A mysterious, meteorlike object has landed in a small California town. All clocks have stopped. A fleet of glowing green UFOs hovers menacingly over the entire globe. The Martian invasion of Earth has begun, and it seems that nothing—neither military might nor the scientific know-how of nuclear physicist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry)—can stop it. In the expert hands of genre specialists George Pal and Byron Haskin, H. G. Wells’s end-of-civilization classic receives a chilling Cold War–era update, complete with hallucinatory Technicolor and visionary, Oscar-winning special effects. Emblazoned with iconographic images of 1950s science fiction, The War of the Worlds is both an influential triumph of visual imagination and a still-disquieting document of the wonder and terror of the atomic age.
SPECIAL FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, created by sound designer Ben Burtt and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 2005 featuring filmmaker Joe Dante, film historian Bob Burns, and author Bill Warren
Movie Archaeologists, a new program on the visual and sound effects in the film featuring Burtt and film historian Craig Barron
From the Archive, a new program about the film’s restoration featuring Barron, Burtt, and Paramount Pictures archivist Andrea Kalas
Audio interview with producer George Pal from 1970
The Sky Is Falling, a 2005 documentary about the making of the film
The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds from 1938, directed and narrated by Orson Welles
Radio program from 1940 featuring a discussion between Welles and H. G. Wells, author of the 1897 novel The War of the Worlds
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
KJones77 wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 4:41 pm
There goes my thinking of "Well, I'm safe to buy the Imprint release, no way Paramount licenses this out stateside". Ugh.
Same, but the Imprint has the exclusive Forshaw/Newman commentary (Kim is always a joy to listen to), ports the Barry/Robinson commentary and HG Wells featurette from the DVD, and will (assumedly) be available two months earlier. Plus I personally prefer the Imprint art.
I'm not complaining as this is a really great looking edition, but since they are including the infamous Mercury Theatre adaptation - as well as another radio show featuring Welles, it would have been cool to also get The Night America Trembled, the 1957 CBS episode of Studio One about the public's reaction to the broadcast. Which by the way features both Warren Beatty and Warren Oates in small roles as card players.
I actually found the CGI in the 2005 film excellent and I'm usually really really not a fan of CGI. And soulless (not that I agree with that description anyway) would actually be apt for those aliens given how they pulverise people without a thought.
therewillbeblus wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:38 pm
Really wish they included the fantastic Spielberg remake, but that was never going to happen. Looks like a great package.
If it's any consolation, the remake is seeing a 4K UHD release next month.
colinr0380 wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 8:30 pmAnd the inclusion of the nationwide panic causing radio adaptation of War of the Worlds makes this essential!
I've been enjoying the newer episode playing out on Facebook/Twitter over the past two months.
Criterion's release contains these features from Paramount's Special Edition DVD release from 2005 (the same year as the Spielberg remake):
1. Commentary by film director Joe Dante, film historian Bob Burns and Bill Warren, author of Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties
2. The Original Mercury Theatre Radio Broadcast of The War of the Worlds
3. The Sky is Falling: The Making of The War of the Worlds
4. Original Theatrical Trailer
Not included: Commentary by: by actors Ann Robinson and Gene Barry
I watched this with my then four year old son, I think on TCM (25 years ago). When the Martians fry their first victims, he turned to me and said, "I think this is going to be my favorite movie ever!" Sooooo looking forward to this release!
Of course Svet takes this review as an opportunity to explain his transformation from pragmatic rationalist to U.F.O.-believer (without actually explaining it at all)
