The War of the Worlds

The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of The War of the Worlds premieres an impressive restoration that will dazzle classic Sci-fi fans. Even the 2005 DVD was made from an earlier, too bright Eastmancolor composite element. This new encoding, a full digital restoration scanned from the original 3-strip negatives, does the same job on TWOTW that was given Singin' in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz. In other words, Paramount has granted this Sci-Fi classic the same respect shown its proudest productions, like Sunset Blvd. and Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I've seen original Technicolor prints of the show on several occasions; for me the new restoration reproduces well the saturated colors and dynamic contrast values of IB Tech. Even the darker parts of the image have texture and dimensionality.

That means that the disc is darker than we are accustomed to seeing -- which is good. The Martian in the farm house is now appropriately in half-shadow. His eyes don't glow as brightly as do the 3-color panels on the eye of the robotic probe. Also, the color mis-registration problems of the old DVD have been corrected. It wasn't a good sign when newspaper lettering was outlined by a red fringe. The disc restoration demo uses the Puente Hills shot to demonstrate the mis-registration fix. Even more impressive is a clean-up pass that has removed flaws from stock shots. Before now, views of the legendary Flying Wing had large gate hairs that looked very distracting.

The soundtrack rejuvenation is almost as impressive as the image restoration. The old mono track has been retained, and sounds as good as ever. The original audio design was so well done and its electronic 'sci-fi' battle sounds so vibrant, that the '53 mono track felt like stereo anyway. For years I thought I had heard TWOTW in a theater in stereo, but here we finally learn that the several initial 1953 theater engagements that advertised stereo, really used a system that directed some of the audio into surround speakers. As an extra, Ben Burtt has remixed a new 5.1 track that re-routs clean, original sound effects into a new spread of channels. Fans with fancy sound systems took notice of this extra as soon as the disc was announced.

The entertaining extras approach the film as a high-class cultural souvenir of the 1950s. In his short insert folder essay, the esteemed critic J. Hoberman offers an insightful critical assessment, positioning Pal's film at the intersection of major trends of the decade. But that fine analysis is restricted to the liner notes. The bulk of the extras (and perhaps the restoration too) have been overseen by Criterion's go-to experts for special effects movies, visual effects supervisor Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt. Their input is both informative and creative, and they are excellent hosts.

The new extras are more like studio-produced featurettes, departing from Criterion's usual critical distance. Paramount's restoration executive Andrea Kalas takes a major role. Her talk about the historical significance of TWOTW is fairly superficial -- she says that Destination Moon was the first scientifically realistic depiction of space travel, which ignores earlier spectacles from Germany and the Soviet Union. Ms. Kalas says that TWOTW inaugurated a fad for special effects extravaganzas. I'm not sure that the mass audience didn't go gaga for visual effects for their own sake until much later, when Star Wars made special effects the most reported aspect of filmmaking.

We also hear that unwelcome phrase 'restoring the filmmaker's original intentions,' which I had hoped had become extinct. It crops up almost every time a digital restoration re-interprets an old movie for new marketers. There are some changes to the movie that can be called revisions, and we hear nothing of preserving the un-revised 1953 original. Craig Barron even says that this version will be what the world sees of The War of the Worlds from this point forward.

We're more than happy that Ms. Kalas and Paramount did such terrific work on the film itself. In their interviews Barron and Burtt teach us about their discoveries during the process. Burtt's re-creation of the organically-sourced 'Martian' sound effects is fascinating, as is Barron's full explanation of gadget fabricator Kenneth Strickfaden's contribution to the show. The shots in which we can glimpse a fighting machine's 'electronic legs' are just sensational. The little sparks moving down the invisible legs give a good impression of scale.

The wires are no big deal, but...

Instead of simply saying that wires were removed because of overwhelming public desire, Barron insists that they weren't readily visible in original Technicolor prints. I agree with most of what he says. IB Tech prints were marginally softer and could obscure smaller details, especially with an indifferent projection lens. And in lower-contrast Eastman re-release prints (made in '77, I think) wires were everywhere -- on the DVD we can even see wires supporting the metallic Martian probe-camera that invades the farmhouse. My memory is that with the Technicolor prints reissued in '64 or '65, we did notice a stray wire here and there. But they were obvious only in three or four early shots of the fighting machines rising from the (back-lit) landing crater. I remember distinctly the audience reacting to the sight of multiple bright, shiny wires -- only for a shot or two. We saw them, they were there, and it was an original Technicolor print.

It's no big deal until revisionists try to tell us otherwise. The trailer included on this disc shows only one long-shot glimpse of a Martian machine, as it is rising from the crater. I realize that the trailer is surely an Eastman print, but in the shot is a fat wire that's almost as bright as the cobra ray stalk right next to it.

Almost all of the wires were really well disguised throughout the movie. Paramount's effects crews ignite pyrotechnics on all sides of the war machines, but we see no 'kick' reflections from the (ten or twelve?) wires suspending each in the air. Perhaps the 'rising from the pit' scenes were filmed first. We're told that the production stopped using Strickfaden's high voltage rig in the interest of safety. I'll bet that after seeing the first dailies, the camera crew also doubled down on their wire-hiding efforts going forward.

I witnessed the effects work on a big Hollywood movie that used many miniatures flying on wires. The DP didn't mess around with half-measures, but soaked the soundstage with smoke. That diffused the image and hid the wires beautifully, almost like magic. But no fog softens the miniature set-pieces in The War of the Worlds. Those wires are invisible or almost invisible, even though they must support those heavy copper miniatures.

I wish they had included a sample of the un-corrected shots with wires in them, just for historical reference. I'm not so much of a purist as to demand that they be restored, as it's great seeing them gone. But film history will warp a bit as it did when the original Star Wars was supplanted by a new and improved version, with special effects that didn't exist in 1977.

The well-produced new extras offer a lively production history. Some outtake effect shots were preserved in Paramount's stock library, so their inclusion here is certainly welcome. Barron and Burtt use one raw take of an attacking war machine to add their own 'new' visual & sound effects. A good 2005 featurette with surviving filmmakers and actors is included, along with a vintage audio interview with George Pal. A clear encoding of the famous 1938 Welles radio broadcast is present, as well as a brief audio piece in which Orson Welles met H.G. Wells.

The best older extra is the 2005 audio commentary with director Joe Dante, monster fabricator / collector Bob Burns, and author Bill Warren. Warren details little-known facts about the original 1924 Paramount script prepared for Cecil B. DeMille. If one ignores the Cedric Hardwicke prologue and a wild guess made by actor Paul Birch, Warren notes that we hear no direct reference that the invaders even come from Mars. Dante brings up the influential Classics Illustrated comic book design for the alien tripods, to which Spielberg reverted for his interesting remake. The chrome monsters from the comic were also ingrained in my childhood; they sent me right to Wells' book, which became the first novel I can remember reading.

The trio also points out the film's prodigious list of name bit players, including many that are almost unrecognizable. It's a who's who of character actors of the day: Paul Frees, Bill Phipps, Henry Brandon, Jack Kruschen, Edgar Barrier, Russ Bender, Russ Conway, Ralph Dumke, Ned Glass, Carolyn Jones, Alvy Moore and Walter Sande. Just about the only '50s Sci-fi regular who missed the bus for this one is William Schallert -- he's in almost everything else. Favorite Bill Phipps survived a previous Martian invasion released in April of '53, but in this Sci-fi extravaganza he ends up looking like the inside of an ashtray.

Never satisfied, always looking ahead, CineSavant notes that a beautifully restored When Worlds Collide screened on TCM several months back. A foreign Blu-ray is in the works, but will a licensed Region A release come to pass?