War of the Worlds: Spielberg Mutilates His Own Masterpiece (SPOILERS included)

[MarkG]

Originally posted by JohnT
There's the girl in the red jacket in Schindlers List (critical enough so that her jacket was the only bit of color in the film until the end), one of the shark victims in Jaws is a 10 year-old boy, and Empire is about a child who survives a Japanese concentration camp (from the novel by J.G. Ballard).

the first two doesnt sound as main characters and the third one survives!

[JohnT]

Your quote:

"no kid character is ever harmed in a spielberg movie" rule...

Nothing about death, nothing about the kid character being major, just "no kid character is ever harmed..." You made a blanket assertion and I countered it with facts. Simple, eh?

[MarkG]

it's obvious i meant "no lead kid character"

[Alex]

OMFG MarkG OWNED!!!!!1!!!1

[JohnT]

I paid $18, so it's OK. Just don't think one of you freeloaders can get away with it.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by MarkG
still, without showing the actual act of killing (as it was done in the mob-vs-car scene) it seems as if nothing happened. cruise is not placed any blame for the murder

Heck no it doesn't!

You don't have to show something up close in all its gory details to really understand and grasp it all. Both those scenes were very hard to watch, for me at least. There was never any illusions about what was happening in either. I knew it, the daughter knew it, and the rest of the audience knew it. It was quite blunt and in your face.

A geyser of blood isn't needed to get this very real, brutal point across.

[JohnT]

i would have expected from spielberg to have advanced as a story-teller and dared to do a different ending for a change

I agree that an ending that was satisfying to audiences living just 20-odd years after the germ theory of disease was announced doesn't make much sense to more "sophisticated" audiences, but what scenario can you derive to explain the fact that the machines stopped working all of a sudden?

In the context of the film perhaps it would've been best if no explanation was given, but as a storytelling technique that would've seriously sucked.

[JohnT]

Btw, I've seen this film four times already and will likely go again this weekend.

[OzzyKP]

Clearly the virus thing was unreasonable and reaching. The movie clearly should have ended with all of humanity exterminated and the alien masters taking over.


That would have been a great, uplifting movie. But perhaps the only believeable thing the critics would accept.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by JohnT
Btw, I've seen this film four times already and will likely go again this weekend.

I think you and I are the only ones who think the movie was well done.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
You don't have to show something up close in all its gory details to really understand and grasp it all. Both those scenes were very hard to watch, for me at least. There was never any illusions about what was happening in either. I knew it, the daughter knew it, and the rest of the audience knew it. It was quite blunt and in your face.

A geyser of blood isn't needed to get this very real, brutal point across.

it's one thing showing someone shooting someone else, even if that man is not shown, and another showing a closed door with no understandable sounds.

if spielberg wanted to cast any blame on cruise for the killing he would have to show a bit more than a closed door....

[MarkG]

Originally posted by JohnT
what scenario can you derive to explain the fact that the machines stopped working all of a sudden?

i wasnt talking about the explanation of how the machines stopped, i was talking about the surviving son

i dont mind the "logical" gaps of a science FICTION movie...

[JohnT]

Originally posted by MarkG
it's one thing showing someone shooting someone else, even if that man is not shown, and another showing a closed door with no understandable sounds.

if spielberg wanted to cast any blame on cruise for the killing he would have to show a bit more than a closed door....

Next time someone makes a comment about "stoopid muricans who need everything spelled out for them", I'm just gonna link to this post, OK?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by MarkG
i wasnt talking about the explanation of how the machines stopped, i was talking about the surviving son

i dont mind the "logical" gaps of a science FICTION movie...

**** happens. It was wartime. Surprisingly, not everyone dies, not even on the battlefield.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by JohnT
Next time someone makes a comment about "stoopid muricans who need everything spelled out for them", I'm just gonna link to this post, OK?

it's not about understanding what goes on, it's about making a point. with the closed door spielberg treats us like cruise did with his daughter: dont see what's happening so that you dont get traumatized...

the closed door just says that something bad happened, noone is certain to be blamed....