War Of The World's, Post 9/11 Link.

War of the worlds has become our go-to film when society shifts. Their has been four points up to date when society has shifted and therefore War Of The Worlds has been remade for audiences as they act as allegory for modern terrorist threats.

The War Of the Worlds films are all originally based of H.G Welles novel ‘War Of The World's’, published when science fiction was growing increasingly during the 19^th century. When released it was considered an allegory for British Imperialism and it has been used many times as an allegory for major social and cultural events.  The original story is set in Victorian London and reflects the author’s own experiences at the time of writing. During the 19^th century the British Empire had the most colonial power on Earth, with London as it’s heart of political and economical centre if anything was to attack the Empire, London would be the starting point for ‘alien’ invasion. Also fears were growing, as immigration became a problem dramatically increasing due to the empire's size.  The novel's key themes identified are paranoia, fear of annihilation, and threats from ‘outsiders’ and mostly within remakes of films they are allegory for modern terrorist threats.

The early 1930’s saw the rise of the Nazi party in Europe therefore creating fear and paranoia of being under threat as it grew increasingly. In 1938 Orson Welles took this opportunity of fear within audiences to produce a live radio broadcast of War Of The World's. His production terrified and shocked millions of people and tapped into the fear surrounding the Nazi party, as were his intentions.  In this case the audience made the link between the aliens and the Nazis and a study showed that some who panicked actually presumed that Germans, not Martians had invaded.

After the Second World War tensions between Russia and the United States were growing as each nation became fearful of the others Nuclear Capabilities. War Of The Worlds was re-told however this time with a more modern setting to apply the themes of paranoia and threat of annihilation to modern society. Within this version the ‘aliens’ attempt to annihilate American society with more advanced weaponry. The themes reflect the feelings of fear within American society at the time. The term ‘alien’ was the official term for immigrants in the US.

Moving onto November 2001, New York was said to the biggest city within America or even the world for that matter, with the world trade centre right in the centre. If anything were to destroy it, chaos would dominate the city. Two terrorist planes crashed into the twin towers killing thousands of people within its path. Mass destruction took over the city and Americans were once again fearful of terrorist attacks and paranoia was set on fear of Islamic Terrorists and non-American nationalists. The remake in 2005 is visually reminiscing of 9/11 starring Tom Cruise. It is not only set in New York but there’s an obvious trade centre so audiences recognise that it is connected to 9/11 using paranoia. The aliens are again representational of terrorists. The chaos created by shock signifies how when the planes hit it was not expected, with added music it adds to the drama. Dialogue is also used to signify through the film to connect the event such as ‘is it them?’ and ‘like Terrorist’. Finally planes are used within the film, destroyed and in pieces to make audiences more fearful and signify 9/11, as a constant reminder.

Overall, audiences react to disaster films in this case with a modern but sci-fi twist to make it more relevant to the shift in society at the time.