Battle of the worlds
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Battle of the worlds |
| Original title | The War of the Worlds |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1953 |
| length | 82 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Byron Haskin |
| script | Barré Lyndon |
| production | George Pal |
| music | Leith Stevens |
| camera | George Barnes |
| cut | Everett Douglas |
| occupation | |
| |
Clash of the Worlds was one of the first major alien invasion films. The 1953 George Pal production is based on the novel The War of the Worlds by HG Wells .
action
On a warm summer evening in the 1950s, residents of a small California town watch a meteor-like object fall to the ground not far from them. After a brief inspection, the police and fire brigade actually consider the glowing object to be a meteor, and plans are immediately made as to how the still glowing, whale-sized stone block could be profitably marketed. Only the physicist Clayton Forrester, who happened to be vacationing in the area, doubts that it is actually a meteorite, as it should have created a much larger crater. Because of its still glowing surface, Forrester is postponing a closer examination of the "meteor" until the next day.
During the night, the fire watch routinely inspects the stone again. Shortly before you want to go home, the three men notice a lid on the stone opening. From this comes a metallic object resembling a cobra snake with a glowing red camera eye. When the three guards approach the unknown being, they are burned to ashes by "death rays". Physicist Forrester, who shortly after escaped the death rays by a hair's breadth, is certain that it must be a spaceship from Mars. As more and more such objects are observed around the world, it quickly becomes clear that it is an invasion of Mars.
The military is powerless against the extraterrestrial invaders, all conventional weapons remain ineffective, as the floating combat machines, which have left the stone hulls of the spaceships, are protected by impenetrable force fields. Instead, the Martians now destroy everything that gets in their way with their battle ships all the more ruthlessly. All inhabited areas of the world are systematically attacked, buildings are blasted to rubble and people are killed. In fear of death and total chaos, people leave the cities and flee to remote regions of the world. The last hope for the people now working together across national borders is the use of nuclear weapons. But even an atom bomb dropped on a Martian combat squadron by one of the most modern bombers does nothing.
Physicist Clayton Forrester is almost desperate for a solution to repel the hostile aggressor. In a remote farmhouse where he and his companion seek protection, there is a violent encounter with a Martian . He manages to put him to flight and secure one of the camera tentacles, as well as a few Martian blood splatters. However, he and his colleagues at the Pacific Institute do not manage to do more than find out what the Martians' camera and eye are. However, one of his co-workers notes that the Martians' blood contains extremely few white blood cells and that their resistance must therefore be significantly lower than that of humans. The scientists are discussing the possibility of a biological weapon against the Martians, but this does not seem very promising since the Martians will have destroyed humanity in a few days.
When all hope has already been given up and the annihilation of mankind seems to be only a matter of hours, one Martian battleship after the other crashes and the invasion stops abruptly. It turns out that because of their weak immune systems, the Martians fell victim to the viruses and bacteria that are not present on Mars. Not the human being, who until then felt superior to nature, but the smallest forms of life on the planet save mankind from complete extinction.
background
- In a scene at the beginning of the film, when the first meteor crashes to earth, a character of Woody Woodpecker was inserted on a tree in the middle of the picture . This is a tribute from producer George Pal to his friend Walter Lantz , the creator of this cartoon character .
- The film was based on the novel by HG Wells from 1898, which was staged as a radio play by Orson Welles in 1938 . Due to this fact and the similar surnames, the two people were often confused.
- In the film, there are clear religious allusions that do not appear in the novel. HG Wells himself was considered a critic of religion and an atheist.
- At US $ 2 million, production was quite expensive for the time. The costly special effects alone accounted for US $ 1.4 million.
- Gordon Jennings received the Oscar for Best Special Effects posthumously - he died in early 1953.
- The aircraft that will drop the atomic bomb is the Northrop YB-49 flying wing , one of only two prototypes built. Military archive footage was used.
- When designing the spaceships, film architect Albert Nozaki was influenced by the shape and movement of manta rays .
- The sound effects for the spaceships were created by means of three backwards-played recordings from electric guitars .
- Some of the scenes take place on the recently completed Harbor Freeway before its official opening. Special permits were obtained for this.
- World premieres
- USA: July 29, 1953
- Germany: January 6, 1954
- Austria: February 1954
Awards
- 1954 Academy Award Award for Best Special Effects for Gordon Jennings
- 1954 Oscar nomination for Best Editing for Everett Douglas
- 1954 Oscar nomination for Best Sound for Loren L. Ryder
- 1954 - Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award - Award for Best Sound Editing - Feature Film
- 1953 - Hugo Award - Award in the category Best Dramatic Presentation
- 2011 - Entry into the National Film Registry
Reviews
"Exciting science fiction entertainment based on the novel by HG Wells."
continuation
From 1988 to 1990 Paramount Pictures produced a sequel to Battle of the Worlds with the science fiction television series War of the Worlds . In it, the corpses of the alien invaders regenerate unnoticed before they manage to break out.
Remake
A remake directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise was released in 2005 under the title War of the Worlds . Gene Barry and Ann Robinson can be seen here again briefly in supporting roles.
In the same year, HG Wells' The War of the Worlds was another film adaptation in the cinemas. This is the film adaptation most similar to the novel. a. is also located in the 19th century and has a running time of around 3 hours.
Further films are War of the Worlds 3 - How It All Began and its sequel War of the Worlds 2 - The Next Wave of Attacks by C. Thomas Howell .
literature
- HG Wells : War of the Worlds. Roman (OT: The War of the Worlds ). German by Gottlieb August Crüwell and Claudia Schmölders . Diogenes, Zurich 2005, 337 pages, ISBN 3-257-23537-2
- Werner Faulstich : Battle of the Worlds - The war of the worlds . Transcript of the film by Byron Haskin. Media library series A, texts, volume 7. Narr, Tübingen 1982, ISBN 3-87808-919-8
- Aksana L. Coxhead: Battle of the worlds , in Thomas Koebner (Hrsg.): Film genres Science Fiction . Stuttgart 2003, pp. 76-82
- Werner Faulstich : Film aesthetics. Volume 3: Studies on the science fiction film "War of the Worlds" . Tübingen 1982.
- Gail Morgan Hickman: The Films of George Pal . Barnes and Yoseloff, London and Cranbury 1977, ISBN 0-498-01960-8
Web links
- War of the Worlds in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- War of the Worlds Fig. Original movie poster sS i2.wp.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ World premieres according to IMDb
- ↑ Battle of the Worlds. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 15, 2016 .
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
