SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY DVDs selected by Peace & Freedom Press in association with Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

The War Of The Worlds [1954]

Peace & Freedom Press Notes on The War Of The Worlds

What a dramatic beginning, with Cedric Hardwicke's booming narration!

Three men go looking for a meteor that's just landed, but part of it reveals a lid which starts to unscrew, and an unearthly sight and sound. "We welcome you! We're friends!" is greeted with a deadly heat ray, which incinerates the hapless trio.

Soon the electricity is cut, the phone lines are down, and even watches don't work. They're all over the world, and as the taciturn scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) and his hysterical girlfriend Sylvia (Ann Robinson) seek sanctuary in the country, a Martian meteor cum ship crashes into it! Sylvia had already seen her uncle, a priest, make the foolish mistake of thinking the aliens would dig religion.

Even nuclear bombs can't stop 'em! So they march on to Los Angeles, entering the city theys hoot it up. Forrester finds rioting mobs abound, and he's beaten up by a mob, and dragged out of his truck. Looking for his girl, he finds her in a church, amidst a congregation singing 'Abide With Me' as death rays are zapping everything, including a stained glass window in the church, but for the ending there's a sudden, dramatic and unexpected twist, with sympathetic music.

One of the best of all sci-fi films. A not very accurate representation of the classic H.G. Wells novel, but absolutely stunning special effects, and imaginative aliens. The scenes of the aliens dying is stunning and dramatic cinema. This movie still seems fresh, and must have stunned audiences in the '50s.

- Paul Rance.

Click the link above to buy the DVD from Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk The War Of The Worlds Review
After the success of 1950's Destination Moon and 1951's When Worlds Collide, visionary producer George Pal brought the classic HG Wells story of a Martian invasion to the big screen, and it instantly became a science-fiction classic and winner of the 1953 Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It's a work of frightening imagination, with its manta-ray spaceships armed with cobra-like probes that shoot a white-hot disintegration ray. As formations of alien ships continue to wreak destruction around the globe, the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson play the hero and heroine roles that werede rigueur for movies like this in the 50s, and their encounter with one of the Martians is as creepy today as it was in 1953. It finally takes an unseen threat--simple Earth bacteria--to conquer the alien invaders, but not before War of the Worlds has provided a dazzling display of impressive visual and sound effects. This is a movie for the ages, the kind of spectacle that inspired little kids such as Steven Spielberg (not to mention Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, whose Independence Day is a remake in all but name) and still packs a punch. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

The War Of The Worlds Synopsis
H.G. Wells' chilling novel of the invasion of the Earth by Martians becomes even more sinister when translated to the cinema.

Dozens of science fiction/fantasy related DVDs on one page! (Amazon.co.uk)
Dozens of science fiction related DVDs on one page! (Amazon.com)

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