War of the Worlds

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about War of the Worlds' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of War of the Worlds completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 30 June 05.

Overall comments and recommendations

War of the Worlds is a spectacular science fiction, action, adventure, alien horror epic with good special effects and a horror factor well above the norm. The portrayal of how poorly humanity cope with fear and terror, and a number of scenes involving the ten-year old character, could be quite distressing even for some adult viewers.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie War of the Worlds contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Ray Ferrier, (Tom Cruise) a Jersey dockworker, has in the past been a far from perfect father to his two children, ten-year-old Rachael (Dakota Fanning) and seventeen-year-old Robbie (Justin Chatwin). The children are reluctantly left with him for the weekend while his ex-wife Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) goes to Boston. It soon becomes clear that Ray has little, if any, understanding of his two children, or how to act as a father. However, family disharmony soon takes a back seat as a strange, violent, freakish lightening storm strikes the neighbourhood resulting in the total electrical failure of cars, lights, cell phones, and so on.

Two hundred-foot high tripods emerge and begin unleashing deadly heat rays, disintegrating everyone in sight and destroying cars and buildings. People erupt in mass panic and hysteria and Ray tries to get his two children to safety, heading for Boston to find his ex wife. As a fierce battle rages between the military and the tripods, Ray and Rachael are separated from Robbie, and find shelter in a storm cellar with a deranged survivalist, Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins). Their safety is short lived, however, and Ray has to confront many more dangers from both aliens and humans in order to protect himself and his daughter.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

All of the violence portrayed throughout the film is presented in a realistic manner and is in two categories: violence committed by aliens against humans, and by humans against humans.

Acts of violence committed by aliens against humans are genocidal, destructive and devastating, including:

• heat rays randomly vaporise humans as they stand or run
  
• buildings, cars and boats are completely obliterated, or tossed around like toys; the landscape is totally destroyed
  
• Ray watches the people next to him disintegrate to ash and is completely covered by the ash of disintegrated victims, while their clothes rain from the skies
  
• a human victim is extracted from inside the tripod, pinned to the ground and impaled with a giant needle that sucks out the victim’s blood and body fluids. The tripod then sprays the fluids over the surrounding ground

Acts of violence committed by humans against other humans are mean, selfish, vicious and brutal. Humans are portrayed at their worst when in a state of panic. Violent scenes include:

• a group of refugees try to commandeer Ray’s car by jumping on it, bashing its sides and rocking it. Finally the group smashes the windows, and drag Ray and Robbie from the car while Rachael screams hysterically in the back
  
• Ray pulls out a gun and fires warning shots into the air. A second person approaches him and holds a gun to his head threatening to kill him unless he drops his gun and turns over the car. A short time later, another man picks up the gun Ray has dropped, and shoots the man who has just taken Ray’s car. The final image is of people swarming over the car like ants.
  
• While Ray and Rachael are in the in a storm cellar with Ogilvy, Ray decides that Ogilvy’s unstable state of mind is placing Rachael at risk, and decides to kill him. Ray wraps a rag around Rachael eyes to prevent her witnessing the murder, and gets her to sing herself a lullaby to muffle the sounds. Even by adult standards, the scene is very distressing.

• Robbie: “You’re an arsehole. I hate coming here”
  
• Ray: “Is that why you act like such a dick”.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

All of the violence presented throughout the film, as described above, is capable of scaring, distressing, and traumatising children under the age of eight years.

In addition, visual images capable of scaring younger children include:

• the lightening storm and lightening strikes at the start of the film
  
• the scene where the tripods climb out of the ground at the start of the film is terrifying
  
• the tripods themselves, their size, movement, appearance and numbers
  
• tripods using their tentacles to snatch people off the ground like small insignificant animals
  
• hundreds of dead bodies floating down a stream
  
• Rachael being terrorised by a searching tentacle
  
• the inside of the tripods where victims are imprisoned in cage-like structures
  
• prisoners being removed from their cages by a vine-like tentacle which comes out of a rectum-like structure, wraps itself around the leg of the prisoner and drags them in
  
• tripods impale their prisoners with a giant needle-like spike, sucking out their blood and then spraying the prisoner’s blood over the ground
  
• alien creatures (similar in appearance to the alien creatures from the film Independence Day)
  
• creatures crawled around the ground in a manner similar to that of a spider
  
• a speeding train completely engulfed in flames, thundering out of control through a train crossing.

• numerous loud explosions
• the sound of buildings, planes, vehicles exploding and collapsing
• terrorised screaming crowds
• sounds resembling conventional warfare.

• Ray murdering Ogilvy in the cellar. Both the murder itself, and what Rachael is force to endure are highly disturbing.
• Fanning’s realistic portrayal of a ten year old girl stripped of all childhood security after witnessing shocking and horrific events, leaving her psychologically devastated, is distressing even for adults. Young children will find Rachael’s fears, trauma and distress totally believable and could as a result be disturbed by it.

Aged eight to fifteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

All of the scenes and images discussed above are capable of scaring or disturbing children between the ages of eight to fifteen years. While older children within this age range may be more able to cope with the visual images, they could be particularly concerned by:

• what Rachel is forced to endure and how traumatised she is
  
• the threat posed by alien creatures
  
• the way people behave towards each other in response to the alien invasion.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in this movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity.

Use of substances

There is one scene involving substance use, where Ogilvy offers Ray some home made peach brandy. He pours a small amount into glasses, and both men take several small sips.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language and name calling in this movie, including:

• bullshit
  
• arsehole
  
• dick
  
• pissed off
  
• shit.

The movie's message

On the surface, War of the World is a classic tale of good verses evil, aliens against humans. However there are two other messages that overlay this basic theme:

• Ray’s transformation from a father who has avoided all responsibility for his children to one who fights desperately to protect them, and
  
• humanity’s response to the alien invasion. People are presented as totally selfish and vicious when threatened, quite capable of treading over each other without thought for their fellow human beings.

Parents could discuss these themes with their older teenagers, including how people react when panicked and what the best and worst of humanity can be. They may also wish to discuss Robbie’s selfless act in defying military guards to take on stranded passengers, what he risked and what he achieved.