Movie musings: War of the Worlds

Movie Musings: War of the Worlds (2005)

Re-watching the Steven Spielberg movie War of the Worlds (2005) yesterday evening, I became aware that a significant aspect of the movie is about the need to see, even the desperate need to see. When there is something dramatic happening in the centre of his town in New Jersey, the character Ray Ferrier, played by Tom Cruise, has to go and see, despite every indication that the situation is dangerous. When the US Army is battling the aliens in the New England countryside, Robbie, Ray Ferrier's son, played by Justin Chatwin, begs to be allowed to go and see. Towards the end of the movie, we are introduced to the aliens by means of a snake-like eye peering at everything while searching for human prey. 

This need to see is contrasted with the desire Ray Ferrier, to prevent his daughter, Rachel, played by Dakota Fanning, from seeing what he believed she would be unable to cope with: he tells Rachel to close her eyes or to look only at him. Later in the movie, he blindfolds her to what he is about to do to the character Harlan Ogilvy, played by Tim Robbins. The blindfolding was more symbolic than necessary, because the unwatchable action was to take place behind a closed door. Moreover, Rachel was placed facing in the opposite direction. The character's absence from the room in which the murder took place, her physical orientation and the blindfold all served to underline the importance of not seeing something terrible that is taking place. However, we are perhaps invited to consider the Nazi Holocaust. This latter idea is emphasised by the several scenes in which there are images of discarded clothing floating down from the sky. Clearly the aliens, in their tripods, are being compared with the Nazis with their both with their industrialised murder. However, the blindfolding of the little girl also highlights that Ray Ferrier commits murder, and is, if only in a small way, comparable with an individual Nazi soldier who commits an act of murder against an enemy combatant. No-one is without guilt. 

When Rachel leaves the house in which they have been sheltering, because they had been spotted by the aliens, she sees evidence of carnage all around her. She then gets lifted into the concentration camp beneath the belly of the tripod. The only thing that the blindfold served to achieve was to attempt to hide the crime being committed by her father.