The Ministry of Happiness

From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man’s weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this Earth. By the toll of a billion deaths, man had earned his immunity, his right to survive among this planet’s infinite organisms. And that right is ours against all challenges. For neither do men live nor die in vain. ~ HG Wells (War of the Worlds)

Happy Film Analysis: War of the Worlds

Recently I have been digging back in to older science fiction movies. I talked about this in my recent post, Saturday Scifi Films. And my absolute favorite 1950’s Scifi film is the War of the Worlds. The ending scene of the film has always stayed with me from the first time I saw it. The alien crafts crashing to the ground, the alien arm sliding from the craft, crawling, bent three fingers, curling as the Martian died and the invasion was over, Earth saved. The movie ends with the magnificent ending lines from HG Wells’ magnificent book that I quoted above, which I realize I need to reread, it’s been decades.

I also hadn’t seen the movie obviously in a very long time. It was one of those Saturday movies that played in heavy rotation so I so it many times. But that was when I was younger and not so appreciative of good film making. Back then it was more about the overall story, which is very good, and the cool effects. I’ve always found the choice of the ray sounds made by the Martian crafts to be absolutely iconic. And the first image of the Martian bouncing by the window is an absolute ridiculous joy. It’s 1950’s monster making at it’s absolute finest.

But in re-watching the film the other day I realized that I haven’t seen this movie in a very long time. I’d forgotten several scenes all together, like the aforementioned first sighting of the Martian. But while I always remembered certain scenes and how much I loved the movie, I have an absolutely new appreciation for this film.

First, the actual film quality is really good, now I realize it’s certainly been updated but it’s really well filmed, the color quality is excellent and the sets are fantastic. At the center of any good film is always a quality relationship and this film’s primary one is an immediate love affair between nerds, so of course that appealed to me. But there’s a secondary and well planned undercurrent of a story and it’s religion. The film sets up a little bit of a religion versus science vibe. It’s very subtly done by making the uncle of the main love interest a preacher, his niece an under appreciated scientist. It also works it’s way in as just part of the times as there are a lot of small mentions of God. And the interplay is highlighted in two really excellent scenes.

The first scene is when the Martians are first moving and the military is about to confront them. The preacher decides that maybe, just maybe someone just needs to communicate with them. Now he has no way of knowing three rubes tried that the night before, white flags and all and ended up as three piles of dust. But he marches on bravely toward the Martian crafts, a beautiful bible in hand speaking a prayer only to be smoked by the cold uncaring aliens as they roll on, confirming what we all must know, they’re obviously evil.

The second scene is near the end of the film, Los Angeles is a war zone. The Martians are burning it to the ground, buildings are falling everywhere. The lovers have been separated, all hope has been lost, none of our weapons have worked including nuclear bombs. Science is given a chance to ride to the rescue but the mindless mob of civilization has trashed the equipment and stolen their truck. The leading man, the eminent scientist has been knocked senseless and now conscious is trying to find his love. He realizes, if she’s alive, the bus she was on was obviously taken by the mob, then she would have gone to church. With everything lost he starts wondering church to church through LA, miraculously it seems the churches are the only intact buildings. Finally, when all looks lost, he finds his love in the church, all hope gone, everything lost, they hold each other as the Martians blow out the stained glass windows of the church, humanity is lost, then, silence. They all wander out of the church to find the Marian ships crashing to the ground. No small symbolism that they were saved in a church.

Then those amazing final lines that HG Wells wrote in the 19th century, microbes, science! or God’s handiwork in the smallest things on Earth, bacteria. Viruses actually had just been discovered so bacteria made more sense to Wells, they’d been discovered in the 17th century.

I love this story and this movie, it’s got such an amazing arc, such a beautiful ending and it has the other thing I need in a movie, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. If you’ve never seen it, check it out.

A note about the 2005 version of the film starring Tom Cruise. I actually really like the remake for a few reasons. First, it’s a nice modern update without seriously messing with the story. It has a great cast from the stars right down to the bit players. It pays homage to the original film making sure to recreate some of the iconic scenes from the original movie, including the first time we see the actual aliens who have been well updated. The big switch is from a love story to a dysfunctional family at it’s core, it works pretty well. I really do enjoy the movie and part of it has to do with the location switch, when they cross the river at Athens, they would in fact geographically be heading to my hometown, Hudson, NY.

But the original is still tops in my book. Bonus points for being the original film and while the recent remake has a lot of drama, I like the arc of the original better. It does a better job of building to it’s high point, right at the last moment when all hope is lost. Both are great films and definitely worth a watch. So check them out and have a happy couple of hours my friends. ~ Rev Kane