Yesterday, my girlfriend and I finished up our vacation by doing some shopping, some dining and some movie viewing. The movie we saw was War of the Worlds. I say it is worth seeing, but it reminded me a lot of the 1953 version of which this movie was a remake. One difference was that Gene Barry portrayed a scientist in the original movie (he portrayed a grandparent in the remake). In the remake Tom Cruise portrayed a longshoreman, Ray Ferrier.
You may recall that Dr. Forrester, played by Gene Barry in the 1953 movie took an active role in trying to repel the aliens, even though all his work went for nothing, basically. He was unable to stop the aliens and, and as in the remake, we were all saved by a deus ex machina when the aliens breathed in a little of those bad bacteria and they all came down with something, got sick and expired. In the present version of the movie Tom Cruise adds a human face to tragedy as he tries to keep his life and family together while these aliens do all kinds of nasty crap to him, our planet and mankind in general. Cruise is the father of two children, but child rearing is not within his core competencies. When it comes time to sing a lullaby, the only one he can sing is Little Deuce Coupe.
You probably also recall that in the Halloween broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938, the guy who was the protagonist was named Professor Farrell. Those of you around at the time probably remember this broadcast by the Mercury Theatre of the Air nearly scared the living crap out of everyone. I’m too young, of course, to remember it myself. Most of you probably are familiar with H.G. Welles original book, written in 1898. In all four renditions, the main character, whatever name or title, is basically a witness to the story and not the heroic figure who whips the aliens’ asses.
From the moment the aliens showed up on this planet they were doomed. It was just a matter of time. I saw the movie in a theater in Kansas, a state that boasts a state board of education that has members who don’t believe in Darwin and his theory of evolution. I have to believe, without really knowing much about H.G. Welles, that he must have known of Darwin and of natural selection. The actual heroes of this story and movie were bacteria and the God in which the anti-evolutionists do not believe. After millennia of being exposed to bacteria, the human race has evolved into a species that has immunity to these simple bacteria. The aliens showed up here without immunity. Natural selection made the human race superior to the highly advanced aliens.
If you don’t believe in Darwin, natural selection and evolution, then you won’t find this movie believable. Hell, you may not anyway. It was, however, a good couple of hours of entertainment.
At least that’s what we think here in Jimbo’s world.
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