“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
A Meteorite crashes near the small town of Linda Rosa. Thought of as a novelty, the town residents are excited. Scientist Clayton Forester is fishing near-by with a couple colleagues. The forest ranger asks him to check it out. Forester is puzzled by the way the meteorite came down. Forester meets Sylvia Van Buren at the impact site. Sylvia is a town resident and a student at USC. They discuss Forester's confusion concerning the odd behavior of the meteorite.
The meteorite is extremely hot. Out of concern for the town residents the sheriff posts three guards at the crash site. Later that night the meteorite unscrews and a small alien craft rises up. The meteorize is an alien spaceship. The three guards wave a white flag at the craft. The alien craft is actually a laser weapon. It disintegrates the three men. The laser technology is an electromagnetic pulse. It destroys the electrical tower and cuts out all communication systems. It also magnetizes metal. Forrester realizes that the disturbance is coming from the direction of the meteorite. Forrester and the sheriff, along with a deputy, ride out to the meteorite. They are attacked by laser weapon.
More weapons come out of the spaceship. More spaceships land all over the world. The Earth is being invaded. No one is spared. The Armed Forces of the world have no way of stopping the carnage. The Earth appears to be doomed unless scientists can find a way to stop the alien war machines.
"War of the Worlds" was released in 1953 and was directed by Byron Haskin. There have been many adaptations of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” both movie and audio. Also, the book has never been out of print. Although the book is based in the British Countryside this film is based in California. This movie adaptation is my favorite.
When the novel was written in 1898 our knowledge of space was limited to what was going on in our own solar system. Not knowing what was happening on our nearest neighbors in space we used what science we new or thought we knew and, like a child’s imagination taking flight, tried to explain what could not be explained. The movie is intense from beginning to end. From the fear of the unknown when the aliens land, to the chaos of the battle. It continues through to the possibility of mankind’s extinction by a force we never knew was there. The tale is somber and shows many sides of man in the face of destruction. Both good and bad.
With a decent budget of $2,000,000, and George Pal producing, the special effects are astounding and most of the budget for the film went to the special effects. That includes the sound effects for the movie. Whenever you hear them you know there are aliens near. And you know what is going to happen.
Some of the sound effects created for the movie were used for other projects. For example the sound of machines hovering is the same sound used on Star Trek for the hand phaser. The sound of the ray the aliens use or “skeleton ray” is the sound used for photon torpedoes. Other sounds are part of stock footage and are still in use.
It’s a well made movie that has become a classic. It stars Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester and Ann Robinson as Sylvia Van Buren and it’s on everyone’s top ten list.
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J Waynes War Of The Worlds Musical Original Audio