War Of The Worlds Analysis

It’s argued that films reflect the time in which they are made, how true is this of War of the worlds (2005)?

War of the worlds reflects the time of 9/11 perfectly through visual signifiers, sound, characters and camera angles. This movie is not about the events that happened during 9/11 but it draws on many aspects of what happened on that date, Spielberg uses the memory of that date to tap into the themes of fear and paranoia which set in on that date.

The movie is introduced with tension building and down beat music, which reflects how tense and uneasy people were at the time after 9/11. In addition to this the music is non-diegetic and rises as the movie stats to get into play, which taps into paranoia. The dialogue is used is “the world was being watched” which links to the fact people knew 9/11 was planned it didn’t just happen and no one knew about it so they were paranoid that it was being planned again and no one would know about it. This is emphasised by saying plans were being drawn against us also emphasises this, Spielberg defined paranoia as “what happens when you’re afraid that something is coming at you right around the corner, but never materializes” this means that they were scared of what might happen but it never actually really does happen. “We were confident in our empire” this line shows that they had the strongest empire at the time of the attack, very similar to Britain where war of the worlds was set and links to the society at the time as Britain had the strongest empire when the first version of the story was written. This shows we were complacent and assumed we were safe and not under threat however we were completely wrong and were being watched by cold intelligence and they wanted to destroy us, this is an allegory for those who carried out the terror attack.

It then moves to the opening scene where we see an establishing shot of New York where we see a lack of the twin towers, which is made very obvious that this film is post 9/11 world. We then see Tom as a working class character who is in a blue collar job and his family life has broken down because he is divorced and separated from his family, this is very significant to the movie as it is a realistic representation of how many families were torn apart by the terror attack and it is significant to Tom as an actor as he has never played a role like this as he is usually the man to step up and face the problems but here he is running away from it all. This is a visual signifier for how people were too scared to face the problems of 9/11 and instead they just ran way. In addition to this the film is set during autumn so it is bleak and pain, this represents an unfamiliar America to us and shows that the society is fractured due to the twin towers not existing in New York anymore.

The music in the tripod scene is similar to the opening scene as they are both ominous and foreboding, this gives the impression we know something is going to happen and links to paranoia as after the second attack people were tense to find out when the next attack would be. We then see people stood around staring at the tripods that are underground and breaking the road rom beneath, this relates to real life and how people soot around watching and recording the twin towers as they were burning and falling apart. This taps into people fears and makes the movie much more realistic as at the time people didn’t run from the towers at they were paralysed with shock and fear. This is also emphasised by the man who is hiding behind a car door taking pictures of the tripods as they attack, this is a visual signifier of how people shielded themselves yet still took the opportunity to record the attack as it happened. Another visual signifier of the attack is the clothes that fly through the air as Dakota Fanning is stood by the river of bodies, this is exactly what happened during 9/11 as people threw clothes out of the tower windows and there was paper and scrap items falling through the air, this adds to the realism and shock of the attack as after all the smoke and dust had cleared there were remains of clothes and parts of the buildings.

Tom Cruise is a very significant actor for the part of Rey as Rey is running away from the attack whereas usually Tom Cruise usually plays characters that run towards the danger and try to help it so him playing the part of a scared father shows the true horror and fear of the 9/11 attacks.

The tripod scene is almost continually in a low angle shot, which reflects the videos taken during the 9/11 attacks as people were hiding but still wanted to capture the footage, this gives the audience the chance to see it from the eyes of the people experiencing it except they are seeing the tripods not the twin towers. The Church is then destroyed which is a familiar symbol and icon of America as it is a very religious country and relates to religion on the day and shows how the religious aspect of peoples faith was destroyed as the terrorists believed they were doing it for their religion, and the strong Christian religion was harmed. 

grey smoke 

the shock 

fear of others 

the other 

horror conventions 

generations to come 

robbie