Essay About New Jersey Crane Operator And Entire Film

War of the Worlds Analysis
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War of the Worlds
A New Jersey crane operator and hopeless father, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), has
his weekend with his kids interrupted by alien invaders who have come to destroy Earth
and its inhabitants. We follow the Ferrier family as they struggle to survive the
extermination attempt as they herd along the east coast. Along the way their relationships
are tested as they learn more and more about each other, and mankind.
Accompanying Cruise on the screen is a very impressive Dakota Fanning as
Rays 10 year old daughter, Justin Chatwin is his typical teenage son, and Tim Robbins
plays a paranoid survivor that the family bunks up with for a few nights. Over all the
acting is suffice, like I said; Fanning takes the cake in her role, where everyone else pulls
off the performances needed. However I am not telling you to see this movie because of
the acting. It is the special effects, sound effects, action, and mainly the techniques used
by Spielberg to tell the story is what you will enjoy.
The entire film is from the one familys point of view. This works great because
the audience is more able to attach themselves to the characters. Unlike Independence
Day, which had several “main” characters and just as many story lines, the audience had
to settle as more of an omniscient observer than a participant. This also contributes to the
pacing of the movie. War of the Worlds stays well paced with action and exposition, until
a slow spot when Robbinss character is introduced. In ID4, because of all those
characters and story set up, that film goes forty-five minutes before any real action scene,
where the first action sequence is only fifteen minutes into War of the Worlds.
War of the Worlds opened in theaters June 29th and has a DVD release date of
November 11th, 2005. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, who has a few films under his
belt that I am sure you have heard of, not to mention a film which deals with aliens,
though of a different motivation, E.T. It is based on the novel written by H.G. Wells, who
also penned novels like; The Time Machine, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. Wellss book
was adapted to screenplay by David Koepp, who also adapted Jurassic Parks 1 and 2, and
Spider Man. The films executive producer was Paula Wagner, and was distributed by
Paramount Pictures.
This movie is good for a number of reasons. It is very entertaining and can be
watched and enjoyed on that level alone. However there is a multitude of sublevels
intertwined into this film and that is what I found most interesting. A brief history
reminder, Orson Welles, the actor, writer, and director of Citizen Kane, used to have a
radio theater show. On October 30th, 1938, they broadcasted a dramatic news account
version of H. G. Wellss War of the Worlds. His “play” about invaders from Mars,
caused a panic as people hid in basements, fled from the city, loaded their guns, and even
went to the radio station to see the event. This situation has since been studied and is a
source for trying to predict how a mass amount of people might react or handle
themselves in state of wide emergency. Spielbergs movie is no different. It embraces and
experiments with a modern day panicking public. Koepp uses miss communications,
society break down, attitudes of survival of the fittest, where even with an outside force,
we can be a threat to each other. These themes are to demonstrate how he thinks that even
in our advanced technological state, as a species, we have learned very little in the last
sixty-seven years.
Another comment I think Koepp makes with his script is why the aliens have
come to Earth. The entire movie never answers this question directly, but I think Koepp
shows the audience the aliens motivation through his writing and imagery. As
mentioned, Cruises character, Ferrier, sits a