I saw War of the Worlds last weekend. It was good movie (for the most part); by good I mean that I was entertained. However, there were a number of elements in the film that really made me wonder. Note: There are some spoilers…read at your own risk!
Side Note: I am a firm believer that nothing “just happens” without a reason. Especially in a film directed by Steven Spielberg–I think every detail was planned and executed according to Speilberg’s wishes.
One. In the initial scene with aliens, the first building to be destroyed was a church. The earth shook, cracked, and splintered a large church–effectively removing the face from the building and crashing to the ground. Tracy Barnes writes about the same thing–wondering why it is that a church is destroyed first.
I speculate that the church is destroyed because “religion can’t save you in this world.” If you think about it in a post-9/11 mindset, it would be very easy to assume the parallel that religion or God is “the last thing you should look to.” Because it’s just a building…
Two. Flag on the street. The street that Tom Cruise lived on had flags at every house. (In a nice neat row too). I would not wonder about this if it were in July. But the setting is obviously fall (the leaves falling from the trees was my biggest gauge) and I can’t think of a major patriotic holiday in the fall. I can’t think of a reason to have the flags as such–perhaps that patriotism doesn’t mean jack when you’re under attack.
Three. Blood and oil. As the machines annihilate humanity, they live off human blood–probing, sticking, and sucking the very life out of mankind, one person at a time. In their tracks they leave a hideous, blood-stained landscape; a testimony to their misuse of the world.
I think there are two allusions here: blood for oil and oil pollution. Media Culture reviews says this:
Consider, why do the aliens come up out of the ground in Spielberg’s version? Why do they burst up from under the city streets, tearing through the ground? The answer, which seems clear to this reviewer, was oil. Even the blood that the machines suck from the human’s bodies takes the place of oil. Blood for oil and oil for blood! Little wonder this film is appealing to many American audiences.
The aliens invaded earth to suck the blood from humans. (We invaded Iraq to suck oil from the ground). The blood the aliens took was overused and left littering the ground. (The oil we use to power society is left polluting the world). I think the comparisons are strong.
What do you think?
wow…..i never thought of it that way….the whole oil/blood comparison. You are a lot smarter than you seem, sir Andrew.
With regard to the church. In the old 1953 version, the wild crazed mob had destroyed the scientist’s equipment as they attempt to flee LA. And the main character and his squeeze take refuge in a church expecting doom. People are praying and then–silence–the aliens contract an earthly disease and die. That’s how Wells killed off his aliens. He didn’t have a church. Maybe Spielberg just turned that backward. Of course, Wells’ novel came out in 1898 at the height of “the sun never sets” British Imperialism. What kind of metaphor do you think Wells was trying to impart?