SSC Film Studies

War Of The Worlds

Upon release it was interpreted as an allegory for British Imperialism and has been used several times as an allegory for major social and cultural events. Since it was first released, the 'War Of The Worlds' story has been remade and re-imagined several times. Each time our societies feel a sense of paranoia, fear etc - the story re-emerges. This is because the universal themes of the original novel reflect a time when our society was facing an uncertain future. Although a sci-fi novel, the original story is set in Victoria London and reflects the author's own experiences at the time. In 1898 the British Empire was the most dominant colonial power on Earth, with London as it's political and economic centre. Fears grew at the time that immigration would dramatically increase due to the size of the empire. Other's feared the turn of the century, known as the 'end of the age' many believed the apocalypse would begin on the last day of 1898. Given their fears, people of the late 1890s were feeling; paranoid, threatened & feared (of the 'unknown'). People felt threatened by the influx of foreign nationals and saw immigrants as a threat to the British culture. At the beginning of the 1930s fears of 'alien invasion' and annihilation grew in both Europe and America. The early 1930s saw the rise of the Nazi party in Europe and once again feeling of paranoia, fear and being under threat began to grow. In 1938 Orson Welles produced a live broadcast of War Of The Worlds, which terrified millions and tapped into the fear surrounding the rise of the Nazi party.

^ - fear of ideological challenges (from facism) & fear of foreign nations such as Japan, Russia, Germany and Italy.

The use of the tripods in 'War Of The Worlds' would be considered as an allegory, as they represent the American views on terrorists. The aliens main objective is to destroy humanity, and cause fear and terror via violence. They overpower and dominate the city making the citizens look minor, which suggests how the victims of 9/11 felt. There are visually quite a few similarities to the aliens and the terrorists. One of them being that they are both outsiders and have came to take over. Another is that they look, sound and practise different ideologies to us, their aim is to replace our own ideologies with their own. Another visual signifier that represents 9/11 is the media sequence. During this sequence the media inform Ray about the fact that the tripods have been buried underneath the ground for years. It asks the question, why? This also refers back to 9/11, as the victims did not know when the terrorists would attack & how they would do so. The media refer the aliens to 'they' which in a way dehumanises them and positions them as enemies. The whole of the media sequence is visually reminiscent of 9/11; the crashing of the plane, the video camcorder, the fear of the unknown.