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The War of the Worlds



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
• An essay by film critic J. Hoberman
• New cover by Patrick Leger

There goes my thinking of "Well, I'm safe to buy the Imprint release, no way Paramount licenses this out stateside". Ugh.

Moratorium on the word "visionary" in any context, please.

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.

Barry Forshaw is the guy who wrote a BFI Classics book on the film and repeatedly got a major plot wrong in that he states

Spoiler

the priest is the first to die, when in fact it is the three men with the white flag

I found this film very pedestrian and actually prefer the Spielberg remake minus the last two minutes.

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.

Or the American Experience episode on the broadcast, the first seven minutes of which can be watched here.

Finch wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:44 pm I found this film very pedestrian and actually prefer the Spielberg remake minus the last two minutes.

The performances may be stodgy, but the special effects are spectacular (and, of course, not empty, soulless CGI like the remake).

This film terrified me so much as a child, it took me four days to get through the video!

Really wish they included the fantastic Spielberg remake, but that was never going to happen. Looks like a great package.

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.

But yes, the effects in the 50s film hold up too.

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.

Absolutely fantastic. And the inclusion of the nationwide panic causing radio adaptation of War of the Worlds makes this essential!

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 wonder if Eureka will do a release combining the extras of both the US and Australian releases.

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!

Potential colour timing issue? - https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/monster ... -s100.html

We can also just wait until we have caps from the actual release itself before fretting!

No need to fret! - https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=211

FrauBlucher wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:10 am bluray.com

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)

"Lately, I have been reading and viewing a lot, and what used to sound silly to me no longer does."

Yup, we noticed.

Mind you, one of the sad things about growing old is realising that contact with alien life-forms isn't very likely.

Then again, considering this film, maybe that is a blessing!