Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

it's been a minute since i did a 50s movie on this show but this time i think i'll change things up a little bit so far i've mostly concentrated on monster flicks from the 50s so now i'm gonna do an alien invasion movie and what better way to start than with a movie based off the granddaddy of all alien invader stories war of the worlds the hg wells novel the war of the worlds is one of the most important in science fiction the whole alien invader genre is so common now that it's taken for granted but this was one of the first stories to depict a full-scale invasion of earth by beings from another planet attempts at a movie adaptation were thought of as far back as the silent era and there was the famous 1938 orson welles radio broadcast that some people reportedly thought was real but it wasn't until the science fiction boom of the 1950s that a big screen version finally happened this one comes to us courtesy of producer george pal who specialized in other sci-fi spectacles like destination moon when worlds collide conquest of space and the time machine george powell's movies were big they were colorful and they tried to be at least a little bit scientifically accurate even if the science is dated by today's standards but war of the worlds is considered by many to not only be his best film but also one of the best sci-fi movies of the 1950s i am still gonna make smart ass comments throughout it though wait what the hell black and white i thought this movie was in color the second world war involved every continent on the globe and men turned to science for new devices of warfare yeah real nice that they included the newsreel at the beginning but could we get to the actual movie i'm a little surprised they didn't also have a cartoon at the beginning after all one of george powell's previous movies destination moon featured an appearance by woody woodpecker i guess it's appropriate they're including all this stock footage since the opening credits are in world war ii military font whoa barry lyndon oh this promises to be a beautifully shot but somewhat tedious kubrick movie so like any good 50s sci-fi movie we begin with some opening narration i mean more opening narration this time courtesy of sir cedric hardwick telling us about the planet mars mars is more than 140 million miles from the sun at night temperatures drop far below zero even at its equator uh whatever i live in saskatchewan suck it up and put on a parka you martian [ __ ] because mars sucks the inhabitants decided to colonize another planet they could not go to pluto outermost of all planets they couldn't go to neptune or uranus yeah you don't want to go to uranus that place stinks ah come on i had to i had to by the way this movie actually had a pretty big budget for when it was made and we see that right away with these matte paintings yeah they might not be realistic exactly they look more like they're from an animated movie but they are still pretty cool after the narration the real movie begins when a comet lands near the sleepy california town of fiftiesville i wonder where it lives hey let's go find him come on fellas you better get out there the blob's not gonna discover itself now the fact that the movie changed the setting from 1800s england to 1950s california caused some controversy but i get why they did it when the book was written britain was the world's superpower and the story was about what would happen if they were attacked by a technologically superior enemy that they were helpless against but by the 50s the us was number one so it made sense that they changed it plus you know american audiences in 1953 probably didn't want to sit through an entire movie of british accents and because it's the 50s that means every car has to look like if the griswolds were bank robbers looks like the fishing was good have some well i might just do that this fat guy cop looks like his first and last names are both barney right no i'll smoke it later ah come on it's the 50s 9 out of 10 doctors say you should smoke it now well there's a giant meteorite in california what are they going to do with such an amazing discovery they won't be able to hold this one away to no museum it'll be a real good attraction for sunday drivers hey good thinking dress it up like the world's biggest ball of string and it'll pay for itself in no time man everyone's coming to see this thing i don't understand why media that size didn't make a bigger crater yeah yeah just change into superman and throw it back into space okay uh wait some scientists want to look at it first but the ranger said a scientist is coming from pacific tech clayton forrester ever hear of him hell yeah i've heard of him he's half the reason i'm even doing this video right now and this guy's also heard of him because he's dr forrester well i might have recognized you without the beard and you didn't wear glasses on the time cover wait she didn't recognize him because he's wearing glasses is this guy actually superman and don't go whacking this thing just yet first they got to make sure it's safe this is a geiger counter for detecting radioactivity look at this thing it's going crazy i'm sure it's fine they're shooting a movie with john wayne out here later well that's enough science for one day now what is there to do in this town what do people do around here on a saturday they don't do much of anything there's a square dance at the social hall that's evil whoa whoa whoa square dance that's awfully sinful don't you think i mean look i can practically see these girls ankles [ __ ] [ __ ] okay enough dancing now time to get shit-faced on cola meanwhile some townsfolk investigate the meteorite and hey wait a second i think there might be aliens in there where do you think they come from it's a 50s movie so mars huh actually i think they might come from the planet of the phallic symbols and don't make first contact with it you don't know what they're gonna do with that thing come on out we're friends that's right we welcome you we're friends yeah ooh sorry fellas but on mars a white flag is the symbol for suck my balls no wonder they were pissed well great the martians just killed some people and ruined the church fondue party the police better go investigate power lines are down that explains why the lights went up nice work chief on the plus side the martians made chalk outlines of the guys they killed so that ought to save you some time by the way before we go on i gotta mention the sound effects in this movie because they are awesome just listen to the sound the ship and heat ray make here [Music] yeah it's so 50s but so distinctive in fact a lot of the sounds here would become stock sci-fi effects for years afterwards even more bad news not only are the aliens hostile but there's more of them oh and here's professor mcpherson of the canadian meteorological research council is it true professor you've had reports of landings in other places in uh canada oh [ __ ] yeah bud they're landing all over the place i wish they'd just take off and go back to mersey this reporter better be careful the last time somebody broadcast a martian invasion it caused a real panic why did it just lift his motor that means he dropped the flare when it does burst we should be the first man on earth to get a real look at these invaders from space don't you mean invaders from mars oh wait that's a different 50s movie and no need for the flare the martians will light up the night sky by setting everything on fire pretty soon the military moves in and thankfully they remember to bring enough coffee and donuts to take on the martians the army is led by a guy called general mann and because this is a 50s movie i'm assuming his first name is real any news from abroad washington is in constant touch with the military of other nations apparently they're coming down all over oh yes back when every military commander had to have a 50s radio voice damn even the way the general drinks his coffee is dramatic usually in 50 sci-fi flicks you have to wait until over the halfway point to actually get a good look at the monster or aliens but not in this movie the martian war machines make a full appearance at the 30-minute mark is that some kind of a flying machine oh yeah this is another important difference between the movie and the novel in the book the martians use huge three-legged walking machines which is the design the 2005 steven spielberg adaptation went with but because that would have been hard to do from an effects standpoint in 1953 here they use flying manta ray type ships of course they still kind of reference the machines from the book here supported from the ground by rays probably some form of magnetic flux like invisible legs yeah nice try fellas but these things still ain't tripods shooting's no good shouldn't you try to communicate with them first no no no better to start shooting for all we know they could be a bunch of dirty commies i mean mars is the red planet after all there's only one thing that can save the earth now and that's a big old dose of jesus than us they should be nearer the creator for that reason the priest goes out to try and communicate with the martians and this goes about as well as you'd expect and i will dwell in the house of the lord yeah no dice father these aliens are scientologists xenu sends his regards [ __ ] well that does it let him have it fellas another change from the book the martian ships have force fields here which kind of makes me wonder if roland emmerich was a fan of this movie oh well let's listen to more of those sound effects [Music] they almost sound like if 50s raygun and spaceship toys were attacking people and by the way i mean that as a compliment it also might seem a little tame today but in 1953 the level of destruction on display here was some of the most intense any sci-fi movie had shown at that point jesus sure hope that stuntman was okay i checked imdb he was not okay dr forrester get out of here everybody out of here while the army's retreating dr forster and sylvia decide to take a plane for some reason instead of going with them but i'm sure they'll be okay [Music] hey sorry about that sweetheart but i'm a scientist not a pilot with the martians attacking all over the world general man isn't really sure what to do les tremaine wasn't used to dealing with martians yet we heard that dr clayton forrester was out there with you what's he think about this ah don't you worry pal there's a term for the kind of pain dr forrester's gonna inflict on the martians [Music] first he's got to figure out how the hell he's going to get out of here uh what is he gonna do to her oh there's your answer he's getting her to cook eggs for him well just because you're on the run from hostile alien invaders doesn't mean there's no time for breakfast it is the most important meal of the day after all so now that they're chilling here for a little bit how about a little character development i have no close folks my parents died when i was a kid they died after my home planet krypton exploded better not get too comfortable i think the bug from men in black just landed oh wait it's the martians there's a machine standing right alongside of us quit acting like these things have legs they are clearly flying and if you thought the martians have been a little too intimidating so far they send in a probe that looks like a cute robot oh yeah all right i joke but this probe was actually pretty innovative for the time and it did have a big influence on later sci-fi movies we also see one of the martians at this point and much like the probe it's weird but also strangely adorable now in the book the martians are described as tentacled blob creatures but that would have been hard to do in 1953 not impossible though none other than legendary stop-motion animator ray harryhausen attempted to make a movie adaptation using that design creating concept art and even some test footage that you can still find on the internet some even say that harryhausen was the one who convinced george powell to do a film adaptation but when he actually got around to making it harryhausen wasn't involved well too bad harryhausen wasn't involved he could have given us martians that looked like they did in the book and animated the tripods but the results here aren't bad i appreciate that they didn't just go with a guy with pointy ears painted green or something and actually tried to make the martians look weird and alien here even if they sometimes look like e.t with his head cut off running around like a chicken you know in hindsight maybe we should have just had some cereal and got the hell out of here instead of cooking eggs anyway while the martians are busy laying waste to stock footage from all over the world the military is busy playing a giant game of risk montreal's blacked out nothing more has come through well gentlemen if moosejaw falls that means the earth is doomed well okay there is one more thing they can try against the martians the white house will confirm in order to use the atom bomb yeah that's right they're gonna drop a nuke on the martians with a flying boomerang which was probably pretty impressive in the 50s we've been warned that this bomb is ten times more powerful than anything previously used nothing like this has ever been exploded before and we're gonna be pretty darn close well that doesn't sound very safe not that it matters people are watching like it's woodstock no worries though see they're wearing raincoats they'll be fine they dropped the a-bomb on the martians and i gotta say this part where they're trying to find out if it worked only to see the ships emerge from the smoke is also very similar to a scene in independence day okay i take back my comment about wondering whether or not roland demrick was a fan of this movie because i think he definitely was well looks like the earth is doomed and the population is descending into panic and looting but on the plus side this kid got some ice cream might as well steal some beer while you're at it everybody else is looting [Music] of course it is still the 50s which means that even at the end of the world people still say buster damn not only does dr forrester lose his glasses but there also aren't any phone booths around for him to change in while this is going on the martians start to lay waste to los angeles it's a shame this movie wasn't made today i'd really love it if they blew up an influencer house oh and did i mention this movie was probably an influence on independence day while looking for sylvia dr forrester goes into a church better hope jesus put you on the guest list for heaven oh lord we pray thee grant us the miracle of thy divine intervention please do us all a favor and righteously smite some martian ass oh and speaking of divine i know this is a minor detail but why does it look like jesus is wearing drag queen makeup in this statue i know i've already mentioned this but the level of destruction shown here was on a level that had rarely been shown in sci-fi movies before at the time this was one of the most apocalyptic sci-fi flicks anybody had ever seen usually in these types of movies the main scientists will whip up some sort of invention that'll defeat the aliens but here you really get the feeling that humanity's [ __ ] the only thing they can do now is pray that their death is swift now the ending to the novel war of the worlds is pretty well known at this point but in case you don't know the martians are defeated by germs that's right instead of weapons the martians are taken down by common diseases that humans have become immune to no i forgot to wash my hands after using the bathroom my one weakness okay that's one difference between this and independence day the aliens there weren't defeated by a virus i gave it a virus computer virus oh wait never mind actually they were well thanks dr forster i mean you didn't really do anything but you said some sciency stuff earlier so you know thanks for that one last difference in the movie from the book is that there's more religious overtones here but again 50s despite its many departures from the book h.g wells estate was reportedly so pleased with the movie that they gave george pal the rights to adapt another of wells stories the time machine which he did in 1960. it also got a release from the criterion collection which puts it on the same level as armageddon there was even a war of the worlds tv series in the late 80s that directly followed and referenced this version and while it may not be as influential as the book this still had a big impact on sci-fi movies yeah sure like any 50s movie parts of it are going to be dated and the characters are mostly stock archetypes like the heroic scientist the gung-ho general and the female love interest who's mostly there to just scream and cook eggs but make no mistake this movie still has an important place in science fiction history while it wasn't the first alien invader movie this really helped popularize the genre and like i said its scenes of destruction would end up being a huge influence on future sci-fi flicks just like how science fiction as a whole wouldn't be the same without the novel sci-fi movies wouldn't be the same without george pal's war the worlds so there you go i actually did an important movie on this channel don't get used to it though next episode i'm probably going to do a movie about tv zombies or something well that's all for now until next time [Music] so [Music] everybody out of here everybody [Music] you

Channel: Brandon Tenold

Views: 313,207

Keywords: The War Of The Worlds, 1953, Sci-Fi, George Pal, H. G. Wells, Martian, Brandon Tenold, Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews, Cult Film

Id: QRuz-wjvI1E

Length: 18min 26sec (1106 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022