Invaders From Mars (1953)
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Invaders From Mars (1953)
Now very famous color sci-fi pic from the early fifties about alien invasion all from the perspective of a small boy - as if the kid is having this dream, a very scary dream from which there is no escape and the threat hits close to home. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
Because we see nothing of the actual Martians until the finale, the film conjures up a crescendo of tension. There is a sense of hidden dread which lasts right up to the strange conclusion. Everything comes to us from a boy's point of view, and the boy is alone and bewildered in a world of menacing powerful grownups. All my guidebooks admit the film's flaws but praise how Menzies centers everything around the boy hero. I can only imagine how young boys in the 1950s must have responded when seeing this film. It was a time of Cold War paranoia, and a time when - for all anyone knew - evil Martians might be real. While the camera direction is unremarkable (one exception includes the great early zoom toward David's telescope) the images and sounds are calculated to increase the fear. The sets (Menzies was a master set designer) are eerily static and vaguely surrealistic. Not everyone could make a sandy suburban backyard into something frightening, but Menzies pulls it off. When the sand opens and closes, the score swells into a bizarre chorus that is at once soundtrack and sound effect (David remarks later in the film that he can hear "that sound!" when the sand opens up).
Goldweber, David Elroy (2012-06-14). Claws & Saucers: Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film: A Complete Guide: 1902-1982 (Kindle Locations 38917-38930). David E. Goldweber. Kindle Edition.
Trivia From Mars: CONCEIVED BASED ON AN ACTUAL DREAM RELATED TO THE WRITER BY HIS WIFE
HISTORICAL CONTROVERSY AS TO WHETHER THIS WAS PLANNED AS A 3-D FILM
- REMAKE IN 1986 -
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» Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
» episode #20: The Invaders
» episode #14 - The Invaders
» episode #51 - The Invaders
Base of Galactic Science Fiction :: SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA :: Golden Age of Science Fiction Cinema
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