Film Review: War of the Worlds (dir. S. Spielberg 2005)

Quick first reaction: Spielberg manages to take a story everyone sort of knows, in a genre (alien invasion!) I honestly thought was worn-out, and makes a movie that is strikingly fresh. The reason the movie is so interesting, however, has little to do with the basic plotlines and more to do with how Spielberg tells the story. For one thing, there are no peripheral plots or subplots; there is nothing in this film, with a very few exceptions (I'll come to this in just a second), that is not told from the Tom Cruise character's point-of-view. Indeed, once a character leaves Tom Cruise's orbit, he or she disappears altogether from the film--unless (and until) he or she re-enters that orbit. As some reviewers have pointed out, this is really a horror movie, not a sci-fi movie. Unlike Independence Day (or a standard 1970's disaster movie), it does not follow multiple plots and subplots, or tell us what the leaders of the country are doing. It's the story of one man's efforts to keep himself and his children alive. Think Halloween--Cruise is even babysitting! And success is measured in survival--just like a horror movie--not in conquering the aliens (never identified as Martians here), which human beings are incapable of, anyway.

One exception to the Cruise-orbit rule here is (spolier alert) the scene in which Tom Cruise's character kills Tim Robbins's character, which is told from the point of view of his daughter (Dakota Fanning). In terms of plot/character development, this scene shows just how far the Cruise character is willing to go to protect his children (or child, here). But again, the tight focus on Fanning makes this a horrifying scene. We don't know what's going on behind those closed doors; if Cruise loses the fight, we fear the worst for wide-eyed Dakota. When he emerges (the camera angle drags out the suspense--but really, is Cruise going to get killed? why does this trick work?), he seems shaken. Really. But we never find out what he had to do behind those doors . . . .

There are a few panoramic shots, few shots from above. The camera follows Cruise. That's different, especially in a special effects driven movie. Other reviews have also pointed out that there's not a lot of music. Just lots of action, and lots of scary moments. The colors are also muted--as in Saving private Ryan, and I think some of the scenes were edited to look like they were shot with television news equipment as opposed to cinema-quality cameras--to add to the "realism" of the movie (because things look more realistic if they look like they do on tv).

There aren't any major themes here, as far as I can see. One might argue that there's something in there about parenting, but it would be something really obvious: "Parents will go to extreme lengths to protect their children from alien invaders."

One other aspect of the movie I haven't seen discussed in other reviews. This a really dark movie. The humans can't cooperate. They are panicked, fleeing danger, self-centered, even crazy (Robbins's survivalist character). There are believable scenes of mob violence, and a scary scene in which the authorities order a ferry ramp raised, despite the fact that there's more room on the ferry and people on the ramp. Cruise has to kill the crazy survivalist to save himself and his daughter. Not a very optimistic movie, despite the strange choice of end-of-movie voice over.