Halloween is officially less than 48 hours away today, and with the big night now so close, Turner Classic Movies will finally start its annual holiday movie marathon in earnest tonight starting at 8 p.m. The marathon will continue straight through Halloween night with plenty of fare for families and grown-ups alike. The whole thing kicks off with a showing of the timeless Abbott & Costello comedy, Hold That Ghost. Also on the schedule is are some of Universal’s classic flicks, including The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, and Frankenstein. White Zombie (the first zombie movie ever made), the 1920 and 1941 take of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and The Black Cat are all also on schedule along with so many other movies. Though a number of others are not on the schedule this year.
As a matter of fact, science fiction flicks have been oddly absent from any of TCM’s weekly rundowns this month in celebration of the season, digressing for a moment. It is further proof of the importance of physical media, and this past July, Paramount Pictures re-issued one of the many sci-fi flicks not on the schedule – The War of the Worlds — on a new 4K UHD pressing so that audiences can take in the movie as part of their own Halloween enjoyment. The movie’s new re-issue is imperfect but still entertaining in its own right. The main issue that the new 4K re-issue presents is its collective audio and video, which will be discussed a little later. The presentation’s primary positive comes in the form of its story, which will be examined shortly. The re-issue’s bonus content is also of its own note and will also be examined later. That bonus content pairs with the story to make the movie at least somewhat worth watching, but the audio and video issues raised in this presentation still leaves this presentation not the best of this year’s new movie and television re-issues but also not the worst.
Paramount Pictures’ recent 4K UHD re-issue of The War of the Worlds is an intriguing new presentation of the classic science fiction standard. The movie, in its latest presentation, has both positives and negatives. The most notable of the movie’s positives is its story. The story here is simple: A bunch of alien beings from Mars come down to Earth with the intent to destroy the human race and take over the planet. Their flying saucers are unstoppable. Not even the most powerful weapon that the world’s militaries have can stop them. Ultimately it is the smallest item that stops them, not the biggest and most destructive. That item in question will not be revealed here for the sake of those who maybe have not seen the movie. Staying on that topic, the story here would later go on to be completely ripped off by the people behind 20th Century Studios in its 1996 flick, Independence Day. From the invasion sequence to the way in which they are ultimately defeated (and even how the ships crash around the world), and even the military’s fight against the aliens, the religious references and more, that movie, Independence Day is a direct rip-off of War of the Worlds. It is not a shot-for-shot recreation, but it certainly lifts very liberally from that earlier, much better movie. It further shows the strength of the story at the heart of The War of the Worlds.
Now while the story at the center of The War of the Worlds (and its great special effects) do plenty to make this movie so engaging and entertaining, this latest re-issue is anything but perfect. The movie, in its new presentation, suffers greatly from issues of its audio and video. Throughout the course of the 85-minute movie, viewers will find themselves having to constantly adjust the volume up and down. When the giant flying wing takes off from its base, loaded with its payload, the sound is extremely loud, so audiences will have to turn down the volume. This after having to have turned the volume up in the scene immediately prior. The battle scenes are just as loud while other scenes are much quieter, again showing just how constantly audiences have to adjust the volume. What this shows is that little if any attention was paid to balancing the movie’s volume levels prior to its re-issue back in July. On the same note, there are scenes throughout the movie whose lighting is low and nearly nonexistent. The result is that viewers will find they can hear plenty but see next to nothing even though there is no footage missing. What this means is that just as so little attention was apparently given to the audio, just as little attention was given to making sure those low light scenes were touched up. One would think that being a 4K UHD presentation, such footage would be cleaned up at least by having those moments lightened so that even having been originally so dark, would be more visible. The overall footage is clean. There is no denying this but those issues throughout the movie with the low light scenes being so difficult to see is truly disappointing. When the concerns raised by this matter and that of the audio imbalance throughout the movie are combined, it greatly detracts from the movie’s presentation in its latest outing. Thankfully, as much as it hurts the movie’s presentation it is not enough to completely doom the movie. The bonus content that accompanies the movie in its latest re-issue works with the story to make the presentation more appealing.
The bonus content accompanying The War of the Worlds in its latest re-issue includes a full presentation of the Mercury Theater’s original War of the Worlds radio broadcast. Yes, that broadcast, that caused so much havoc among listeners that fateful night so many decades ago. As is noted ahead of the presentation, it took place not on Halloween night, but the night before, on Oct. 30. Interestingly enough, there is no discussion on how the broadcast did not in fact cause nationwide panic, but in fact only regionalized panic in the region that received the broadcast. That aside, the presentation is still enjoyable throughout as it is played against a picture of lead Orson Welles in a radio booth. The sound is perfectly balanced throughout the broadcast. It’s too bad that such attention was not given to the audio in the movie’s main feature.
Another notable bonus is the archived “Making of The War of the Worlds” featurette. The expansive presentation features the cast and certain creative forces behind the movie talking about how it came to being. One of the most interesting notes raised in this featurette is that famed special effects legend Ray Harryhausen almost played a role in the movie. Audiences see a test of the creature that Harryhausen created for the movie as part of the discussion and cannot help but wonder if the aliens themselves would have played a bigger part in the story had his creatures been used. That is because in the final movie, audiences only see the aliens, which look completely different from Harryhausen’s creation, are only shown briefly twice, in the story’s second act. Had Harryhausen’s aliens been used, would that have led to changes in the script? One can only wonder.
What’s more, considering how the aliens are “defeated” and that only once are any of the aliens shown, it makes the finale somewhat random. Did anymore of the aliens leave their ships around the world and get exposed to the Earth’s atmosphere and its bacteria? It leaves that final sequence in which the survivors are praying for deliverance and safety just seem too simple of a resolution. Of course, in the discussion of how the finale ties in to producer George Pal’s earlier work in The Netherlands, that resolution makes at least a little more sense even though it still does not fully validate how the aliens meet their end in this case. So again, one cannot help but wonder how different the script might have been had Harryhausen’s creation been used.
On another random note, audiences who have not yet seen this bonus feature will be surprised when they learn from star Gene Barry (who played Dr. Clayton Forrester) that The War of the Worlds was only his second ever starring vehicle yet has continued to be the most famed of the movies in which he starred. Ann Robinson (who played opposite Barry as Sylvia Van Buren) adds to the discussion as she notes that many of the scenes, including the first major battle scene, were real. She points out that the tanks and others moving around in that scene, were actually there and moving around and that they had to dodge all of those people and equipment. She also reveals that when George Pal brought the script for The War of The Worlds to Paramount Pictures, it actually initially ended up in one official’s trash can, but Pal’s reaction to it being so easily tossed aside led to a much more well-known figure coming in and saving the movie. So keeping that in mind, one cannot help but wonder what the future would have been had said official not stepped in at that moment to save the movie. It really is an eye-opening revelation.
As if all of that is not the case, yet another member of the movie’s crew reveals in his own discussion that sadly, the original spaceships used in the movie, which were made partly of copper, no longer exist. He reveals that the copper that was used for the flying saucers was donated to a Boy Scout copper drive, so the original ships no longer exist. The ones used for the television series that would follow years later were apparently made of fiberglass and still exist. That is really sad because it means a key piece of cinema history no longer exists because of that copper drive. The technology that was used to make the original saucers’ weapon firings is also discussed as part of this topic. That is engaging and entertaining in its own right. When all of this and everything else pointed out here is considered with the rest of the topics discussed in this featurette, the whole therein makes the bonus overall truly a great extra for the movie that adds so much appreciation to the overall presentation. When that appreciation pairs with the appreciation raised by the story, the whole therein gives audiences more than enough reason to take in this movie. This is the case even considering the problems raised by the movie’s audio and video concerns.
Paramount Pictures’ recent 4K UHD re-issue of its 1953 science fiction classic The War of the Worlds is an entertaining but also problematic presentation. It proves itself worth watching in part through its timeless atomic age story about aliens invading Earth and trying to wipe out its inhabitants. It is a story that has been redone (and ripped off) so many times since its premiere so many decades ago. The most notable of those rip-offs is 20th Century Studios’ 1996 flick, Independence Day. The rip-off is so close to the original that it makes that latter movie so less appealing by comparison. To that end, the story in this original movie becomes a key part of the movie. As much as the story does to make The War of the Worlds worth watching, imbalances in its audio and video presentation in its new re-issue greatly detract from its presentation. So much more attention needed to be paid to both aspects before the movie was re-issued, considering that 4K UHD movies (and TV shows) are supposed to be so clear and clean in their presentations. Maybe if the movie ever gets another re-issue, those charged with addressing those matters will pay more attention to them and better improve them. The bonus content that accompanies The War of the Worlds in its new re-issue is all archived but it adds so much to the movie’s presentation. That Paramount Pictures would add the original Mercury Theater radio broadcast of War of the Worlds as a companion is fitting and perfect. The rich history behind the movie in the expansive “Making Of” featurette is more proof of the importance of a movie’s bonus content, including the content here. Each item examined here is important in its own way to the whole of the movie’s presentation. All things considered they make the new re-issue of The War of the Worlds far from the year’s best movie and tv re-issues but also not the worst.
The War of the Worlds is available now on 4K UHD. More information on this and other titles from Paramount Pictures is available at:
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