[Special Effects | Pictures]

.	.

The film “The War of the Worlds” was published in the year 1952, and it was produced by George Pal. It is based on the novel by H.G.Wells. The film consists of many scenes which contain special effects. These effects were so good, that the film got an oscar for the best special effects.

First there was the crash of the meteor, when a big and hot lightning ball falls down on California.
The meteor opens and the item which looks like a “Cobra-Head” comes out of the big stone! They chose a Cobra-head, because it is a very famous and very toxic snake. So everybody knows that the thing is dangerous and is able to kill people.
The producers uses various camera angles to stress the bulkiness of this creature. Suddenly there comes a light out of this head and kills the men!! The light is like a laser and it is underlined with a screeching sound. With these scenes the director shows the superiority of the Martians.

Men mobilize all military units to attack the Martian spaceships. But they didn’t produce new scenes of tanks and soldiers. They used black and white pictures of the Second World War and showed these in short scenes in the film. They used these pictures, because the Second World War was just a few years ago, so the people could imagine how terrible it must be. This trick reinforces the Connection to reality. It was also cheaper to use these pictures.

The Martians have really strong shields, so the Americans have no chance to defend or save the world. With this effect the directors wanted to make clear that man wasn’t able to beat the Martians.

The last hope of humanity was the atomic bomb (at the time presented very positively, so that it nearly looks naïve), but the Martians were still alive. It seems that the directors didn’t know the effects of such a bomb, because the inhabitants of the village where the bomb was thrown to could immediately go back into their city.

Humanity does not any chance against the Martians. The Martians are more intelligent and have better weapons. Obviously humanity is lost, but the Martians die by a virus, which isn’t dangerous for a human being. This effect is also known as “deus-ex-
machina-effect”.

[Special Effects | Pictures]