War of the Worlds

The Movie War of the Worlds is a thrilling movie that uses contrasts of colors as well as strong sound, and music to create an emotional tie to the movie’s dramatic effect. From the dark scenes with bold contrasts to the emotional music in the background the movie will keeps the viewer entertained till the end through emotional ties and curiosity.

Because the movie deals with this mysterious storm coming upon the entire world most scenes appear to be distorted in color with a darker shade to it, creating a more emotional tie of darkness. As the main character Ray struggles to keep his two children alive as mysterious creatures begin to terminate the human population, most of the movie takes place during the night time. These dark scenes contribute to contrasting colors of the fire and laser beams from the creatures. The book The Art of Film Watching would describe these colors as advancing colors described as “when high intensity and dark value, they seem to advance, making the objects appears larger and closer to the camera than they are.” (pg. 229) An example of this would be then Robbie decides to join the arm to defeat the creatures, and Roy must choose between his daughter being taken away by strangers or his son joining the soldiers. Roy lets go of the son and chases after the daughter, and right then an army vehicle goes rolling down the hill on fire. The fire is really the only color in the scene; thus, really standing out as it moves down the hill, advancing to the human eye and catching the attention. A lot of the time also the scenery appears to be a bit hazy and smoky adding once again to the mystery and suspense of what is going on. With these affects it emotionally draws you to the plot and adds to your senses. As the book states: “ the added richness and depth that color provides make awareness of color and its effects on the audience essential to perceptive film watching. “ (pg. 233) Even the noises that the robotic “creatures” make is a musical boat horn type sound that becomes almost eerie after you realize what the sound indicates.

Not only does War of the Worlds provide a good example of how color is used to enhance a plot, music and sound are well used tools used in this movie to heighten and contribute to the plot. The movie contains little background noises, so whenever you hear something moving, rustling, or noises from the creatures it is almost a startling affect. An example of this would be when they are hiding in the basement and the creature sticks one of its “tentacles” into the basement to see if anyone is in there. Because the characters have to remain quite from getting caught in hiding and dying on the spot, the movie provides no noise, until the girl accidently moved her boot. The noise is exaggerated then and creates tension as the tentacle then swiftly moves in on them closer. As the books says “ these elements of sound added levels of meaning and provide sensual and emotional stimuli that increase the range, depth, and intensity of our experience far beyond what can be achieved through visual means alone.” (pg. 257) Besides the sounds, there is a lot of background music that plays in the background almost continuously in the background. This music sets mood to the plot. When something is about to happen fast pase, loud, deep music will play. When something scary occur you hear a high pitched repetitive violin music that begins to get faster and faster. An example of this would be when Rachel goes to the river and see’s a dead body floating. Her facials indicated that she is horrified and the music begins. As she the rivers flows on more and more dead bodies are floating down the river and her face grows more intense, and the music gets faster and faster and adds to the mood, capturing you emotional as well. The book describes this as “an effective sound image can trigger a response in our imagination much stronger than any visual image.” (pg. 263) Thus, they used the added sound in the background because not only her facial expressions could tie you in to the feelings she was feeling, thus they added the sound to trigger the feeling of the viewer as well. The book would describe these musical sound clips as “building dramatic tension” (pg.295)

I found the movie to be very intense and somewhat believable. Roy was a smart man even though his character wouldn’t suggest so. He loved his family to death and used his wit to keep them alive. I was emotionally attached to the movie throughout the entire time, and curious as to what would happen next. One thing that I found to be very interesting when watching it was the characters facial expressions throughout. During a lot of the movie there are often times of no talking but you can always tell what is going on with the characters by looking at their facials. From the dead bodies floating in the river to Robby’s facials when the gun shots go off when they are sitting in the diner after getting their car taken away, to Robby and Roy reuniting, you can always tell how they are feeling. I would definitely recommend this movie for a well developed movie full of suspense and action.


Boggs, Joseph, & Petrie, Dennis. (2008). The Art of watching films. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill College.