War of the Worlds

While I was looking to waste time this week I found War of the Worlds, the 1953 version, playing on TCM. I remember seeing the end of this film in my seventh grade science class because I ended up being absent when my teacher started the film the day before. All I ended up seeing was the very end of the film when the aliens are defeated, I apologize if I ruined the film for anyone but I'm assuming that everyone knows the basic story of War of the Worlds. And it was this ending scene that I had been originally comparing when I saw the remake this past summer on ABC. Even before I had seen the whole film I could tell that the remake had made big changes to differentiate itself from the original film. Now that I've seen the original the whole way through, I have to admit that I'm amazed at how much they changed from the film. You go from the main character, Clayton, being a scientist out to understand the invaders and save humanity to a beat-nick dad, Ray, who's out to save himself and his children. The main character is no longer a noble hero out to save the day but a failure looking to correct his shortcomings of the past. Clayton finds the alien invaders original landing site in the middle of no where in California and follows the invaders progress to Los Angeles. Ray lives in New Jersey and decides to travel to Boston where his ex-wife lives because he doesn't know what else to do. The hysterical love interest from the 1953 film turns into a hysterical daughter in the remake which also adds a trouble making son. The one difference between the films that really got me was the different aspects that the films each focused on.
In the 1953 film because he is a scientist, Clayton is privy to more information about the aliens and where they are in the world. So the film really focuses on humanity's need to understand situations and how people deal with the situation when it gets beyond their capability. One thing that's really obvious about this version is the clear religious overtone that the has. Clayton is friends with a priest at the start of the film and in the end he finds his girlfriend taking shelter in a church at the end of the film when they both fail to escape the city. The film focuses on the idea that once society is past the ability to comprehend the situation scientifically they turn to religion for salvation and answers. And because they are in a church when the aliens start to die, it makes you question what exactly caused the eventual defeat, science or God. The 2005 remake on the other hand focuses solely on humanity's reactions to crisis and the extreme survival instinct that kicks in. Throughout the film Ray is always making decisions to save his family that puts others in jeopardy. At no point do people really look to understand what is going on, they are only concerned with saving their own necks. And while Ray does figure out many of the aliens traits and shortcomings from his inexplicable run-ins with them, the main focus is how people react to crises. There is no point in the film where people bind together in an attempt to overcome the common enemy like there is in so many other alien invasion films. This is definitely a film that shows that when it comes down to it you have to look out for yourself because no one else will. In the end I find this transformation of the film's ideals very interesting and believe that it says a lot about how our society has changed in 50 years.