The War of the Worlds

One of the key science fiction films of the 1950s, George Pal and Byron Haskin's The War of the Worlds (1953) was one of only a handful of expensive, high-prestige science fiction productions in an era when low-budget economy was the status quo for such fare. The film single-handedly initiated modern cinema's reliance on groundbreaking, screen-filling special effects, not to mention spectacular wholesale destruction, and became a template for virtually every alien invasion film that was to follow. In this illuminating exploration of the film, Barry Forshaw illuminates the way in which it reinvents the narrative of HG Wells' political novel and freights in undercurrents of its own about American society. Examining the film's literary origins and its numerous film progeny, Forshaw situates it as the most complete cinematic realisation of the 'collapse of civilisation' theme - inaugurated by Wells and subsequently explored by British science fiction writers such as John Wyndham and JG Ballard - to date.

Year

2014

Language

English

Publisher

British Film Institute

Editions

1

Pages

88

ISBN

9781844578115

Data source: Wikidata