spielberg's war of the worlds

[Lawrence Upton]

starts with man and machine, a large machine moving large loads. I'd heard that the film is true to the book; and now I became extremely excited, in the first minutes - one of the things that Wells stresses is the life-like nature of the Martian machines; and here what one saw was the blockiness of the crane - straight lines, heavy beams - while the living flesh of the man made it work Yet within minutes the man, Tom Cruise, is being asked to work overtime because he is so good at that machine, only he can use it so well. Wells stresses the weakness of the Martians without their machines and their ability to extend themselves with machines in a way that we cannot. Here a man makes the machine exceed itself. His ex wife outacts him before she speaks while TC does his face - you have to infer the emotion he is seeking to convey in much the same way one looks away from a cat or dog face to other gestures to know what the animal is feeling, only it isn't so easy with TC Not only is whoever it is, I only know TC, a better actor, but there is more to her. I am not sure that is how I am supposed to read it though. It is an interesting inversion of the Wells where the wife appears once, supportive, and then is referred to several times. Here she is strong, but still excluded from the action. Dad and boy build up to a shouting match, shout at each other for most of the film and then hug each other at the end. Several characters that the protagonist meets in the book are condensed into one, which is a pity because Wells portrays a set of responses, all of which are found inadequate. Here all inappropriate response is overcome by sheer tomcruiseness. A man does what a man must do while his daughter waits the other side of a closed door and the wrong dangerous man dies. The Martian fighting machines in Wells are assembled from parts flown in. These fighting machines were buried before there were humans. Not the enemy within. The enemy beneath. Not true to the original, but true to original sin. It always was there. It's even beneath our feet. Oh my god what shall we do