In what ways does War of the Worlds comment upon 9/11 society?

In what ways does War of the Worlds comment upon post 9/11 society?

The film, War of the Worlds, by Steven Spielberg is influenced by post 9/11 society and aims to reflect on the feelings of people affected by 9/11.

Mise-en-scene is used in this film to create visual signifiers of 9/11, such as the aliens turning people in to grey dust with the dust being a signifier of the rubble and grey dust left behind after 9/11 and the huge ash clouds created from the crashing buildings. In this film, the attackers are aliens and they represent the terrorists in the 9/11 attack; we know that they represent the terrorists because they use weapons against the innocent and use technological transport to make their way to their desired attack destination. Furthermore, in one scene there is a crashed aeroplane in the background, this represents the aftermath of 9/11 once the plane had crashed and the passenger's lives had been taken. During the alien attack, we see debris falling from the sky signifying the pieces of building and dust falling from the top of the high buildings during the 9/11 attack. After the first alien attack, we notice that Ray has a lot of grey dust on him, this imagery portrays the people left behind, completely bewildered, after the 9/11 attack, covered in dust and walking around aimlessly.

There are three main themes explored throughout Spielberg's adaptation of War of the World's; the first of these themes is paranoia. The theme of paranoia is shown throughout this film as Spielberg has purposely based his ideas on disasters and large events in major societies,by doing this he creates the theme of paranoia as the story is set in modern day and demonstrates paranoia through the characters for example when Ray's daughter, Rachel, asks him "is that the terrorists?" telling the audience that she is paranoid after experiencing 9/11 and living in the New York society after the disaster. The theme of paranoia is also shown when people begin to ruin the car in which Ray and his children are trying to escape to Boston in, this shows the theme of paranoia as it shows the effects that paranoia can have on normal people as they wouldn't usually be the type of people to try and smash up a car. Simply transferring the film to a modern day setting automatically applies the theme of paranoia and, once again, taps into the feelings of existing societies. Moreover, paranoia is shown in the film when Ray lets the children get out the car to go to the toilet however warns them to stay close, this demonstrates the paranoia within the characters and tells us that Ray is conscious of something appearing at any moment.

The next theme is the fear of 'others' or the unknown with the last point about Ray fitting to this too as he fears for the children's safety when taking the risk of letting them on their own with 'others' around. Another example from the film of this theme is when the boat begins to pull off and many are still trying to climb on the boat, this shows that no one wants to be left behind in the city as they all have a fear of the unknown. The unknown or 'others' in this film are the aliens and we realise this as soon as they appear because when the first alien appears everyone stands and stares in shock and confusion rather than running away; it is not until the first alien begins to attack that the theme of the fear of the unknown comes about. By using this theme, Spielberg reflects on the issue of increase in conspiracies and the lack of trust in the government by using the character of Ogivly and making him reminiscent of a conspiracy theorist making him claim that the aliens had been here planted underground all along without our knowledge. Also, Spielberg makes the character of Ogivly live in a basement which is the stereotypical habitat of conspiracy theorists.

The last theme used in the 2005 adaptation of War of the Worlds is the fear of annihilation. This theme is shown when using the aliens as comparisons to terrorists who's aims are to annihilate entire societies; by transferring the film into modern day setting Spielberg could use aliens as signifiers of 9/11 terrorists to portray the theme of the fear of annihilation. Setting the film in New York instead of its original novel setting of London reflected the feelings of Americans at the time and showed their fear of nuclear ambitions wiping out entire societies. Spielberg making the aliens method of destruction as simple as putting a light ray over someone to turn them into dust suggests modern societies' fear of technological development as they fear people are quickly becoming more capable of annihilation. One of the last shots in this film shows the whole city in ruins with a lack of liveliness, this represents the theme of annihilation as it shows how such a busy city such as New York can become completely wiped out due to intruders with a plan to take over.

The main real life event portrayed in War of the Worlds 2005 is 9/11 and its effect on many societies. During the 9/11 attack, many people from many different societies worldwide watched the live footage of the plane crashing through the twin towers and in this film Ray's encounter with the media reflects the media on the day of 9/11 such as when Ray is in the van and he sees the live footage of the aliens on the news, this is when he realises that the attack has become severe just as many people worldwide did when watching the media live on the day of 9/11. Spielberg uses iconography of 9/11 terror attacks in the film to create links between the events seen in the film and those seen in real life; this is the aim of the film and contributes to War of the Worlds' status as a 'post 9/11' film.