I can only imagine the audience reaction when this film was released in 1953. The special effects and audio are amazing! It is truly a science fiction masterpiece, even today 68 years later.
I grew up in the 1950s, and it was the early sci-fi era. There were a small group of movies that really did for it me: War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Love them all.
@@georgesealy4706 Another great 1950s sci-fi film is the low budget, “The Man from Planet X.” Robert Clarke, William Schallert and Margaret Field (mother of Sally) star in the film. When Margaret Field looks through the porthole of that odd-looking ufo and that gaunt-looking spaceman looks out at her, I nearly fell out of my chair as a young kid, seeing it for the first time.
I purchased a CD that not only played the soundtrack but an extra disc dedicated to the war machines. The sounds are effective, especially on dark nights!!
I was 14 when I figured out where that "warpy" sound came from. We bought a 1962 Dodge from our Priest. When you'd start it, it made that sound. They obviously used an earlier vehicle, but it was the exact sound.
@@ClarenceDoskocil The Heat Ray sound effect was also used in The Bugaloos :) Joy gets zapped by Benitas' bug zapper gun and you hear this sound as she goes down :)
This movie was one of a kind, love those types of effects they used before CGI, which still looks very good to this day, and that really goes to show how well made a movie like that is! I think this could be my favourite movie from the 1950s, it may have its flaws here and there, but it's still so entertaining to watch.
It’s definitely one of my favorites. My wife and I watch it, and listen to the original Orson Wells broadcast every Halloween. Loved the machines. Wish I had a model of one.
George Pal, and Gene Roddenberry, were Geniuses! I am also impressed, with the Special Effects People, at Industrial Light and Magic, and Pixar; I can't help, but wonder, what Pal, and Roddenberry, could have done, with those resources, at their disposal.
War of the Worlds (1953), The Thing (1951), and Forbidden Planet are my favorites. Great stories and special effects. This exchange between the US military and the three Martian ships is just beyond awesome! The colors and sound effects are crazy. I play this scene through my big speakers and the house shakes; just gripping stuff!😀
How true. Born in 1965. Used to come on once a year. I was so scared. I would look out at night and thought the streetlights were Martian machines because they were very similar shaped. God.
This movie is and was pure genius. Of all of the iterations created since Orson Welles did his scary radio show this is by far the best production ever done.
Made before I was born, it’s still in my top ten. I do have a minor obsession with the story, from Orson Wells to Jeff Wayne, but this is just brilliant. The special effects are top drawer for its time. I love this.
1:15 one of the most chilling and iconic scenes in science fiction history. The sounds that the martian machines make still send a shiver down my spine.
Roderick Harris I was 9yrs old in 1953 when this movie was first shown in our local theater! Scared the hell out of me then. But to this day I'm still a hugh fan of this movie. As well as the 1951 version of The Day The Earth Stood Still!! "Gort burrata nikto"
The most spectacular battle ever fought on a 1953 screen man fighting against an Alien threat. That would have been a hell of a site back then. Amazing SciFi technology. I watched this in the mid 1970s as a kid. Can't remember but I was probably staring at the B/W TV mouth open maybe. Who knows. Great stuff.👍
This is the first time I'm seeing this iteration but damn, the effects are gorgeous for a movie made in the '50s. I can't even imagine seeing something like this back then, it must've been nothing short of marvelous.
Not magic, electromagnetic shields. We actually understand the concept of how this works, we just haven't yet created a power source strong enough to generate such a field.
I remember renting this on VHS when I was 13 yrs old.. The scene where the alien touches the woman on the shoulder really made me shit myself and didn't sleep at all for 3 days. They made this movie very well, despite its made in the fifties. Now i own a copy and its still scary.
I was born in 53 so both the movie and I are the same age. It is a great adaptation. As a side note, when George Pal the producer and director was setting up to make the movie, he visited Camp Pendleton Marine Base in California, and consulted with a number of the Officers and Men about the story and whether or not they could defeat the Martians. They all told him that if he stuck to the original story, the Martians would be toast as they had no protective shielding to the modern weapons they had. As a result of these interviews, Pal came up with the concept of the Force field in order to stay true to Welles' story.
@@jdewitt77 I totally agree. That is why I said Pal came up with the concept of the shields. Can you imagine nowadays if the Martian Machines had no shields coming up against our precision missile weapons, heavy artillery, and not to mention battlefield shoulder launched missiles, tanks and bombs.
One can imagine that the Martians--who had been observing and scrutinizing us--decided that we humans were advancing too quickly so they launched their attack on Earth while they could still defeat us.
I like in the movie how the Martians hold back from firing their weapons to gauge the effectiveness of our weapons on their shields. Like the general said earlier, this was the only place so far that sufficient force could be brought to bear on the Martians. The Martians knew this too.
I watched this movie in the theatres. Scared the hell out of me. Today, I still think it was one of the elite and best sci-fi movies to come out of the 50s. The others would be The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet
@@starbucki9852 I wouldn't include "This Island Earth". But, most definitely "The Time Machine". Excellent sci-fi movie that scared the hell out of me as well. What a fantasy movie for a kid to watch at the theater back then. How did I forget it??
"This type of defense is useless against that kind of power." A great line in which the only response would be, "OMG, what the hell are we gonna do now?"
Nice re-cutting of Leith Stevens' musical score to fit scenes! I personally don't think he wrote enough music for the entire movie, but you did a great job of matching the themes in the opening score to scenes in the movie. Paramount was definitely working within a tight budget on this one, but it turned out to be a classic. One of my other favorites was Russel Garcia's score from 1960's "The Time Machine".
I’ve been searching for that shot at 0:39 my whole life. I’m 35 now but remember my grandfather lying on his bed watching his small TV in my grandparents’ bedroom with that flying saucer shot. All my life I’ve wondered if it was a dream or real, but now I know it was real. My God, I must have been 6 years old.
Two things I noticed in this movie. The military IS organized and has powerful weapons. The acting is great. We should have reconstruction and update of this plot with a 'genuine' sense of realism with the military. The newer version is nowhere near this quality. CGI at the right moment works. Models at the right time works too. Painted scenarios too. The great artistry of cinema is the combination of these techniques. It helps these movies age well. I want a remake of this move with a similar plot without throwing away the great attributes of this one. This is outstanding.
The way the Martian ships cruise along serenely while destroying everything in their path is just amazing. I've seen the Tom Cruise version once, but the original dozens of times.
The music and the drums just add so much to this film. And what more can you say about those terrific sound effects! Saw this as a kid and still enjoy it.
I was born in '58. Remember this scaring the hell out of me, and that was just a year ago! 😄. I believe this and Forbidden Planet are the two best SciFy movie from the dawn of the modern Techno Thriller in the 1950's
I was born in 1946 and saw this movie in the theater when I was a kid. I was terrified and deeply disturbed by it. My parents shoul not have let me see it!
I was 14 when I first saw this. Sitting in my parents living room, lights out, eleven at night. The scene where the Sargent in the bunker gets fried, scared the crap out of me. Loved the movie an the story ever since. Get the dvd out about once a yr an watch. Never gets old.
Still the best version of this story.The effects are great.The sound of the Martian machines is so unique and this version is the only one where the main Character,the scientist,Dr Forrester, actually has a part in defeating them.Just an amazing movie.The most recent BBC version did have incredibly creepy Martians in it though, who we see alot more of than this movie.
The effects, both visual and the audio are fantastic. Brings out the kid in you, play fighting your toys. Much better than cgi. Also love the fact the Martians let the humans fire away, so they can judge our weapons and see our positions, then simultaneously open fire and wipe us out.
The dropping of the flare early on taught the Martians that we had the potential to mount air strikes against them. When the flying wing approached their nest, they had already anticipated a more serious attack and put up their screens. Thus, the A-bomb proved useless against them. That brief view of the first nest the flare offered earlier backfired big time on us when the bomb was dropped on the Martians later. Curiosity almost killed the cat!
I was 7 years old when this hit the theaters. I went to see it and it scared the shit out me. To this day, it's one of my favorite scifi movies. Still gets me thinking "what if"
1:14 to 4:42, the most iconic scene in the entire movie. Those poor guys couldn't even get their screams finished. The only prolonged scream was the soldier that the heat ray barely touched. These were the best of times for sci fi filming.
Wow! I'm watching this in 2022 and I'm really moved and thrilled! The special effects are still good! I imagine that the people who saw this back in 1953 must have been dazzled! Really good movie!
There's nothing like seeing these old movies on a big screen in a theater. I was lucky enough to see "Godzilla", " Forbidden Planet", "Kronos", and "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" in a theater. Never got to see WOTW though. My DVD is from a 35mm print.
One of my all time favorites! Still holds up well even today! Funny story, my wife and daughter refuse to watch the scene where the Martian puts Its hand on Sylvia to this day! Too scary!
😲 this STILL holds today because those effects were so fantastic for its time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The makers of Independence Day used that scene of that nuclear bomb over the Marshian machines as an influential scene in their movie means how great the "War Of The Worlds" STILL last to this DAY!!!!!!!!!!!
I gotta give props to the guys who did the special effects for this film like the aliens using they're weapons that was really impressive for the time long before C.G.I. technology so good job guys.
now you know where cell phones came from for the time, this was a really great movie, and the special effects were great. i was unhappy to see they cut the part where the COL yells, everyone has go to go, as he is vaporized. i thought great last words
I just noticed that some of the sound effects used in this film for the Martian ships were re-used in the original Star Trek TV series as the sound effects for phasers and photon torpedoes. I presume they were able to do that because both were produced by Paramount Studios.
Great Classic 🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸 Three years before I was born . I've watched this from Black and White TV to Early Color . I just wish that I could find a copy of it that's NOT Tampered with .
One of my favorite scenes of all time, but an interesting technical consideration. The War Machines can do three things: Move, Fire, and deploy Shields (I believe the first use of the concept). Yet they only ever do two at any given time, sort of a reactor power limitation. This is very consistent throughout the movie.
Byron Haskin, the director of Paramount Pictures' original "WAR OF THE WORLDS" (1952) later worked as an unofficial associate producer on ABC-TV's "THE OUTER LIMITS" (1963-1965), and also directed six episodes -including "Demon With A Glass Hand", "The Invisible Enemy", "The Architects Of Fear", "The Hundred Days Of The Dragon", "A Feasibility Study", and "Behold, Eck!"