War of the Worlds exam question - Josh Pike

When War of the Worlds was made (2005), America was an unusual and abnormal society. This was due to the devastating aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The attack on the world trade centre to this day incredibly damaged America. Given the nature of the 9/11 attacks, Americans feared another surprise attack on their country. News programmes fed the feelings of fear by repeatedly re-running the attacks and stories about terrorists in the USA.

War of the Worlds begins with ominous and uneasy music. Steven Spielberg included this particular music in order to prepare viewers for an uneasy and dark film. The background colours and colours of actors names/credits are also gloomy and dim to foreshadow an extremely negative viewing for the audience and to create a sense of fear and suspense. Furthermore, there is a narration from Morgan Freeman, his voice is very daunting and serious. Morgan Freeman says that "No one would believe". This is reflective in a post 9/11 world as America were very complacent before 9/11 and their arrogance and belief that nothing disastrous would ever happen to them backfired and they were stunned when they were hit by a terrorist attack.

The film begins with an establishing/tracking shot of New York/Manhattan. This tells the audience that the film is set in New York. This is prominent as the events of September 11th 2001 occurred in New York. Spielberg could of chosen Illinois, Chicago or any other American state but specifically chose New York as this is a post 9/11 film. The World Trade Centre is also missing in the shot, this particular camera angle is used by Steven Spielberg to introduce the audience to a post 9/11 world and portrays an 'Unfamiliar America'. We are then introduced to the protagonist (Ray, Tom Cruise) who has a working class job working on a crane and is portrayed as an average and working class character. The fact that Ray works so high up on a crane looking directly at New York suggests to the audience that he witnessed the attacks on the World Trade Centre and might explain why he is such an unreliable father with a poor attitude. Steven Spielberg has included Tom Cruise as the protagonist in this film with a working class job to show to the audience that a post 9/11 world impacted everyone, including famous movie stars and challenges the audiences expectations and increases their uncertainty about the overall outcome of the film as in previous films; Tom Cruise is renown for playing a brave, conquering hero.

After Ray finishes work, he drives home where he see that a row of American houses have the star spangled banner. This is included by the director to show the rise of patriotism and nationalism in America after 9/11. When Ray gets home, his ex-wife and children are there as they're staying at Rays for the weekend. This tells us that Rays family is broken as a result of 9/11.

During the middle of the film and after we are introduced to Ray, Robbie and Rachael. There is a particular scene that is visually reminiscent to the 9/11 attacks. We are introduced to the first Tripod attack. The start of the scene begins with lots of people gathering around, speculating about what is happening, this is automatically reminiscent on the day of the 9/11 attack in New York as the streets were filled with confused and curious civilians who congregated in order to find out the situation. The people are stood focusing on one thing (the ground) just like in New York on 9/11 when peoples focus was on the World Trade Centre. The tripod then starts to emerge from the ground where a variety of extreme close ups are shown on bewildered faces. When the tripod emerges from the ground as is standing up, Spielberg uses a lot of low angle shots of the people looking up at the tripod. Yes, these shots are used to make the tripod seem over-bearing and dominant. But the main reason Spielberg included a lot of low angle shots was to replicate people on the streets of 9/11 who were looking up at the WTC from street level.