THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953)
Label: Imprint Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration: 85 Minutes
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Mono & DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.33:1)
Director: Byron Haskin
Cast: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite, Sandro Giglio, Lewis Martin
I must have been eight or so the first time I saw War of the Worlds (1953) broadcast on TV, it wasn't late at night either, it was an afternoon matinee on a weekend, probably on either WPIX or WIGN. At that age it didn't usually take me long to get into a movie, all it had to be was a moving picture on the TV, typically horror or sci-fi, and that was usually enough to ensnare my TV-addled brain. This was something different though, this was actually interesting, something that felt epic with it's serious toned opening narration from Sir Cedric Hardwicke (The Ghoul) announcing that "across the gulf of space on the planet Mars, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our Earth with envious eyes, slowly and surely drawing their plans against us", and that pulled me right in. It was just a few short minutes later that what appears to be a meteor is streaming across the night sky and crashing to Earth in a rural area somewhere Southern California, where scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry, The Atomic City) and library science instructor Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson, Imitation of Life) just happen to be. In a matter of minute they're on site along with other local authorities and news reporters, and things get under way.
The object is more than what it at first seems though, later that night a threaded hatch unscrews on top of it, revealing an alien technology inside that shoots out a death-ray that disintegrates a few onlookers, including Sylvia's pastor uncle who altruistically attempts to communicate with the otherworldly technology. As panic sets in more of Martian death machines emerge in the area, with the military arrive to engage the alien menace, but to little effect. As this is happening news reports start filtering in from around the world, announcing that more of these Martian vehicles are landing all over the Earth and also devastating the local populations. It seems that a full scale Martian invasion of Earth has begun, and human technology and weaponry, not even the atomic bomb, has any effect on the invading force.
H.G. Wells' source novel The War of the Worlds was based in Victorian era-England, but the film moves the setting to then contemporary '50s Los Angeles, and the Martian war machine are also quite different too. In the novel they're 10-story towering tripods but in the film they go a different route, they look a bit like a floating metallic manta-ray with glowing green lights and a death-ray mounted atop a snakelike arm. Though they're is mention that they have invisible legs, though to the casual viewer these will certainly look to be self-propelled flying spaceships, but if you look close the invisible legs are briefly seen early on, so they are in fact tripods of a sort.
Even as a kid growing up in the eighties having been raised on 70's and 80's films I don't remember thinking while I was watching this that the special effects looked dated. While the effects are certainly vintage looking today back in the eighties as a kid I thought they were damn near state-of-the-art, they were amazing. The green and red death-rays, the ominous hum and thrum of the alien war machines decimating everything in sight, it was bombastic and cacophonous, and I loved it then, and I still do today.
Audio/Video: The iconic slab of sci-fi invasion War of the Worlds (1953) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Imprint Films, being the inaugural release for the premium arm of Via Vision Entertainment, They present the film with a gorgeous new 4K restoration done by Paramount Pictures in 2018, the film is framed in the original full frame 1.37:1 aspect ratio in 1080p HD. It's a real stunner, I have seen this film many times on TV, VHS and then on DVD, but this new 4K restoration blew my hair back, the 3-strip technicolor process looks amazing, with deeply saturated colors that impress throughout. Grain looks well managed, and there's a nice depth and clarity to it. It truly was like seeing the movie for the very first time, the fine detail in the clothing textures, the various environments and faces is absolutely terrific. The only niggle is that during the opening scene of Mars the planet is colored a frosty blue, an error on the part of Paramount with the color-grading, which is unfortunate, and not the fault of Imprint Films, but in the scheme of things, not ruinous by any means for me.
Audio comes by way of English uncompressed PCM 2.0 stereo or a newly remixed DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. I prefer
the original mono but the new surround mix, done by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt in 2018, is potent, The cacophonous array of alien death rays and explosions fill the sound field with a pleasing depth that you don't get from the mono, and the score from Leith Stevens (I Married A Monster From Outer Space) sounds terrific, if a bit drown out in the noisier action-filled sequences.
Imprint wisely carry-over all the extras from the Paramount Special Collector's Edition DVD, beginning with a pair of audio commentaries; the first from actors Gene Barry and actress Ann Robinson, and the second with “fans” Joe Dante, Bob Burns and Bill Warren, the fan-commentary is fantastic, I am down for anything with director Joe Dante (The 'Burbs) waxing nostalgic about vintage sci-fi, plus we get historians Bob Burns and Bill Warren, that's a trifecta of awesomeness right there. Additionally we get the 30-min “The Sky is Falling: Making “War of the Worlds” documentary, plus the 10-min “H.G. Wells: The Father of Science Fiction” featurette, both are fantastic remnants when studios actually made quality extras for their catalog titles, back in the golden age of DVD. We also get the hour-long “The Mercury Theater on the Air Presents: The War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast”, which is still a potent slice of programming, I remember listening to it on some a.m. radio broadcast at night in the early-80s, and it right under my skin.
There's not a lot of new stuff for it, but we do get a fantastic, and exclusive, audio commentary from film critics Barry Forshaw & Kim Newman, who also team-up for Imprint's release of I Married A Monster From Outer Space. As Newman states, Forshaw literally write the book about War of the Worlds with his book BFI Classics: War of the Worlds. It's a great conversation from guys who love genre filmmaking, and absolutely love this version of the story. They reference the Dante, Burns & Warren commentary found on the disc, pointing out that they won't be getting into the cast and crew because the other commentary does a fine job of it, leaving themselves to comment on the look of the film, other director's who almost directed it, and a bunch more. The disc is buttoned up with a 2-min trailer for the film, and a 50-min gallery of stills, lobby cards, and movie posters.
Special Features :
- NEW 4K Restoration from the Original Camera Negative
- NEW Audio commentary by film critics Barry Forshaw & Kim Newman
- NEW remastered DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround Remix
- Audio Commentary by actor Gene Barry and actress Ann Robinson
- Audio Commentary by “fans” Joe Dante, Bob Burns and Bill Warren
- “The Sky is Falling: Making “War of the Worlds” Documentary (30 min)
“H.G. Wells: The Father of Science Fiction” Featurette (10 min)
- “The Mercury Theater on the Air Presents: The War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast” (with stills of Orson Welles) (59 min)
- Theatrical trailer (2 min)
- Gallery (5 min)
- Limited Edition slipcase on the first 1500 copies
War of the Worlds (1953) is a seminal slice of sci-fi invasion cinema, it really set the tone and style for a lot of these kind of film from that point onward, it surprises me that it took this long for it to get a Blu-ray, but it was worth the wait. This release from Imprint Films is region-free and has exclusive extras that are not found on the Criterion release, which has it's own exclusive extras, so as a big fan of the film I will probably want to own both, and then I will inevitably splurge again if this ever gets a $K Ultra HD release with an HDR/Dolby Vision color-grading, gladly.
More screenshots from the Blu-ray:
Extras:
