With infinite complacencia, the men went from a side to another one by the planet taking care of their small subjects, insurances of their dominion on the matter. Perhaps the microbes that we see the microscope do the same. Nobody thought that the oldest worlds of the space could be source of danger for the humanity.
- H.G. Wells
Such day as today, 30 of October, but of 1938, in the Mercury Theatre of New York a young person Orson Welles narrated in direct the adaptation for radio of the novel that had become classic: The War of H.G worlds. Wells, published originally in the last decade of century XIX.
The term dramatisation never seemed to have as much sense, because it said that its realism caused the hysteria in mass of million listeners, who thought that the invasion was real… That affirmation, according to was known later, was not certain: rather one was an urban legend exaggerated and repeated by something, mass media that gypsy dialect in the urban folklore during decades and decades.
Seventy years after that one day, and more of a century after the publication of the novel, these would be some of the recommendations to recall the mediatic event of “the invasion of the Martians “, revisiting part of the material that with time has been generated around the classic one:
The radio transmission
The Mercury Theatre on the Air offers in several formats [MP3, AVI, Torrent] the original emission of the CBS on the part of Orson Welles and its list of actors, whom a duration of about 59 minutes has. Among others curiosities are interesting to appreciate the presentation of the work (that much people surely did not hear) and how the first minutes are of apparent normality with musical activities that are cut suddenly by news bulletins with the dramatisation, on the part of supposed reporters distributed by all the country, of the carried out invasion by the extraterrestrial ships.
Commemorating the anniversary, diverse Spanish radios are going to nowadays do 30 of October a “recreation” of the classic one, are more details in the news: The Spanish radio dramatizes the more repeated Martian invasion of Hollywood, “the war of worlds”.
The broadcasting will take place in direct from 21,00 to 22,00 (peninsular hour) and also will be able to be followed through Internet. To Luis of the Elm tree or legendary voices like Primitive the one of Red among others will participate.
Until where the panic arrived really?
Articles like The Martian Panic Sixty Years Later can be reviewed and Until where the panic arrived at the Martians? in order to heft the aspect of the urban legend regarding the panic caused by the emission. The summary could be “was not for as much”, but rather that the means created a put-legend species on the panic and the mediatic power more than another thing:
The sociologists aim today at the power of means not as the cause of the hysteria of masses by the broadcasting of the attack, but like the creator of the myth from which a great part of the population was taken in serious the foreign invasion (…) The Martians terrified many listeners; but not to million, possibly only to thousands.
As the is also explained in Behind 1938 Radio Panic Show (National Geographic) is not known to how much people really it affected, but were registries in newspapers of the following days. Somebody calculated that perhaps as much time went only to the 20 percent of the listeners (that would be less than a million people) and not as so that really horrible things happened. Apparently the effect was greater especially between the “rural hearings” that were “isolated more” inside the country.
The novel
In the original version of the novel (1896-1898, War of the Worlds
Additionally, the lovers of Literature will find a compilation of covers of the war of worlds and the illustrations of books, as well as the version of eComic interesting that published Dark Horse Comic: The War of the Worlds by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli.
The films
The War of the Worlds (1953) was a spectacular adaptation to the great screen, with a budget that took to a large extent the special effects, impressive for the time. Directed by Byron Haskin, it showed to the Martian machines or “tripods”… without tripods! (they were going to be “luminous rays”, but it was not possible to be obtained suitably). The effect of the “calorific ray” lasted in the imagination of they saw which it, as well as the aspect of the Martians who terrify to the protagonists during the film. Ene this adaptation, includes the use of nuclear weapons against the Martians in some of the final scenes.
War of the Worlds (2005) is the most modern version of the history, directed by Steven Spielberg, with the tripods invading New Jersey and a Tom Cruise protagonist trying to save the family. With more appropriate special effects of this century, really evil Martians and great activities, have their interesting moments. One concentrates especially in how the panic invades the city and in what would happen to the masses in case of invasion, besides very following close by the laborious history of the protagonist in its fight by the survival.
Music
The War of Worlds, the musical album of Jeff Wayne is one of the “more impressive sound tracks” of conceptual rock of end of the 70, that was doubled to the Castilian in the middle of the 80 (it is difficult to find, but that way it walks still). It includes a complete narration of history in two parts that last about 95 minutes. Nothing else adapted to submerge in history while the book is read or pages are read on the matter Web.
The Eve of the War, version rap, of the Jedi Mind Tricks, is a modern version of the work of Jeff Wayne.
Another version of l builds very, very special, that I found investigating on the different versions that existed of music is the video of the live musical comedy of Jeff Wayne, titleholder Jeff Musical Wayne's Version of The War of the Worlds. A waste of presented/displayed visual effects is everything on original music; a piece of assembly decorated with small details to adapt history to the scene and the actors. It is all a worthy overproduction of the best operas rock, a assembly that is worth the trouble to see.
The good news is that 30 years later this production has recovered that in 2006 and 2007 revivió on the occasion of 30º anniversary of the album, and seems that in 2009 it will return to have the War of Worlds, live in some cities of Europe. The information mainly this is in TheWarOfTheWorlds.com.
In that Web a small paper clip of three minutes as a appetizer can be seen, although the complete video is worth the trouble much more.
