War of the Worlds
2005 · Directed by Steven Spielberg
Original language: English
- adventure
- thriller
- science fiction
The story
Ray Ferrier is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son and young daughter for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.
What it’s like
Handheld, close and jittery, the camera of Spielberg's 2005 film stays jammed against its characters in cramped kitchens, dim basements and sun-bleached suburban streets, with washed-out daylight and a sickly green-grey cast that turns ordinary Jersey neighbourhoods into places of dread. Its sound design does much of the work: a low rumble that rises into a shrieking metallic drone, long stretches of eerie near-silence broken by a sudden crack of thunder, and John Williams's restrained, mournful score arriving only at the edges. Pacing is relentless in its middle hour, then pauses for quiet, exhausted interludes in a ruined house or a cellar. The vibe is bleak, anxious and claustrophobic, with a father-and-children survival story at its core, a lonely, flawed man slowly learning to protect his daughter and son. Intensity is high: sustained peril, brief but brutal violence, fiery destruction, bodies seen in the aftermath, and a frightening, oppressive atmosphere throughout, with little relief. It suits a focused, late-night watch rather than something gentle. It is for viewers who want tense, grounded disaster cinema and emotional stakes built on a fractured family.
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