The War of the Worlds
Dir: Byron Haskin
1953
****
Byron Haskin's 1953 adaptation of H. G. Wells classic story is the essential 1950's B-movie. With a modern setting comes a modern theme, colonialism is no longer the metaphor, instead political paranoia and fears of Communism and the atomic bomb are the main focus or at least that is what is understood these days. I have no problem with the updates in story, it's the wonderful thing about cinema, you can learn a great deal about society by the films that are made and loved at the time. I do however, have a problem with the religious content of the film. The original book is actually quite scathing of religion and points out it's flaws and the damage it can cause, the 1953 version is quite the opposite and almost a reaction to Well's original which I still find tenaciously obtuse. When it comes to atomic paranoia I'd rather watch Godzilla and when it comes to films about Martians than I favour Invaders from Mars (made the same year) but there is something uniquely silly and wonderful about this film that I absolutely adore.