Ogilvy isn't shown on screen, the audience is as shielded from it as Rachel.
My only real point of criticism is the ending, which is just too sugary-sweet for the rest of the film that preceded it. The scene where Ferrier's son runs to his death just to see what's happening was very poignant and hit quite hard. Having him show up at the end invalidates that. People died left and right in the millions, but the family of the protagonist goes unharmed. But I don't like happy endings, so maybe that's just me.
posted by montag at 11:25 AM
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