BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 05:35 AM

They adapted their tactics to deal with hidden gun batteries.
They must surely have had wars on Mars to learn strategy.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 05:58 AM

..depends on the quality of their defeated foes...

Or if they were f@scist martians who enjoyed a brutal quick easy sneaky coup over civilian populations...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 12:45 PM

I love this!!

The novel is fiction and here are the devoted readers
discussing whether it's for real or not!

Guess that puts me out
since I can't get all worked up about the manoeuvres/maneuvers or what have you.
The character development would hold my attention longer.

As Sidney Carter sang,
Good literature!
We think a lot of it
Look at our bookshelves
See how much we've got of it
But when it comes to reading
We can only take a spot of it --
We're Waiting For The Film To Come!

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 12:51 PM

"The Martians took a risk landing in populated areas.
In a remote spot they could have assembled the heat ray weapon before any armed response could arrive."

Very good point, Keith! You are quite correct. Their best bet would have been to make their landings in a remote area, as you say, where they'd have time to assemble their fighting machines without human interference.

It would not, however, have made for such a dramatic story line.

The various tactical adjustments the Martians made were interesting. At first they were potentially at a distinct disadvantage, depending on how fast the humans reacted, because the heavier gravity made it difficult for them to move around effectively...until their fighting machines were assembled. That appears to have taken them perhaps 10 or 12 hours of work.

They then discovered that the humans' artillery guns *could* destroy a Martian machine if they scored a hit in the right place (the hood which contained the operator). It wasn't easily done, but it could happen, so hidden artillery guns became a problem for the Martians, and they temporarily retreated back to their base, where they came up with a solution to nullify the hidden guns.

And so on...

Really quite interesting how they adapated quickly to each challenge as it came along. The British Army tried hard to do the same thing, but was simply outclassed by superior Martian technology.

In the long run, however, I suspect the humans could have made things very difficult for the Martian occupiers through guerrilla tactics rather than direct, open warfare. There weren't very many Martians in the landing force...perhaps 100 individuals at the most (if each cylinder contained 10 occupants) and they were vulnerable to weapons, just as we humans are, so I think that the Earthlings would have eventually found ways to make their occupation untenable, killing them off individually one way or another with explosives and all manner of other weapons. The Martians would never have felt safe in a world containing literally millions of people willing to devote themselves to killing just one Martian, any way they could manage it.

Their best bet in such a case would have been to strike a deal with *some* of the humans, getting them to fight the other humans, in return for getting a comfy place in the New Order, Martian style! And that is exactly what colonial powers always do to subdue a Native population. They hire some of the Natives to police and control the others! (Wells even touched on this hypothetical notion briefly at one place in his story...)

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 04 Sep 18 - 10:24 AM

The novel is fiction and here are the devoted readers
discussing whether it's for real or not!

Some images here of a Martian tripod in Woking centre.

http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2008/08/war-of-the-worlds-hits-woking.html

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 04 Sep 18 - 10:30 AM

Anyone who has done O level English Literature has been forced to discuss fiction as if it is real. It really, really frustrated me. What were so and so's feelings about something? "Its a book, its not real!!!" I suppose that was one of the reasons I failed.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 04 Sep 18 - 10:37 AM

..what.... martians didn't invade England, then later the USA...???

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 18 - 04:32 PM

Did I provide this link before? If I didn't, here's another try.

"Filming has begun in Liverpool"

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 18 - 04:48 PM

Caveat Emptor on the next one.
This little (ninety-second?) video is a preview
of the entirety of the new filmed-for-television
programmes from the BBC. They are all short snippets.

I wonder if I don't recognize Robert Carlyle at about 00:08
in the preview, in period dress.
Definitely recognize
Rafe Spell and Eleanor Tomlinson at about 00:22 in the preview.
Also around 1:14 - 1:15.

promotional BBC video

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 18 - 04:51 PM

And then, there's this:

Northwich: The George and Dragon at Great Budworth

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 12:46 PM

Why not discuss fiction as if it's real, David Carter? Sounds to me like you were suffering from a lack of imagination.

Fiction is written to further illuminate our understanding OF real life. That is its main purpose. And that is what well written fiction does, it deepens our awareness and understanding of life.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 01:28 PM

Thats not real life. Science and mathematics are real life.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 01:43 PM

sweat, shit, blood, and semen is real 'real life'...

the stuff of great poetry, songs and literature...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 04:42 PM

David, you seriously need to get out more!

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 07:05 PM

Everything we directly experience is real life, David, and you cannot get hold of, measure, quantify or experience ALL of it using science. A good deal of it, yes. But not anywhere near all of it. That is the part you are apparently missing about real life.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 04:19 AM

I get out plenty Keith. But I don't have time to speculate on what fictional characters, or even worse fictional representations of real characters, might have thought, felt, said, dreamt or eaten, when the authors of said fiction didn't write it down, and are now too dead to ask.

Little Hawk, therein lies the problem. Stuff in a book of fiction is not experienced, it is made up. It is nothing to do with real life. It may be entertainment, but it isn't real life.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 06:35 AM

So should we stop wasting kids' time by introducing them to drama and literature?

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 08:13 AM

Introducing them to it is fine. But as an extracurricular activity, much as sports are. Examining them on it I do think is a waste of time.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 08:57 AM

David Carter (UK) - oh well...

at least men with your kind of attitudes are making sufficient progress
to now accept that it's practicable
to allow women to learn to read and write...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 10:58 AM

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 03:47 PM

What on earth are you on about pfr? Of course its practicable for women to read and write, when have I ever said otherwise. Many great scientists and historians are and were women. And they communicated their discoveries in writing. I honestly havn't a clue what point you think you are making.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 05:06 PM

David Carter (UK) - "I honestly havn't a clue what point you think you are making."

If that's not proof of the need for, and importance of, literary analysis and imaginative creative arts in education...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 05:36 PM

No,its a proof of your need to state clearly, precisely and unambiguously what point you think you are making. The English language should suffice for you to be able to do this. No maths required.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 07:47 PM

David Carter (UK) - you want a sharper point - ok...

You are presenting yourself as an opinionated pompous pedantic philistine
with limited imagination...

The Education system and wider culture of our nation would suffer imensley
if only men like you were in fuller control.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 07:53 PM

"immensely"...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 02:13 AM

I am not suggesting that people should not be encouraged to read literature, just that the system of examining pupils on things which are not there is flawed. People should be encouraged to read literature as they are encourages to participate in sport and listen to music. But in your post I am worried by the phrase "wider culture of our nation". Culture is universal and people should be encouraged to appreciate it all. Its not a national thing, that kind of thinking has got us in the mess we are in at present.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 06:43 AM

what...!!!???

You also seem to take things too literally...???

again, a byproduct of too narrow a focus in outlook...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 08:10 AM

It is very dangerous to refer to universal values as being "of our nation". This is what some of the paperwork for the Prevent programme does. "British Values" indeed. They are all universal values.

Likewise learning about culture is universal, and should not focus on nationality.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 08:30 AM

David Carter (UK) - What are you going off on one about...!!!???

you are going to bonkers extremes, wildly over-extrapolating from a few words
I scribbled very late at night half asleep...


So on a sci fi theme...

Are you a pod person from Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
absorbing data from the brain of your host human,
as you attempt to assimilate and communicate...???

I'd imagine this might be how we real humans would interact with them,
as we try to detect their presence amongst us...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 12:16 PM

This really is quite entertaining, almost as much so as really good fiction!

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 01:51 PM

Were pod people from Invasion of the body snatchers to exist, I would very much like to be one. Though I suspect I would find little to absorb around here. But they don't so I am not. You have taken it too literally.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 02:06 PM

Why would you like to be one of the pod people?

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 02:58 PM

Wasn't their nefarious motivation to install order and hive mentality to the chaos of human individuality...???

[y'know.. the reds under the bed scare subtext of the 1950s original version...]

Long time since I watched it, or any of the remakes...

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 03:12 PM

"install"...???

I obviously meant to type 'impose'...

..is something, some entity, taking over my mind and making me do it's bidding...!!!???

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: robomatic
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 06:08 PM

The pod people totally replaced their targets. Ergo, no more humans. It was a case of extinction not conversion. You might be thinking of "The Puppet Masters."

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 07:13 PM

Actors Rafe Spall and Rupert Graves
play characters who are brothers,
it says in descriptions of the BBC adaptation.

The reports say that some of these characters
were not strictly speaking in H. G. Wells.
Ogilvy is, name and all.

I'll have to go back and look at Wells;
but I believe there are brothers in his plot.
They simply might not have names, in the book.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 07:30 PM

Yes, they were a very crude metaphor for the threat of a Communist takeover in the USA.

Downright hilarious, seen from that point of view, but those were spectacularly paranoid times. I've been to Cuba, which did experience a Communist takeover, and as far as I'm concerned they are far better off than they'd be now if it had not happened...and have not at all lost their human individuality or their spirit.

It was, however, a darned good movie, regardless.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Sep 18 - 02:31 PM

This gallery of still shots doesn't have the big-name actors.
In fact only one photo has actors at all;
the rest of the photos are on-location shots of the scenes.

Photos from on-location shoots for BBC War of the Worlds

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: robomatic
Date: 28 Sep 18 - 03:10 PM

I ran through a big book of H.G. Wells' short stories when I was in high school or shortly thereafter. I found them to be wonderful excursions of the imagination before there were sharply defined terms such as science fiction and fantasy (which have only become more balkanized and minutely defined since). He was truly a seminal thinker of the early twentieth century, with an effect on those who came after him not only in fiction, but also in science and social thought. As effective if not more so than Robert A. Heinlein or Philip K. Dick.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Sep 18 - 03:46 PM

Agreed. To me, he is the most influential of all of them by far.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 06:34 PM

Back in April of this year, it was already disclosed that
Liverpool was one of the shoot locations for the
BBC three-episode mini-series version of
War of the Worlds.

The latest peek to appear on the world wide web shows
is an interior from this Liverpool location:
Sefton Park Palm House. This interior was used for
Ogilvy's observatory, telescope and all.

Ogilvy in his conservatory

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Oct 18 - 02:58 PM

This still photo in Variety magazine features
no aliens, all period atmosphere.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Dec 18 - 08:42 PM

An Australian website made this announcement:
Australia's Foxtel / Fox Showcase
will present BBC One's War of the Worlds sometime in January 2019.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Thompson
Date: 10 Dec 18 - 06:30 AM

Is Little Hawk looking for this splendid 2005 film of War of the Worlds?

Of course the story is parochial. As Patrick Kavanagh wrote:

I have lived in important places, times
When great events were decided : who owned
That half a rood of rock, a no-man's land
Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims.

I heard the Duffys shouting "Damn your soul"
And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
Step the plot defying blue cast-steel -
"Here is the march along these iron stones."

That was the year of the Munich bother. Which
Was most important ? I inclined
To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin
Till Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind.
He said : I made the Iliad from such
A local row. Gods make their own importance.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Dec 18 - 08:00 PM

For what it is worth,

my vigilance continues for news or updates about
BBC One's version of "War of the Worlds."

And in other places -- like YouTube video comment areas --
others are posting online about their impatience
to see the latest version,
and disclosing what they want included from the original book.

"The Thunderchild! They better have the Thunderchild!"

"Why are the soldiers in khaki? Shouldn't they have red coats?"

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Dec 18 - 11:46 PM

I think Khaki is probably correct for the period in which the story is set.

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Dec 18 - 06:44 PM

That's good, Little Hawk/George,
since the photographs and footage I am seeing
is all about the khaki.

There's a behind-the-scenes video at YouTube
of the filming of an action scene, strictly amateur --
should I provide a link?
Or would you rather wait for the real deal?

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Dec 18 - 02:45 PM

If you don't want to see amateur footage of
behind-the-scenes-whilst-shooting,
then don't click on the following links.

Liverpool

Great Budworth, Northwich, Cheshire

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Dec 18 - 10:55 PM

This is from a few years back but I missed it entirely.
Have any of you heard of this?

War Of The Worlds The True Story [fictional docu-drama?]

Subject: RE: BS: War of the Worlds film by the BBC (2018)
From: robomatic
Date: 18 Dec 18 - 04:25 PM

Reminiscent of some sci-fi I have enjoyed: A short story in which Watson narrates how Sherlock Holmes solves an out-of-this-world problem: "The Affair of the Extra-Terresrial" and a book from the 70s "The High Crusade" in which a group of medieval knights commandeer a spaceship and go out to literally conquer new worlds. Might have been by Fritz Lieber. (Going solely on neurons, here).