The War of the Worlds
A mysterious, meteorlike object has landed in a small California town. All clocks have stopped. A fleet of glowing green UFOs hovers menacingly over the entire globe. The Martian invasion of Earth has begun, and it seems that nothing—neither military might nor the scientific know-how of nuclear physicist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry)—can stop it. In the expert hands of genre specialists George Pal and Byron Haskin, H. G. Wells’s end-of-civilization classic receives a chilling Cold War–era update, complete with hallucinatory Technicolor and visionary, Oscar-winning special effects. Emblazoned with iconographic images of 1950s science fiction, The War of the Worlds is both an influential triumph of visual imagination and a still-disquieting document of the wonder and terror of the atomic age.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, created by sound designer Ben Burtt and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
- Audio commentary from 2005 featuring filmmaker Joe Dante, film historian Bob Burns, and author Bill Warren
- Movie Archaeologists, a new program on the film’s visual and sound effects featuring Burtt and visual-effects supervisor Craig Barron
- From the Archive, a new program about the film’s restoration featuring Barron, Burtt, and Paramount Pictures archivist Andrea Kalas
- Audio interview with producer George Pal from 1970
- The Sky Is Falling, a 2005 documentary about the making of the film
- The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio play of The War of the Worlds from 1938, adapted by Howard Koch and directed and narrated by Orson Welles
- Radio program from 1940 featuring a discussion between Welles and H. G. Wells, author of the 1897 novel The War of the Worlds
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic J. Hoberman
New cover by Patrick Leger
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, created by sound designer Ben Burtt and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
- Audio commentary from 2005 featuring filmmaker Joe Dante, film historian Bob Burns, and author Bill Warren
- Movie Archaeologists, a new program on the film’s visual and sound effects featuring Burtt and visual-effects supervisor Craig Barron
- From the Archive, a new program about the film’s restoration featuring Barron, Burtt, and Paramount Pictures archivist Andrea Kalas
- Audio interview with producer George Pal from 1970
- The Sky Is Falling, a 2005 documentary about the making of the film
- The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio play of The War of the Worlds from 1938, adapted by Howard Koch and directed and narrated by Orson Welles
- Radio program from 1940 featuring a discussion between Welles and H. G. Wells, author of the 1897 novel The War of the Worlds
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic J. Hoberman
New cover by Patrick Leger
Cast
- Gene Barry
- Dr. Clayton Forrester
- Ann Robinson
- Sylvia Van Buren
- Les Tremayne
- General Mann
- Bob Cornthwaite
- Dr. Pryor
- Sandro Giglio
- Dr. Bilderbeck
- Lewis Martin
- Pastor Collins
- Cedrick Hardwicke
- Narrator
Credits
- Director
- Byron Haskin
- Produced by
- George Pal
- Screenplay by
- Barré Lyndon
- Based on the novel by
- H. G. Wells
- Cinematographer
- George Barnes
- Music score by
- Leith Stevens
- Art direction
- Hal Pereira
- Art direction
- Albert Nozaki
- Edited by
- Everett Douglas
- Costumes
- Edith Head
Trailer for The War of the Worlds
