DIR. Byron Haskin
YEAR. 1953
COUNTRY. U.S.A
RUN-TIME. 82 mins
RATING. PG
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
Doors 7.00PM
Film 7.30PM
H.G Wells’ 1897 novel about Martians who come to earth to take over the planet is updated and relocated to California. The Martians are technologically superior, but biologically inferior to earthlings and one of the warnings this film brings is about mans dependency on technology, creating a sense of helplessness in the community when all machinery (light, clocks, radio) fails. It begs the question, what would happen if we were met by a race scientifically superior to our own?
Many of the films in this season involve the military, police and scientists working together- reflecting the developing relationship between science and warfare that occurred in the Twentieth Century. In The War of the Worlds, the police are seen as cowardly, military force is useless and though we are meant to revere the handsome scientist, Dr. Forrester, his efforts are ultimately useless. The film instead sees the only saviour of planet earth to be the power of God.
The film is shot in shocking Technicolor and Al Nozaki’s visionary art design shines through to make this one of the most influential science fiction films of the 1950’s.
“As the perfect crystallization of 50s ideology the film would be fascinating enough, but the special effects in this 1953 George Pal production also achieve a kind of dark, burnished apocalyptic beauty.”
Is This Yesterday?! comprises a series of Hollywood Science Fiction films from the 1950’s. The films in this season aim to give a broad reflection of the general psyche in America at this specific time. The films explore issues of invasion, atomic power and the progressing relationship between science and the military, the red threat and McCarthyism. The films selected vary in their moral and political standpoint, from the drastically conservative to the ideologically liberal.