War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Once upon a time this was very Scary and even now it is entertaining
I can’t remember when I heard the adaptation for the first time.
But I was scared.
And it is not difficult to imagine how the first audience took this prank and really believed that there is an invasion.
This is the main thing about this work, the arrival on earth of “people” who came from Mars and take over our planet.
In days long gone by, science had not advanced that far, even if the idea of life on Mars has long been disputed.
Come to think of it, it still is to some extent.
If we take Hollywood, a nominee for the Oscars of this year was a movie dealing with the red planet and called The Martian.
And for intents and purposes, life is present on that planet in this production, albeit in the form of humans.
But then, once abandoned- or actually taken for dead- the Matt Damon character, with his skills, manages to grow potatoes.
In the play that I listened to yesterday and today a suspicious cloud is formed and then it travels from Mars to Earth.
The tension that is kept at high levels throughout is the key for this story that scared when I first heard it.
I was a teenager, I guess, but I must confess that up to the age of twenty five I still believed in the presence of UFOs.
Not that I eliminate the possibility altogether, after all they just mean unidentified flying objects and there are plenty of those.
In terms of intelligent- they could in fact not be otherwise to reach this planet- life from other places, I think there is a good chance that it is out there.
Probably not in the violent, aggressive form that pops out in The War of Worlds, which with its name reveals some of the plot.
So I am not spoiling anything for anyone if I say that this war seems to me unlikely now, notwithstanding how it terrified me twenty years ago.
Orson Wells is magnificent and he has been one of the most marvelous actors, directors and producers ever.
It is such a shame that he has endured so many setbacks and he had to struggle so much to finance many of his projects.
I have seen him in some interviews where he said that, instead of getting to the creative work, he had to spend a lot of time chasing financiers.
He scared many people with the play that is an adaption of the work of H.G. Wells and I am not sure what the original looked like.
Even in this adaptation, which they say that it is in the form broadcast so long ago, there are clear messages that it is fiction.
But when listeners heard in the play, something like this- I am not quoting, mind you:
- We are radio CBS – or some other station- and we broadcast live
- There is something like an octopus…many legs are coming out of the cylinder…
- People are running
- They are killed
- Oh my God…oh, oh
So it seemed very real, exactly the point.
The audience actually thought that reporters have died, invaders are taking over.
- It is the end of the world!!
- When in effect it was just Halloween
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