War of the Worlds within Society

War of the Worlds was originally written in the late 1800’s by H.G Wells and was a reaction to the anxiety that was created by British Imperialism, that being a fear of others and immigration, a fear of Annihilation caused by anger from the rest of the world due to this Imperialism, paranoia and a feeling of being threatened.

The story of War of the Worlds was then produced again by Orson Welles as a response to a fear of the rise of Fascism within Germany. The radio play including many of the same themes such as a fear of others, a fear of annihilation, paranoia and a feeling of being threatened.

Once again, the story of War of the Worlds was retold in 1953 as a response to the “Red Scare” that existed within America. This is apparent due to the fact that the aliens came from the “red planet” as red is associated with Communism and the USSR.

The most recent telling of War of the Worlds was in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 iteration.  The film was seen as a response to the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001. This is shown by the fact that Spielberg chose to use New York (the main location of the 9/11 attacks) is a strong signifier that shows the influence of the 9/11 attacks on the 2005 adaptation of War of the Worlds. The character “Rachel” in the film immediately remarks, “is that the terrorists?” after being in danger; this clearly shows how anxieties about terrorism were very high within America after the 9/11 attacks. The film uses visual imagery to reference the 9/11 attacks, one use of this was the significant choice to use grey ash and smoke during the alien attacks rather than green or yellow ash and smoke that would be more conventional of the Science Fiction Genre. The film uses imagery of missing person’s posters, this is a strong reference to the missing persons posters that appeared after the 9/11 attacks and Spielberg specifically used these to call back memories to these attacks. Perhaps the biggest visual signifier of the 9/11 attacks is the crashed plane that appears 1/3 through the movie. This is used deliberately to call back to the 9/11 attacks and tap in to the fears that the global audience, specifically American audience, felt.