{"id":2735,"date":"2005-06-29T08:46:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-29T08:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/06\/war-of-the-worlds-the-review-is-up\/"},"modified":"2005-06-29T08:46:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-29T08:46:00","slug":"war-of-the-worlds-the-review-is-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/06\/war-of-the-worlds-the-review-is-up.html","title":{"rendered":"War of the Worlds — the review is up!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My review<\/a> of War of the Worlds<\/a><\/i> is now up at CT Movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

In truth, I\u2019m still figuring out what I make of this film \u2014 it\u2019s such a visceral experience \u2014 and this was definitely one of those times when I wished I had more than a few hours of writing time between the end of the screening and my copy deadline.<\/p>\n

JUNE 30 UPDATE: A few other thoughts have occurred to me since I wrote the review, and I figure I\u2019ll just spill \u2019em here.<\/p>\n

There have been some complaints about the ending of the film, which is considered too positive, too upbeat, too facile, for the kind of serious and grim and gritty film that the rest of the movie is trying to be. I have to say I don\u2019t mind that so much, for two reasons: (1) the Book of Job, and (2) Schindler\u2019s List<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

The Book of Job first. The final verses of Job end the story on a somewhat superficially happy note that doesn\u2019t really resolve any of the issues raised during the previous 40+ chapters, nor are they meant to; similarly, I think the point of Spielberg\u2019s film is to be found in the raw, visceral experience of terror and suffering that occupies the bulk of the film, and the ending is just there to make sure that we don\u2019t leave the theatre completely<\/i> depressed.<\/p>\n

As for Schindler\u2019s List<\/i>, I have only seen the film once, when it first came out 12 years ago, but I remember noticing during the film that most of the major characters managed to stay alive, and thinking that none of the characters we really cared about would die; the movie was, after all, based on the preserved memories of survivors, and not<\/i> on the lost memories of those who perished. It seems Stanley Kubrick had a similar take on the film; according to this site<\/a>\u2018s review of A.I. Artificial Intelligence<\/a><\/i> (2001; my BCCN review<\/a>; my CT review<\/a>; my Vancouver Sun<\/i> article<\/a>), screenwriter Frederic Rapahel and Kubrick had the following exchange:<\/p>\n

Kubrick: Think that was about the Holocaust?
Raphael: Wasn\u2019t it? What else was it about?
Kubrick: That was about success, wasn\u2019t it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. Schindler\u2019s List<\/i> was about six hundred people who don\u2019t.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Similarly, as I was watching War of the Worlds<\/i>, I figured all along that, while the film was in some way about catastrophe and destruction and oppression, our protagonists would be among those lucky few who survive; and of course, there is a precedent for this in the book, which ends with the sentence: \u201cAnd strangest of all is it to hold my wife\u2019s hand again, and to think that I have counted her, and that she has counted me, among the dead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

BTW, thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet for referring me to this site<\/a> and its defense of the problematic third acts in most of Spielberg\u2019s recent films. I think I agree with it more often than not.<\/p>\n

The sphincter scene was an uncomfortable reminder of Ivan Reitman\u2019s Evolution<\/a><\/i> (2001; my review<\/a>), and its rah-rah heroics don\u2019t quite fit in this otherwise grimly realistic film, but the heroics seem more accidental \u2014 or, better, spontaneous \u2014 than intentional, and I find myself thinking about what the scene has to say about the nature of leadership and initiative, especially in light of the rather bleak and almost zombie-ish mob scenes earlier on.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, it is amazing to me that this film could have a PG-13 rating \u2014 which is purely advisory and does not prevent children from buying tickets if they want to \u2014 just like the last Star Wars<\/a><\/i> movie and countless other, lighter films. Perhaps this is simply because War of the Worlds<\/i> doesn\u2019t have any nudity or very strong language? FWIW, this film was given the 14-A rating \u2014 which is enforced \u2014 in British Columbia<\/a> and in Ontario<\/a>, whereas Revenge of the Sith<\/i> had mere PG ratings in both<\/a> provinces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some critics have spoken as though this film were breaking new ground by showing that it\u2019s okay to make disaster movies after September 11 again; but actually, there have been a couple others already. The Core<\/a><\/i> (2003) flopped; on the other hand, The Day after Tomorrow<\/a><\/i> (2004; my review<\/a>) was a hit; and one thing that sets War of the Worlds<\/i> apart from those films, I think, is that it doesn\u2019t really have any of those typical fetishistic money shots in which famous landmarks are destroyed. This restraint may make the film more serious, so to speak, than those other films.<\/p>\n

Finally, last night I cracked open my copy of Simon Callow\u2019s Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu<\/a><\/i>, and read the ten or so pages he devotes to the 1938 radio broadcast and its fallout \u2014 which was interesting, considering I only listened to it for the first time a few days ago. (Incidentally, the radio play was broadcast over CBS, which presumably explains why the TV crew Tom Cruise\u2019s character meets in the film is also from CBS.) Fascinating stuff. The bit at the end where Orson says the broadcast was just a Halloween prank \u2014 though technically, the broadcast was on October 30, not 31 \u2014 was apparently improvised on the spot because word had reached the control booth that people had started panicking across the country about 12 minutes into the show. It\u2019s interesting to think that that archived recording began as a fully scripted radio play, and then morphed a little over the course of that one hour, adapting in its own way to the response of the audience. Now that\u2019s<\/i> an effect you can never really have with film!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My review of War of the Worlds is now up at CT Movies. In truth, I\u2019m still figuring out what I make of this film \u2014 it\u2019s such a visceral experience \u2014 and this was definitely one of those times when I wished I had more than a few hours of writing time between the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWar of the Worlds -- the review is up!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My review of War of the Worlds is now up at CT Movies.In truth, I'm still figuring out what I make of this film -- it's such a visceral experience -- and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/06\/war-of-the-worlds-the-review-is-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"War of the Worlds -- the review is up!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My review of War of the Worlds is now up at CT Movies.In truth, I'm still figuring out what I make of this film -- it's such a visceral experience -- and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/06\/war-of-the-worlds-the-review-is-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-06-29T08:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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