War Of The Worlds Film Analysis

War of the Worlds

‘War of the Worlds' is a Sci-Fi Thriller. Extra-terrestrials have launched a global crusade on our planet and they wish to exterminate the human race and use the planet for their own sinister reasons. The director Steven Spielberg incorporates many film techniques in order to portray the drama of the story. Some of these techniques include costumes, lighting, and sound. All of these techniques add to the drama and help convey the story and the characters' identity to the viewer.

Costumes are used effectively to portray the different characters' identities and their development throughout the movie. Robbie is a typical teenager who wears dark clothes. This helps emphasise the aggressive nature towards Ray. His baseball cap is a major point that helps display the conflict between he and Ray, as Robbie has got a Boston team hat which is the rival team to New York, Ray's team. The cap also shows his fluctuating maturity at times. At one moment Robbie was being quite stupid and rebellious and his hat was turned backwards. But then in the next scene he is driving and helping Ray and at this moment he had his hat turned the right way. Having the hat turned different ways shows his development from a teenager to
an adult. Rachael on the other hand had bright clothing. In one of the first scenes we see her with a fluffy rainbow coloured clothes. Wearing these clothes helps to show us that she is very fragile and innocent. As the movie progresses the clothes get dirtier and this symbolises that this innocence has been shattered. At the end of the film she is wearing a dark crimson jumper and by wearing this colour, it helps convey the trauma that she has been through. Also there is a connection between the changing landscape outside and the dramatic change of the once innocent and cute Rachael into a traumatised and terrified girl. By using all these different costume techniques it really emphasises the characters development throughout the film.

Sound effects are used by the director to add to the drama of most scenes. One particular sound is very effective in striking fear into everyone's heart, the Tripod horn. The horn is used in many scenes that contain tripods and by playing this horn it affiliates these two together. One scene is where they are trying to cross the Hudson River. One lone Tripod emerges from the top of a hill and sounds his horn in order to alert both humans and other Tripods to his position. As soon as the people who are massing at the ferry see and hear this they panic and they all rush towards the ferry to get on board. By playing the horn it shows us that they are near, and when it is first blown it adds a great amount of suspense. Therefore the director effectively incorporates the horn into the movie to add suspense and drama.

A different film technique that the director uses is lighting.
Lighting is used often throughout the film to add a sense of mood to some scenes. In one certain scene Ray, Rachael and Robbie are cowering in Maryanne's basement. There is an intense battle outside and a blinding blue light bathes the actors. Using the blue light in this scene adds to the great tension that they must be feeling in the basement. Another scene where the director uses blue is when the tripod first emerges from the ground. The whole set and air seemed to be tinged blue to add a very surreal feeling to the viewer, like this isn't Earth anymore. By using all this blue colour lighting it both adds mood to the scenes but it also impacts on how surreal the scene
is.

Music is another technique used to add not only a sense of mood but to also add drama and suspense. One of the best scenes where music is used is the Ogilvy basement scene. The snake scout is looking around the basement searching for people hiding and as it twists and turns it gets closer and closer to Ray and Rachael the music intensives and becomes very fast paced to help with the suspense of the moment. Just as Ogilvy was going to strike at the machine the music comes to a stop completely. This is a very good technique because at this moment it can go either way and it really added a great deal of anxiety to the viewer. During the whole basement scene very eerie music is played. Using music adds to the story extremely well in the basement shots as it is a very dark set of scenes and it complements it well.

Overall throughout the movie Steven Spielberg incorporates all the above film techniques very effectively to the flim. Using different costume techniques on Robbie and Rachael do help convey the story and their great development in the film. Sound is used effectively in the Tripod horn to add drama and anxiety in the film. Steven Spielberg managed to harness the power of colour and music to add mood and drama to most scenes. All these techniques all wind together to convey the story and to create very pleasing and scary War of the Worlds.