SSC Film Studies

Since War of the Worlds was first released as a novel in 1898 there have been several reimagined versions. All of the versions have the same themes however they can all applied to modern events.
Each time the story is retold our societies have experienced a sense of paranoia, fear of others or face uncertain futures (fear of annihilation). These themes all reflect a time when our society was facing an uncertain future.

When the original novel was released in 1898 by H.G. Wells. At the time there was paranoia about cultural destruction and immigrants. People at the time felt that the increase of immigrants would threaten traditional British culture and cultural ideologies. People believed that immigrants would cause the collapse of the british empire. Immigrants are feared the same way the aliens are in the novel. As the century was coming to an end people also believed that the world was ending.

The second time War of the Worlds was released it was a radio show. This also happened at the same time there was a lot of paranoia about a world war, rise of the Nazi party in Germany and fascism. this version of War of the worlds also caused fears of Nazi's and foreign nations such as, Russia, Italy, Japan and Germany. At this time there was also an emergence of nuclear technology so there was a lot of fear of being annihilated.There was also a number of different threats to US national security from Europe and Asia. War of the Worlds created a mass panic again however this time Nazi's were used in place of aliens.

War of the Worlds was then made into a film in 1953. Fear of nuclear annihilation was one of the largest paranoias at the time because nuclear technology had advanced since world war two. Fear of communist infiltration and fear of the USSR were also large contributors to paranoia at the time.
Around the time of the films release there was conflict with Cuba which made people fear war then eventually Cubans individually.

the most recent version of War of the Worlds was released in 2005, four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After 9/11 there was fear of future terror attacks.This made people paranoid about 'aliens' or non-american nationals. However there was also a fear of the government. People wondered how the government would retaliate, most people would assume war. Weapons of mass destruction, islamic terrorists. 'Alien' cultures were also feared,particularly Islamic culture.