There have been many iterations of famous British science fiction author H. G. Wells’ arguably most famous book, The War of the Worlds (1898).  It was written at a time when mankind was beginning to put its faith less in the God who created us, and more on the science wrought by our own hands . . . but nevertheless having the Divine as its source, I might add.  Before continuing, please note that this Catholic reviewer does not intend an anti-science diatribe.  It has been well documented, on The Legionnaire and in other places, that the Church is not against scientific endeavor.  Still, to remind everyone once more, it was Belgian priest and cosmologist Father Georges Lemaître who first proposed the Big Bang Theory.  I could point to other examples, but given the subject of today’s review, it is probably the most fitting.  Father Lemaître, in keeping with Church teaching, held that science and Faith are not mutually exclusive.  Yet, beginning in Wells’ day, the belief spread that it was us rather than God that commanded destiny.  Part of the reason for the fame of this specific work is that it suggests that there is something out there even more advanced than us, a race of people on Mars to be more to point.  What would those people do if they ever came here?  The War of the Worlds (1953) attempts to answer that question, in vivid technicolor no less.

Before we get to The War of the Worlds, we are given a brief prologue about the dangers of technology and its impact on warfare.  With that odd beginning out of the way, the people of some non-descript suburb of Los Angeles witness an object from outer space crash into the nearby hills.  Everyone is more or less excited about this occurrence, though not treating it as anything too serious.  The sheriff (Henry Brandon) casually stops at a campsite in the area where Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) has been fishing with a few of his colleagues.  The scientists are aware of the unidentified flying object (UFO), but seem about as concerned about it as they are about the sheriff helping himself to some of their food. Eventually, Dr. Forrester heads to the crash site with a few others.  While looking on, he strikes up a conversation with Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson).  She is there because, as best as I can tell, she is some kind of physicist groupie?  I do not mean to imply anything sexual, but she describes Dr. Forrester to a tee before she realizes that she is speaking to the same person, having not initially recognized him because he apparently had shaved off his beard.  At any rate, despite his Geiger counter reading a lot of radiation coming from this pulsating, red, cylindrical lump, the townsfolk decide to go ahead with their planned community square dance.  Probably unsurprisingly, Dr. Forrester takes Sylvia as his date.  Meanwhile, back where their UFO has come to a rest, it takes this opportunity to come alive.  The three poor souls there to keep an eye on it are disintegrated by its glowing red eye, the blast from which knocks out power, telephone service, and stops clocks.  In short, the Martians have begun their attack.  Why Martians?  Because that is what is decided they are at some point based on . . . something.  It does not take long for the United States army to respond, sending in artillery, tanks, and troops to surround what is now two landing zones.  Dr. Forrester and Sylvia are on hand, too, because, why not?  They are joined, also inexplicably, by Sylvia’s uncle, the Reverend Dr. Matthew Collins (Lewis Martin).  Sensing that violence is about to happen, and hoping to quell it, Dr. Collins walks out to the Martian ships reciting the Psalms, and it is summarily killed without reaction from the aliens to his overtures.  It is at that moment that Colonel Ralph Heffner (Vernon Rich), in charge of the forces gathered there, orders the soldiers to open fire.  The Martian craft clearly have some kind of force field around them, as none of the projectiles have any effect whatsoever on their targets.  Instead, the soldiers fall defenseless to the same death rays we have already seen.  Dr. Forrester and Sylvia manage to get away and are amongst the scrum of officials who make the decision to drop an atomic bomb on these otherworldly attackers.  They also go to observe the detonation, which, again, does not phase the aliens in the slightest.  In the chaos that ensues, they get trapped behind enemy lines, so to speak, and have a close encounter of the third kind.  They are able to escape this contact, taking with them an electronic eye from one of their ships, as well as some Martian blood.  While the entire world is beginning to feel the wrath of these visitors, Dr. Forrester studies these pieces of Martian biology and technology, and believes they have come up with a way of fighting them.  Especially since none of their current weapons are able to make a dent, the governments of the world, including in the United States, orders the evacuation of every major city.  I suppose because they had been continuing their research up until the last possible moment, the scientists are among the last to try to leave Los Angeles.  This proves to be a mistake as the trucks in which they are riding are swarmed by uncontrolled mobs of people left behind from the evacuation, and all of their work comes to naught.  Again, for reasons that are entirely unclear to me, Dr. Forrester and Sylvia are on separate vehicles.  This means they are mauled individually.  We focus on Dr. Forrester as he regains consciousness on city streets about to be destroyed by the Martians.  He staggers to two different churches trying to find Sylvia before he locates her in the third one.  They are about to be trapped under rubble when suddenly the Martians literally get sick and die.  A narrator (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) comes on and explains that, basically, the aliens did not have the microbial fortitude to exist on this planet, and the film ends.

The War of the Worlds is one of those creature features that is supposed to be more scary than make sense.  The potential question it asks of anyone watching is: how would you react if you were confronted with an attack by merciless beings from another planet bent solely on destruction?  Though it is a work of science fiction, such thoughts had a real-world application.  This is not a reference to Orson Welles’ famous 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, but rather the geo-politics of the Cold War era in which the film was made.  In the Soviet Union, you had an alien people seemingly as merciless as these Martians, and they had the atomic bomb.  Unlike these extraterrestrials, we did not have force fields to protect us.  Interestingly, at the end, when it appears that there is nowhere else to turn, you find those left in the city taking shelter in churches.  There is an old saying about war, one that I have shared in other reviews, that there is no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole.  With destruction raining around you, people naturally turn to a higher power looking for a miracle to aid in their survival.  This idea has been underscored lately in the daily Office of Readings of the Catholic Church.  For many of these weeks of Lent, the first reading, which is always from Scripture, has been about the Israelites Exodus from Egypt and subsequent wanderings in the desert.  Many times throughout their journey they are faced with life threatening situations.  The usual modus operandi was to grumble to Moses, have God get angry and threaten to wipe them out, only to be turned back by Moses’ intercession.  The wonders they see gave the Israelites a boost of faith until the next crisis arose, and then the process would start over.  While you do not have the same cycle of events in the film, you do have people appealing to God in their hour of need.  I appreciate, too, that the movie attributes their salvation to an act of God.  How could it be otherwise?

An act of God is also what the makers of this version of The War of the Worlds might have been thinking could explain some of the plot holes.  As I said in the previous paragraph, the story is less important here than the effect it has on people.  To a modern audience, I am not sure this is enough to overcome its general cheesiness.  Make of this what you will.