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July 3, 2004
RUTHERFORD ON FILM: 'War of the Worlds' Soars with a Family Battling End of the World Chaos
by Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Columnist
Huntington, WV (HNN) - Forget the Tom Cruise shenanigans on "Oprah" or "The Today Show." Any male lead could successfully undertake the role of estranged single father called to heroics when the world as we know it nearly burns to a crisp.
Steven Spielberg has taken the relatively familiar "War of the Worlds" Orson Welles 1938 Mercury Theatre radio classic, instilled Cold War anxieties and diligently kept his cameras focused on dad, his terrified ten-year-old daughter Rachael (Dakota Fanning), and his son Robbie (Justin Chatwin). While tripod machines from another world blast, the flick's soul comes from Fanning's immovable, slightly wispy, and chronically traumatized stares and gazes. The result conveys her impressionable innocence caught in a hideous maelstrom rivals the love a young Drew Barrymore espoused for the fugitive "E.T." In fact, as the end credits roll, a boy about Fanning's age steps down the stadium stairs with his eyes still glued to the credits and uttering, "It was great" to anyone with open ears.
By opting for the narrow one family perspective, tense suspense mounts despite an ending that is a foregone conclusion to most viewers.
Initially, the lightning without thunder strikes around New Jersey paralyzing mechanical contraptions. Assisted by television bulletins of graphic destruction from other cities, the ranks of wandering refugees mount who ironically flee into the baskets of the blood-sucking invaders.
Spielberg has not forgotten his "Jaws" roots. He spares no million on rippling streets, breaking windows, and shrieks from collapsing steel beams. However, during the crisis he drops in several brief and brilliant shots, such as onlookers view from a dropped camcorder screen, the barricades lowered as a burning express train passes by, and a no doubt 9/11 inspired glimpses of makeshift billboards with photos and first names of missing residents.
As a means of heightening the reality quotient of an alien invasion, the director drops occasional references to Hiroshima and the extermination of man instead of endless speculations about 'who' or 'from where' the enemy surfaced.
Almost without noticing, I found my jaw tightening and my breath becoming shallow when certain repeatedly crucial scenes took place. And, as for the aliens, I think without spoiling anyone's fun a toss back to the wicked, toothy, angry "Gremlins" will suffice.
This so-called 're-imagining' of the H.G. Wells icon holds up brilliantly with the aura more "The Day After," "Panic in Year Zero," or "The World , the Flesh and the Devil," than outer space occupations.
And, the screenplay has a few mechanical holes, such as a working camcorder after other devices have ceased to function, or, despite Cruise and family with the only working solenoid replaced vehicle, the National Guard has rolled out tanks and armor with nary a mention of how they overcame the initial brown out.
