War Of The Worlds: Post Nine Eleven Cinema

In what way can the story of war of the worlds be considered allegorical?

The novel war of the worlds can be considered allegorical due to the time of the release, as each adaptation of the novel reflects modern day society. The novel have been adapted four different times, each time this occurs there seems to be similar fears with the people of the time period.These fears are as follows, mass paranoia for example fears of the 'end of the world', another fear was the fear of 'others' (others means anyone foreign), the final fear was the quite literal fear of annihilation (normally due to war).
      The release of the novel was in 1898 and at that time people were uninformed and facing mass panic, due to this the people was paranoid facing 'end of the world fears' as well as a fear of immigrants. At this time the people also had a fear of 'others' as they were fearful due to the mass influx of foreign nationals, people saw these immigrants as people who were going to threaten british ideologies. The fear of annihilation was also apparent, as people feared the collapse of the british empire and of cultural destruction.
      The second release was in the form as a radio drama in 1938 and this drama was broadcast in such a way that people thought it was real, as it was formed via 'breaking news' headlines. The 1898 society was very similar to in 1938 as again there was mass paranoia due to people fearing the rise of the Nazi party in germany and fascism in europe and they feared the inevitable start of the world war. Fear of 'others' again was shown through the fear of Germany and the Nazi party due to they would soon challenge the british ideologies. Fear of annihilation was once again shown due to the emergence of nuclear technology and due to numerous threats to US national security from Europe and Asia.
      Within the next release of war of the world's (WOTW) the aliens were shown in UFO's this was due to the fear of nuclear annihilation and if it occurred it would defiantly come from an aircraft such as an airplane. Another change that was made is that the UFO's were red in colour, this directly links into the fear of others as the USSR soon to become Russia's flag was mainly red and they were a very real threat at the time. Paranoia links into what i stated previously as people feared communist infiltration and a general fear of the USSR.
      Within the latest release of WOTW this was another movie, directed by Steven Speilberg this adaptation was more true to the novel than the previous as the 'others' are portrayed as in the book with the tripods as weapons. However a mistake all of these adaptations make is setting the movie in their own time, although i feel this is not a mistake this is infact to make the fears expressed by the people be better reflected via the movie, this is why Speilberg chose to shoot his movie in post 9/11 New York. Speilberg did this because when the novel of WOTW came to be 18th century London where the novel was set was the global trading capital and was a superpower, however that is not the case anymore as it is New York. I know this adaptation as the main character Ray works on a crane that overlooks where the world's trade centre once stood and due to the panning wide shot the absence of these buildings is apparent, leading me also to believe that it is likely Ray seen the events take place on the day of 9\11. The paranoia in this time period comes from the fear of further terrorist attacks with the war of terror booming. The fear of 'others' comes mainly from the fear of islamic terrorists as well as fear of weapons of mass destruction (eg. The Nuclear Bomb). Finally the fear of annihilation comes from the fear of future terrorist events and fear of all out thermonuclear war.