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 Post subject: What did they want with our lovers?
PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 3:06 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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When our hero and heroin are trapped in the house. why does a single martian sneak in there. why does it tap her on the shoulder. what does it want with them. how does it expect them to react.
do the Martians feast on us in the Pal version. something we don't see. or is it for experimentation? or what. it risks its life for a close look and loses some blood at the very least.

What would have happened to our star crossed lovers had the Martian gotten them on to the fighting machine?


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 Post subject: Re: What did they want with our lovers?
PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 6:25 pm 
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Loz wrote:
When our hero and heroin are trapped in the house. why does a single martian sneak in there. why does it tap her on the shoulder. what does it want with them...


Good point. The Pal film doesn't even hint at the people-eating aspect. Given the eager destruction wrought by Pal's swan-craft, it seems unlikely that he was suggesting the lone martian was tapping on Sylvia's shoulder as a sort of ET moment.

The story motif of 'they're after our women', however, was quite firmly part of the culture. It's a hallmark of villains. Could be that Pal felt his martian villains were too aloof and thereby not scary enough, being all ensconced within their swan-craft. Perhaps he felt he needed some personal proof of badness, such as trying to grab the young, vulnerable Sylvia.

Monsters and villains are always after the young and shapely women. They never target plump grandmothers. Ever notice that?


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 9:24 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Yeah I noticed that.

In the pal version they are physically inferior to us and yet one exposes itself to us.

I think your right in what you say. Pal was trying to recreate the horror in the house scene from the book. But instead of being able to come up with something for our trapped duo to see, he send in a martian for a bit of shoulder tapping.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 10:14 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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All the Martian was saying was "er excuse me, can you point me in the direction of the lavatory please, I'm feeling a bit sick" :-& She just over reacted


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 10:17 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Hey Lee, my sick emoticon doesn't work......... :-& .......see


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 9:36 am 
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Martian War Lord

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maybe the martians had suddenly felt very guilty for just trying to take over and had sent an ambassador to negotiate a peacful solution, and us stupid humans just couldn't spot the gesture. #-o


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:11 am 
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Maybe they were launching a new craze... now its evolved into "happy slapping", back then it was just "gentle tapping on the shoulders" ...


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 6:42 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Slick2097 wrote:
Maybe they were launching a new craze... now its evolved into "happy slapping", back then it was just "gentle tapping on the shoulders" ...


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:36 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Yeh' they travelled all the way from Mars just to say "YOU'RE IT" and run away :a103:


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:34 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:49 pm 
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You can't make an Alien Invasion movie without showing at least one Alien.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:52 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Good point but why in that situation? Why not show them in their camp? Doing a spot of work.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:55 pm 
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Don't know Loz...Great scene though eh!.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:12 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Yeah great scene. I remember my mum drawing the Martian for me long before I got to see it on TV. The sucker hands.
They are one of the greatest alien designs of all time. I'd love a posable figure of one.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:33 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Quote:
Why not show them in their camp? Doing a spot of work.

Because in 1953 special FX were in their infancy, it was either a man in a rubber suit, stop frame animation or a puppet on sticks and strings.
The special FX department would be a couple of small rooms and working with an even smaller budget. Several people on this forum have criticized the modern film for spending too much on the FX and not enough on the story and acting.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:19 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Lonesome Crow wrote:
Quote:
Why not show them in their camp? Doing a spot of work.

Because in 1953 special FX were in their infancy, it was either a man in a rubber suit, stop frame animation or a puppet on sticks and strings.
The special FX department would be a couple of small rooms and working with an even smaller budget. Several people on this forum have criticized the modern film for spending too much on the FX and not enough on the story and acting.


I'm not interested in effects for effects sake and as a writer am far more interested in story. But the story teller doesn't hold back on what he sees in the book and at the very least I want to see it done believably, because now it can.

Obviously the pal version did what it could, and its great truly great.

But as we have seen Ray Harryhuasen was going to feature the martians in his stop motion style quite a bit.

Obviously no thought went into why the Martain taps her on the shoulder, exposing itself to such danger. other than it will scare folks and gives us an excuse to show it, oh and get that Martian blood.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 11:02 pm 
Tripod King

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Actually, Klaatu, if I were a filmmaker with money to burn, I think I WOULD put out an alien invasion story where you never see any of the aliens themselves, but only their war machines. If the latter are properly portrayed by the special effects department and wreak lots and lots of havoc, then the viewing public will forgive me.

Aside from that, consider how much more terrifying a properly-made movie of this sort would be. Remember, as American horror author H.P. Lovecraft pointed out, the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown. As the war progresses, we see spaceships and/or tanks of the invaders moving omnipotently around the world, destroying everything in their path, without so much as the slightest peek at the creatures inside. In fact, the victimized Earthlings---and the audience---might even wonder if there ARE living invaders on Earth, or if the war machines are all robotic devices either remote-controlled or equipped with AI systems. Certainly advanced aliens might prefer this sort of invasion to risking their own precious hides in combat.

If you don't care for that, then here's another scary idea taken from "Forbidden Planet": Why not have the aliens themselves be invisible? The doors to the landed spacecraft could open, weird footprints could appear on the ground, bushes, grass, and the like could move despite the lack of wind, etc. Either the aliens are naturally invisible, or their technology gives them the ultimate in Stealth capability. Or here's another variant taken from Ambrose Bierce's short story "The Damned Thing": have items the aliens pass by be partially or totally blotted out by something indistinct, with only the outline being clear. In Bierce's story, being invisible didn't mean being transparent, but being a color in a portion of the spectrum that the human eye could not see, just as dogs can hear sounds that we can't. For that matter, make their war machines the same color. The authorities at the start of the movie could be investigating a spate of mysterious plane crashes and other disasters, only to slowly come to the conclusion that we're being attacked by invisible invaders.

If you want to scare the pants off people with a TV update of Orson Welles' "news flash" version, you wouldn't even have to have any battle scenes. Instead, you could just show scenes of spaceships, tanks, etc. cruising around, then cut to scenes of flaming wreckage and fields full of dead bodies as evidence of the aliens' work. After all, if aliens did invade, why would they wait to attack until our TV cameras were focused on them? You could, for example, have a reporter in Paris talking about preparations for defense before contact is lost. After a short pause, the picture comes on again, briefly, just long enough to show Paris in flames and the Eiffel Tower a collapsed wreck before the picture is lost again, this time for good. Don't underestimate the psychological impact of a newsroom scene where the place is full of screens portraying reporters from all over the country or world, with those screens abruptly going blank for no reason at all, until finally the home newsroom disappears as well. If you saw that on your TV and didn't know it was a movie, wouldn't YOU panic?


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 11:51 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Just as I read the bit about " The Forbidden Planet" in your post I thought about Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing" and a couple of lines later you mentioned it. :a103: a very interesting short story, but it wouldn't work, if it was a colour in the spectrum we could not see then it would appear black, not invisible. good story though, and a good idea invisible aliens it worked well in "The Forbidden Planet" why not again? \:D/


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:46 pm 
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[In the fighting Machine]

"Ok, the camera shows everything clear inside. Want to take a look?"

"My bother, it's just some boring building."

"Come on, it'll be to see how they live. What, affraid one might be hiding in there."

"No, it's just a waste of time."

"Chicken! 'Oh, don't let the big scary human get me...' Wimp."

"Hey, shut up!"

"Here, since you're so affraid I'll send the Camera in again..."

"Hey, is that what I think it is?"

"Ya, it's one of the locals."

"It's screaming at us."

"Sweet."

"Wait, what's that?"

*Static*

*gasp* "They cut off the Camera!"

"Go in there and get it."

"No!"

"Chicken!"

"It has an axe!"

"I'll give you $50."

*Pause*

"You're on."

"...but you have to touch one."

"Done and done."


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:56 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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=D> very good :lol: :lol:


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:10 pm 
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As gypsywulf said monsters and villans lusting after pretty girls are part of our culture. You've only got to look at the pulp magazine covers from the thirties through to the sixties to see beautiful but vunerable heroines menaced by monsters/ghouls/mad scientists/pyschopaths/aliens. The covers of the detective magazines which had girls in peril as late as the nineteen nineties. Pictures like these are now being classed as"Erotic Peril" and there are sites devoted to these (which you have to pay for. I wonder why?) The sci-fi and horror films of the fifties always had a monster going after the girl; "Creature from The Black Lagoon" the best known example. If you go to the "Giants and Girls" website (sorry I can't remember the address) you'll find a set of pictures of Julia Adams in her white swimsuit menaced by the Gilman. There are also shots of Adams' stunt double included.

So if I were the Martian then I would go after Ann Robinson because she is very cute. Also judging by Robinson's comentary on the special edition, she comes across as a knowlegable and intelligent woman, so I'd want her more than just her body.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:44 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Terry Pratchett turned the idea around in his 'Discworld' novel 'Moving Pictures' there's a 'King Kong' parody scene in it where a 100ft woman is menacing the librarian (an orangutan) :lol:


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:29 am 
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Getting back to the Martian game of "touch the human", if the movie Martians were more emotional than Wells' original creations, then it might be understandable. After all, here in America, some Indian warriors thought it was the height of bravery to "count coup": going up to an armed enemy and touching him without harming him. Since the movie invasion was more one-sided for the Martians than the novel one was, it might have been regarded as the only way a Martian warrior COULD demonstrate his courage.


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