How does War of thew Worlds comment upon post-9/11 society?

War of the worlds reflects post 9/11 society in many ways in which I am going to discuss.

Firstly war of the worlds is set in New York City in the recent years after the 9/11 attack, and for this reason I feel that the audience can relate to the paranoia and fear which shows throughout the film, due to Spielberg creating links between the events in the film in which happened in reality. The main event in war of the worlds, which relates to the real life attack, is ‘outsiders’ also known as the aliens replacing the terrorists within the film, and this is because both the terrorists and aliens share the same objective, which is to annihilate US citizens. Also, the aliens and the terrorists share other qualities such as; they both look, sound and practice different ideologies, and this could be portrayed to the audience that ‘outsiders’ cannot be trusted as they are similar.

I think that during a scene in the film, we see footage of the alien attack happening from their level and view, in which I noticed, was all through members of the public’s own recordings. And I see a relation to the 9/11 attack in through this scene because society watched this real life attack happen live through their own eyes, in which we see in the film as we watch the aliens attack as if we are the victims, and this gives us the sense we are there, witnessing the attack. I think that the footage in the film and in real life are very similar as the video recording in the film is shot at the same angle, which is looking up and this makes the aliens appear bigger and powerful, whereas it makes the victims seem weak, vulnerable and helpless.

Another way in which war of the worlds relates to 9/11 is that during the film, two characters say referring to the aliens ‘is it the terrorists?’ and I think Spielberg purposely chose to put this line in the film because this gives the audience the real life fear and panic in which they already feel, that the terrorists could be plotting to annihilate and destroy their city again, but next time an even bigger attack. This could also suggest there is possibly a world war arising due to the fact the victims of 9/11, in which are the audience, all share the same fear, which is the unknown. They don’t know why, where, when or how huge it will be, although at the back of their mind, they know another attack is ready when the terrorists are, and this would be when society is least expecting it, which makes them most vulnerable.

I think that the overall message of war of the worlds reflecting on the attack of 9/11 is to show the audience how important it is for family to be there for each other in time of need, in which the victims, who are also members of the audience will have already experienced this in the aftermath of the terrorist attack. So in my opinion Spielberg made the decision to make this film in relation to 9/11 because he knew all members of the audience will understand the fear and paranoia of not knowing what will happen and that tragedies bring families closer together.

by Jemma Lewis