The War of the Worlds (1953)

Depicting the shield Martian had created to make their war machines resistant to the armada on Earth, even the nuclear bomb. The shield, while blocking the incoming projectile, was able to allow "Heat Rays" and "Skeleton Beams" get through. 

Hollywood responded in various ways to the complex postwar challenges that the public faced. The factors behind the rise of both genres were largely the same: the more important one was the Cold War, along with lingering war trauma, scientific advances that culminated in the creation of the atomic bomb and the first-time use of it with the calamity it created, and widespread paranoia about the Soviet Union’s destructive power—like McCarthyism.

Hollywood’s reaction to the Red Scare extended well beyond these two genres. In film noir, for instance, a distinct sub-genre emerged in which the traditional menacing gangster, as the public enemy, was replaced by spies and agents collaborating with enemy powers. Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and Pickup on South Street (1953) are examples of great film noir with the theme of the Cold War. 

But science fiction and horror witnessed more radical changes. One recurring theme that both genres found it appropriate and tried to portray is the fear of the unknown. Some directors began incorporating elements of horror into science fiction movies, which led to the creation of another genre, often called the disaster genre, in which people face a large-scale or even global threat. The War of the Worlds can also be described as a disaster genre. 

The script was adapted from H.G. Wells' novel with the same title. Paramount purchased the rights to the book in the twenties. But they were not able to find the right producer and director. At some point, they talked to Cecil B. DeMille; they even considered Sergei Eisenstein when he was under a contract with the studio. Other names have also been mentioned, like Hitchcock. 

Until they found George Pal, who was credited with two consecutive successful science fiction films: Destination Moon (1950) and When Worlds Collide (1951). The film departs from the novel at several pivotal points. Most significantly, it relocates the setting from late–nineteenth-century Southern England to postwar Southern California, a shift that fundamentally reshapes the work’s social and historical context. Other significant changes were creating the character of Sylvia Van Buren as a library of science teacher. George Pal wanted to keep the original narrative, in which a professor is searching for his wife, but was overruled by the front office who wanted to have a subplot of an emerging love story. Using the atomic bomb, of course, was not in the novel. It is a direct reference to the Cold War, although it also depicts our civilization’s inferiority compared to the Martians. The military is portrayed as incapable of causing any damage to the invaders, even with the use of the most potent weapon, the atomic bomb, which again implies the limited capability of humans while at the same time suggests the divine power protects humans by destruction of evil forces. The War Dept. refused Paramount’s request for wartime documentary footage, stating that the movie portrays the military as weak and helpless.

Wells was known for his anti-religious themes. For example, the priest in the novel is a spiritually weak character overwhelmed by the extent of the calamity, whereas the script portrays him as benevolent and selfless. Hollywood often used subtle religious themes to depict the enemy forces as misguided and lost. The design of the war machine with a cobra-like head rising, is a suggestion to the evil nature of the invading forces. Other references to spiritual themes include Sylvia's line: after she understands that the world will be destroyed in six days, she says, " The same number of days it took to create it." And lastly, the gathering of people in the churches during the disaster, and where the professor finds Sylvia. 

The movie is among the four or five films that demonstrate the best technical and special effects in the period. In fact, it won an Academy Award for special effects. The academy introduced a new category for sound effects in 1953, and the award went to The War of the Worlds. It has been said that, out of the movie's budget of 2 million dollars, 1.5 million went to special effects. Several large-scale science fiction movies, even films like Star Wars, have references as homage to The War of the Worlds. A successful TV series was created with the same title. 

There was excessive focus on the color quality, particularly regarding the cylinders from Mars. It was initially done in Technicolor. The technique had increased image saturation at the expense of reducing resolution—sharpness. They used invisible wires to keep the war machine floating in the air, and the reduced resolution prevented the audience from seeing the cables. To reissue the movie in the late sixties, Eastman Kodak colors were used, which increased the resolution and decreased the saturation. The increased resolution revealed the wires holding the war machine; later, during the 4K transformation, they were able to remove them manually. George Pal and Byron Haskin tried to create a sense of reality mixed with fantasy to bring back memories of comic books. At the very beginning of the movie, when we see the first cylinder descending, it flies over a wooded area. There is a tree in the center of the image where the audience can see Woody Woodpecker. George Pal was a close friend of Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker. He used it as a good luck charm.