War Of The Worlds...Cold War
The WOTW had a lot to do with issues of the cold war era, showing people of the United States that the old Soviet Union was a threat to them. They replaced soldiers and migs with aliens and spaceships, to me it seemed more a propaganda move with the times of Actors, Directors and ordinary citizens being black listed or witch hunted as i call it throughout the United States. The American people kept close watch on each other, wondering if their friends or neighbors were spies. Yes H.G. Wells wrote the story years before this event took place but the timing for the movie was right on the mark, it showed the United States able to fight back against any invading army from here on earth or from outer space. I believe the new movie pulls aways from that thinking and I am looking forward to seeing it soon as well as a long list of other great Sci Fi movies hitting the the big screen all summer long.
blogged up by Alex at 9:00:00 PM
6 Comments:
I thought the '53 version showed that we were unable to fight the Martians--even the atom bomb did nothing. We were saved by germs--by nothing we did at all. And what do you mean witchhunt? There probably were no withches in Salem during the tials but there were certainly Communist agents in the US in the late 40s and 50s. Read some Venona transcripts if you doubt me.
Thanks for posting and Yes I totally agree there were Soviet agents within the US as you know there were US agents within the borders of the Soviet Union but I also believe that when neighbor accuses neighbor of being a comunist spy or sympthizer it resembles the Salem witch trials where people that had a grudge against their neighbor or who wanted their neighbors lands to improve their own social status in the community accused them of witchcraft and during the McCarthy era of the late 40s and early 50s it seemed to work the same way where actors and writers were accused because someone didnt like them for one reason or another or to advance their own careers and soical status, where talented writers who had no connection to the comunist party were black listed because McCarthy didnt like their work or the person that wrote the work as far as the movie goes it was a politcal messege to those around the world that we were capible of putting a large amount of force against any threat to our country, and yes germs wiped out the creatures but I think it was to show other countries germ warfare was a good deterent to attacking the US, as for the atomic bomb,yes it did not destroy the creatures but it did show we had the power to deliever it where we wanted at anytime this is just my opinion and feel free to speak your mind, we may not always agree but its fun to disagree as well
Clearly the times and virtually all sci fi created during this period was influenced by the paranoia spawned by McCarthyism and the red scare. I will cite THE THING (from outerspace), INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL as classics so overflowing with the fear of outsiders that it dominates the movies.
The basic plotline that HG Wells introduced was "First Contact". Essentially there are only two versions of "First Contact" and those are ET and ALIEN.
Wells original point in his novel is that EARTH is the entity attacked, with humanity being but a portion of the ecosphere on that planet. In his scenario, EARTH fought back successfully, saving mankind as a consequence. Remember this was only 25 years after Darwin published ORIGIN OF SPECIES and Wells was trying to incorporate aspects of that still revolutionary idea into a story about monsters.
I will indulge in a bit of name calling though. McCarthyism was perhaps the most shameful episode of infringement on individual political rights in the history of the republic. Apologists for this alcoholic power-mad pedophile should share his ignomious fate.
I'm not sure why we're arguing about recent American history on the Scifi blog, but here goes. I think the bulk of the people Senator McCarthy accused of being communist agents and spies were communist agents and spies. And you are confusing the Senate hearings by McCarthy with the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC). They were different things and they occurred at different times. I don't believe either were motivated by anything other than the accusers' desire not to have communists operating in the Government (McCarthy) or putting out communist propaganda in Hollywood (HUAC). Anyway, I never did like the '53 War of the Worlds much but after the explanation of the special effects at Starfest, I'm warming to it. Have to admit that I'm kinda looking forward to the 2005 version. What's with the under the ground stuff? Finally, to the other commenter, what are you talking about pedophile? McCarthy drank himself to death, but molesting children--absolutely new to me. Maybe you're confusing him with Ray Cohn who was an age appropriate homosexual, if I'm not mistaken. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
As you say Roger the bulk of not he total number of were spies and what about the ones who were accused and were not spies how did it ruin their lifes? Some of those in Hollywood were not connected to Communisum in any way but were banned from writing producing and or directing and died penniless for no reason other than someones politcal motives
If we were to look at Science Fiction over the last 50 some years since the first box office release of War of the Worlds, I believe we would see a pattern. Science Fiction is a genre that boldly goes where controversial
topics lie.
The first thing that comes to mind is the Star Trek TOS episode “Let that be your last battlefield”, where a long-standing “racial war” jeopardizes the Enterprise when Captain Kirk takes aboard a half-black, half-white fugitive and soon meets his half-white, half-black would be prosecutor. In this episode, Gene Roddenberry jumps right in the face of racism. The extreme hated of one another by the characters is to the exclusion of all else. Mr.
Roddenberry makes a statement of what he believes could we our fate as in the end Lokai and Bele return to their home world only to find a dead planet. The fact that both men are basically the same is emphasized by the fact they are both half-white and half-black. The only difference is the side on which the colors take place. He is saying that we too have such small differences between us thus stressing the irrationality of racism. Like Communism and McCarthyism, racism (as we all well know) is a heated
topic. Of course you can’t blame the TV powers that be for wanting to increase viewership with episodes that address the most hotly debated topics of
the time.
The second thing that comes to mind is the recent Battlestar Galactica episode “Flesh and Bone”, where they discover other Leobon Cyclon model on board. He is greatly mistreated and even torture, then thrown out an
airlock. This brings up shades of the recent Abu Ghraib Prison scandal.
Lastly, even Enterprise gets into the act with Terra Prime Parts 1 & 2, with the extremist Xenophobes wanting all the “non-humans” to leave this solar system. If not, they will start a war and kill the aliens themselves using their weapon of mass destruction. Definitely reminds me of Hitler’s plans for the great white race.
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