1953 WOTW "Collectors Edition" REVIEW THREAD

[jeffwaynefan]

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS - 1953 - PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Number Of Disc's - One

RRP £15.99

Released Date - 14th November 2005

Title - The War Of The Worlds - Special Collector's Edition

Many fans of this classic sci-fi adapation of H.G.Wells most famous novel first printed in 1898 will be pleased by what this DVD has to offer, though I had hoped the feature about the film was more indepth than shown on the disc.

THE FILM

The film transfer is a joy to view and for this version it is said that the stereo recordings were used. Thankfully the menacing manta ray machines no longer show signs of the wires used to support and light the models during production. Within the film you have the extra added options of commentaries from Ann Robinson and Gene Barry with other commentaries from film director Joe Dante, film historian Bob Burns and author Bill Warren.

TRAILOR

This is the same trailor that has already been issued on previous DVD releases.

FEATURETTES

On this edition we are given 2 featurettes. The first is a 30 minute look into the 1953 film called The Sky Is Falling - The Making Of The War Of The Worlds with contributions by those who worked on the film including Ann Robinson and Gene Barry. Many behind the scenes images are shown but sadly no actual moving footage. As good as this feature is, it's a shame it was not longer.

The second featurette H.G.Wells: The Father Of Science Fiction is only 10 minutes in length and basically tells us about the books author H.G.Wells using photographs and archive footage of H.G. A intersting insight into this master, but sadly a little on the short side.

THE MERCURY THEATRE

This is indeed a nice touch to this package, the original 1938 Mercury Theatre presentation by Orson Welles of the famous radio broadcast that panicked America, all played out to images from the period.

BOOKLET & PACKAGING

All I can say about this is simply WOW!. Many companies must take note on how this set has been presented. It is a shame that the current DVD release of Steven Spilebergs version did not have this same style. With the 1953 Special Collector's Edition the whole package comes in a 3 sectioned gatefold with slipcase. Also present is a wonderfull 10 page bookelt that takes us into the film and gives us a good insight into the film.

Overall rating - 9/10

[1953]

I wish they put the deleted scenes what ann robinson talked about on the documentry back in the film , I hate it when they leave things out its supposed to be the collectors edition.

[amigang]

My 1954 WOTW review:-

The Film 9/10 – I haven’t seen this film that many times and I only ever had a very old video recording of it, so it was time to get the DVD, and I’m glad I waited for this version. The 1954 film is pretty amazing as for the most part the film still holds up to today’s films, even the special effects hold up well. The ending I also feel is slightly better than SS, because you where taken to the very edge that everyone was going to die in this church and all is lost, I never got that same feel at the end of SS film.

The Picture 10/10 – The best qty I have ever seen this film in. Even the news footage and the pictures of the Super Jet are very clear (which I’ve always thought to be the poorest qty areas.) The only problem with this (as some other reviews have picked up on). It’s a lot easier to see the wires holding the saucers, it would have been nice to be able to select maybe three different versions, the original un-restored version, the restored version and then a CGI enhanced version that just removed little things like this, but otherwise I have no complains.

(Hardly saw any of these colour/details on my old video, qty is top)

The Sound 10/10 – Available in Stereo! I don’t know if it was just my poor recording but the sound is spot on and a lot more powerful than I remember. Also you can select mono in English if you want to hear the different (minimal but noticeable), mono tracks in French and German are also available. There are two Commentary, the first By Ann Robinson And Gene Barry, I only listened to some of this but Ann Robinson seems to have a very good memory on how scenes where done, I will be lessoning to this commentary in full soon. The second commentary is by Joe Dante Bob Burns And Bill Warren, I have not had time to listen to this yet, but based on what these people say in the special feature they know this film back to front, so it should be good, I couldn’t really ask for more from the sound (apart from maybe 5.1) top marks.

HG Wells The Father Of Science Fiction 9/10 – I great small feature on HG Wells and his life. My only complaint it wasn’t long enough.

The Sky Is Falling The Making Of… 10/10 – Various people involved in making the 1954 WOTW talk about how it came about, how they got involved and how it was done, some great interviews, that told me a lot about the movie I didn’t know about.

Mercury Theatre Radio Play by Orson Wells 5/10 – It’s a nice extra to put on the DVD, but its basically just a static picture of Orson wells and audio, it would have been nice to have it as a slide show of pictures of the show, room for improvement but a nice addition.

MISC 10/10 – Before I forget also on the disk is the Original Trailer for the film, another nice addition. The menus are quite good, showing the flying machines passing by, the chapters are in good places in the film, all the usual subtitles are here. There also subtitles for the commentary. Aspect Ration is full screen, but looked fine on my widescreen TV. Top marks.

DVD Case+extras - 10/10 – A great case (why couldn’t R2 WOTW SS version come like this!) With a 10 page mini booklet giving even more background details on the film, a great addition, and as the saying goes it’s the icing on the cake.

Overall Out of 80 it could of got it gets 73.
There is very little room for improvement, there may not be many special features, Ann Robinson speaks of some deleted scenes, which would have been nice to of seen. A gallery of pictures of say the various design sketches I seen on the net for this film and posters/promo picture etc would have been nice addition. More importantly I would of really liked a feature on the project that came from the film, looking at george pal aborted squeal, and the TV series based on the film, otherwise paramount finally got this film the DVD it deserved from start. BUY IT.

[sunnyrabbiera]

well got it, and must say I am dissipointed in the digitization of it... the strings are clear as day bringing embarassment to a great film...

luckily it has the orson welles play on it and if you dont look at the movie closely and lower the brightness and sharpness in your TV then the strings are not that visible.