Eve Of The War
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A Messiah Wandering In The Wilderness - 11th October 2005
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Author:  Leper Messiah [ Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:46 pm ]
Post subject:  A Messiah Wandering In The Wilderness - 11th October 2005
Today sees the start of a new chapter in this board's history. I, Leper Messiah having duly cleared the matter with Lee am proud to announce Eve Of The War's first column. In this column I shall be discussing various WOTW based issues and my opinion on them. I welcome all feedback and will be happy to discuss it in future columns. Also in the column will be "cheers and jeers" section which I have wholesale ripped off from one of my favourite columnists on the net, a man known online only as J-Train, who used to write a column on a pro wrestling site I visit (yes, I like pro wrestling, what of it?!). The "cheers and jeers" section will be dedicated to my like or dislike of various cultural phenomena, WOTW based or not.


THE MYSTIQUE OF WAR OF THE WORLDS


As the big blue writing indicates, the subject of the inaugural "Messiah Wandering In The Wilderness" will be the mystique of War Of The Worlds. For me and many others I have had the opportunity to converse with on the subject, War Of The Worlds carries with it a special stigma or an atmosphere or whatever you want to call it. To a certain extent I would suggest that all versions of the story carry this atmosphere. Well, maybe with the exception of Pendragon's movie, during which I found I couldn't concentrate on the atmosphere as I was far too busy cringing at the sheer awfulness of it. But that's beside the point for this column.

For me, the stigma that War Of The Worlds carries with me is undoubtedly helped by the fact that some bright spark in my household one Christmas decided that little five year old Leper Messiah would really enjoy the 1953 George Pal version of WOTW. Whilst my intellectual appreciation of the film was limited at that time, the atmosphere was certainly not lost on me. So much so in fact that I spent the next few years afraid to get out of bed or look behind me in the dark lest I be confronted with one of the telescopic Martian eyes from that film's ruined house scene. However as I got older and came to understand my chances of an encounter with such a device were not as high as I previously suspected the story lost none of its power in my estimation.

The thing is, in our day and age the basic plot of War Of The Worlds is not especially remarkable. Invaders from Mars arrive, stroll about causing mayhem and proving themselves a match many times over for our own poor non-heat ray equipped military, and then are defeated just when things are looking their worst for the human race. The major plot point that makes WOTW stand out is the death of the invaders comes about because of a non human influence. Nether the less when the Martians are attacking and rolling over humanity earlier in the story they seem infinitely more intimidating and unstoppable doing so than their counterparts in other alien invasion stories. When I first read the book, I knew how it ended since I already had experience of the Pal film and the Jeff Wayne musical, and I think that many others who read WOTW already know the ending as it is a well known story and the ending in particular is famous. Perhaps the fact that your average reader these days is familiar with the fact that the Martians will be killed by bacteria makes them aware that any human effort in the story to stop them is doomed to fail. In stories like Independence Day, whilst you might see the failure of the atomic bomb to stop the invaders coming, you can be sure that the humans will find a way to defeat the dastardly aliens.

This I think is where the mystique of the story comes from and where competitors fall down. When you are watching an alien invasion film, or reading a book about one, you are aware that in real terms humanities chance of defeating an overwhelming foe like an alien race with the technology to launch a full scale invasion of an entire planet with defensive and offensive capabilities far in advance of our own are almost non existent. This is, nether the less, how the majority of such stories end. I believe that this eliminates much of the tension and the powerful atmosphere that is present in War Of The Worlds. Wells' Martians are utterly undefeatable by human hand and the reader, especially these days, knows this and this makes them all the more terrifying.

Even if you were not in possession of the knowledge of how the story pans out before reading it, Wells drops many hints and strangely enough they come on the form of Human weaponry destroying Martian Fighting Machines. In the instances of this happening in the book, it is always in vain, the Martians always stand triumphant at the end of a battle no matter what. In the Paramount films, the Martians have become utterly invincible to human weaponry (unless wielded by Tom Cruise, or unless an alien with a cold accidentally switches off the shields) which I think is a mistake, however the tension is still very much alive in these versions.

So that's my opinion on why War Of The Worlds has such a special mystique compared to other alien invasion stories. The simple fact that it is willing to go somewhere other stories are not - it is willing to present an enemy so powerful that humanity could never defeat it. Of course it also has a great deal to do with Wells' expertise in presenting the situation. Only a very gifted author such as he could make such a fantastic story seem so real and so possible.

CHEERS AND JEERS

Ok, in this section (as mentioned above, wholesale ripped off from another columnist elsewhere on the web) I get my say about, well, anything so here goes.

Cheers to the establishment of Eve Of The War's first column! I think that this needs to be expanded and quickly, we need more damnit! more! More people must write columns and raise an army to take over the world!

Jeers to the England Football (Soccer if you happen to have the misfortune to be American) team for four successive awful performances. Honestly, we have some of the best players in the world and people pay a lot of money in tickets or pints in the pub or digital TV fees to see them play and it has to get better!

Cheers to Emmerdale! A soap opera set in the countryside might not sound like the most obvious target for my praise; however being a student as I am it provided me with wonderful entertainment with an omnibus edition on ITV2 as I got out of bed yesterday

Jeers to Timothy Hines. Hines says he has been the target of unwarranted harassment from Paramount and DreamWorks over his version of WOTW. Harassment or not Tim, your film was a turkey and we'd all rather forget it exists.

and finally, Jeers to Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World. I saw this film for the first time the other day and its living proof that even the best film can spawn a sequel that is pure unadulterated turd.

And so we come to the end of this, the first ever Messiah Wandering In The Wilderness, and what did we learn today?

1) Five year olds should not be shown any version of War Of The Worlds
2) Undefeatable aliens are scarier than ones without Norton Antivirus on their mothership
3) There is no excuse for producing Pendragon's War Of The Worlds
4) There are times when you can use the phrase "pure unadulterated turd" which makes the world a happier place for me at least.

So that's it for now, expect a new edition in the near future!
Author:  Loz [ Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:39 pm ]
Post subject: 
No staying power this guy. :roll:
Author:  Lonesome Crow [ Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
I thought he was back when I saw this thread had been reactivated, then I noticed the date. :D
Author:  Yuri2356 [ Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:36 pm ]
Post subject: 
RE: Paramount 2005's Tripod slain by Marines.

To be fair, even with it shieldless and lurching about like an Irishman at 2AM, our whimpy little rockets failed to break its armour. We just kind of nudged 'er over. :wink:
Author:  Alland [ Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:12 am ]
Post subject: 
Also, Wells' Martians didn't always stand triumphant after every battle. Consider the "Thunder Child" episode: The Martians wade out into the ocean to intercept ships filled with fleeing refugees, and they not only fail to bag a single one, but they lose at least two out of three of their hitherto invincible Fighting-Machines in their mutually suicidal shootout with the Thunder Child. (Wells is vague at the end of the battle passage; we don't know if the third tripod was caught in the blast radius of the Thunder Child, or if it simply walked away under cover of the smoke.) Failing to achieve your objective---in this case, stopping the refugee craft---by the end of a battle means you LOSE the battle, no matter what kind of casualties you inflict on the enemy. And even if the third tripod got away, a two-to-one loss ratio when the Martians face their first terrestrial "fighting machine" is nothing for them to celebrate, given our inferior technology.
Author:  Yuri2356 [ Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:14 am ]
Post subject: 
[The English Coast. Amidst the massive cloud of steam and smoke, a metal giant stands, its three legs partly submerged in the still turbulant water. Ropes of steel hang limp at its sides and the towering hood slowly turns back and forth, surveying the scene. Left, right, left, right, it sees nothing but the Thick haze. No trace of its fallen comrades or the alien device which attacked them. Slowly, one strand raises and comes to a rest under the hood, gently scratching the underside of the body. It looks about again, this time tilting its head slightly, then sharply smacks itself with the apendage forward. The operator lets out a single, soft hoot.]

Subtitle: "f*ck!"

[The martian Tripod turns about, and walks off into the haze.]
Author:  Loz [ Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
Lonesome Crow wrote:
I thought he was back when I saw this thread had been reactivated, then I noticed the date. :D


I knew you'd get it Lonesome. :wink:
Author:  Lonesome Crow [ Fri Mar 24, 2006 2:29 am ]
Post subject: 
The first thing I do after loging in is click on 'View posts since last visit' that way you don't miss anything new posted :D
Author:  Loz [ Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:33 pm ]
Post subject: 
He really shot himself in the foot with this post though. His ego has probably landed on some other forum. Hope it doesn't get crushed under the weight.
Author:  Lonesome Crow [ Sat Mar 25, 2006 12:40 am ]
Post subject: 
He probably went off to sulk because no one responded to his post.
Author:  Loz [ Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:25 am ]
Post subject: 
Lets hope he learned a valuable lesson.
Author:  Xuxa the White [ Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:28 am ]
Post subject: 
Alland wrote:
Also, Wells' Martians didn't always stand triumphant after every battle. Consider the "Thunder Child" episode: The Martians wade out into the ocean to intercept ships filled with fleeing refugees, and they not only fail to bag a single one, but they lose at least two out of three of their hitherto invincible Fighting-Machines in their mutually suicidal shootout with the Thunder Child. (Wells is vague at the end of the battle passage; we don't know if the third tripod was caught in the blast radius of the Thunder Child, or if it simply walked away under cover of the smoke.) Failing to achieve your objective---in this case, stopping the refugee craft---by the end of a battle means you LOSE the battle, no matter what kind of casualties you inflict on the enemy. And even if the third tripod got away, a two-to-one loss ratio when the Martians face their first terrestrial "fighting machine" is nothing for them to celebrate, given our inferior technology.


Perhaps in other places in England the English had a better fight as well. Perhaps the Ironclads could fire at the Martians from extreme distance, perhaps knocking them down and out.
Author:  Lonesome Crow [ Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:52 pm ]
Post subject: 
There's no evidence (that I remember from the book) that the Martians moved very far from the London area :-k
Author:  Alland [ Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:03 pm ]
Post subject: 
That's right. The final chapters seem to indicate that every Martian that wasn't lost in combat wound up at their big camp in London, where they all died of disease. Certainly Wells never mentioned Martian plague victims being found anywhere else.
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