Movies like War of the WOrlds-

[cyndy9w]

I just saw War of the Worlds. Who knew that used to be a book?



I have a few beefs with this movie.

In this movie, there are many scenes where human beings are fighting for their lives and abandoning reason. There is a scene where the boy (Tom Cruise's son) abandons his family in order to see this incredible, unearthly scene of the humans fighting the demolition of the "tripods". Although his father begs and pleads, he abandons all reason, and without an explanation, runs off to see the fight. This is the same thing as people flocking to movie theaters, eager to taste something they've never seen before. A fanatic light is in their eyes- everyone wants to see a new movie, a movie that's more extreme than ever before. Everyone wants to go further- Eve wants to taste of knowledge that she's never known. I'm not sure if it was intended by the film makers. If this WAS intended by the film makers, when they put in the scene where the son, they KNOW this is an evil message.

This movie was another step towards the immuninization of America to death. The movie undermined human dignity. I was raised not being allowed to watch pretty much anything on TV, and I've always been really surprised, and sometimes embarrassed, by how frightened I get watching almost any horror or war movies. Everyone around me seems able to take it. Tonight, watching the movie, I was a little scared, and I was disheartened after I watched it- I now realize this is because I felt myself being hardened to human dignity. In the movie, the "tripods" ingest humans, smell of elderberries their blood, and then fertilize the earth with the blood. Sound ridiculous? It IS ridiculous. But these fantasies ARE fantastic- they are not meant to be entertained. There is EVERYTHING wrong, my friends, with WILLINGLY watching horrific scenes. What mother or father willingly lets their child watch scenes like that? There are many other scenes where Tom Cruise asks his daughter not to look around her so she won't be exposed to these terrible images. Isn't it fitting? Isn't it obvious, that even without intending it, Hollywood is sending us the message that our Heavenly Father does not intend for us to waste our time creating these horrible images that harden us to death?

Letting ourselves watch movies like this is the next step towards the hardening of the American people to life. Frankly, we live in a society of death. Our society becomes one of death when people think it is acceptable to sin. It's a society of death when people think that the mortal sin (basically the death of the soul) of fornication is justified. We've taken a huge step towards a culture of death when we are so hardened that our judicial system supports the ripping of an innocent child from the womb. Now we are taking another step in the wrong direction by letting our minds, FORMED so that we can one day be in perfect love with our creator, be ruthlessly POLLUTED by Satan's propoganda that supports death.

A few other things. To me, this movie is especially disgusting because there are not any of the normal moral corruptions in it. There is no sexual intercourse- there isn't a lot of swearing. This is the kind of movie that sneaks into good households because the makers of the movie and those that are trying to carry out it's mission are TACTFUL enough not to use the devices of spreading amoral attitudes that are commonly recognized. When (if) your parents ask you what movie you're planning on seeing so they can approve, they may ask you if there is swearing or nudity. But how many of them ask you if the movie upholds the idea of inherent dignity of the human being?

This movie is ALSO God-less. Here is basically the end of the world happening, adn there is NOTHING in the movie about God. What a crime. There is not a single prayer uttered by anyone in the movie. The closest thing was a woman screaming "Jesus Christ"- saying His sacred name in vain. What a terrible, terrible projection of how the world may end. I REFUSE to believe, and I sincerely HOPE that you join me in this belief, that the end of the world will be Godless. There will be people praying. Do not let this movie, or anything else, discourage you from being enthusiastic about joining your brothers and sisters in prayer in a time of need.

There is also another thing seriously wrong with this movie. It focuses on Tom Cruise's family and the masses of human people as a whole. There are only two view points. The view point where there are hundreds of people running and shrieking, being zapped and tazed left and right, fighting eachother, abandoning all hope, responding to what the movie defines as "instinctive human behavior", and the viewpoint of Tom Cruise's family. What idea does this project? EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. <i>WRONG</i>. wrong, wrong, wrong.


Do NOT go see this movie. That is my advice to you. I plan to follow up on this idea. I havent' had time to let the thought stew around in my head for a while. When I do, I'm sure I'll have a million more things to say, so I'll post them if you want to read.

I'm enraged that I let myself see this. But at least I've come out of it with the understanding that I should not have seen it.




Everyone: Glory to God that there are places like phatmass. The rate of moral decay has been signigicantly sped up in our age of techonology, that allows information to exchange at a more rapid rate than ever before. For TOO long have bad ideas been besetting everyone who looks on TV or on the internet.

It is time! It is time that we, the people of morality, caught up with this propoganda that the devil is preaching. We need to combine forces- push the gospels and social justice of our Lord and Savior through every nook we can find in this world. Our youth is amazing- there is a resurgence. We need to use the internet as a tool for evangelization. That is my solemn prayer. This is our calling, especially us, phatmassers. It's time- we're in a battle. LEt's assemble our troops and go in for the strategic battle- clothing ourselves with the weapons of the Holy Spirit.

[Paladin D]

Though the film is a little off from the novel on some things, H.G. Wells did describe some horrific scenes in the book (I've read it). The film was merely emphasising H.G. Wells' work.

I liked the film, it goes to prove that aliens invading earth isn't "cool", it's horrorific and gruesome.

[reelguy227]

Isnt it just a movie ,what do you expect ,hollywood is full of libs and libs dont like Christ ,plain and simple . I wouldnt take it so seriously,but thats my opinion.

[Paladin D]

Just want to add, I do not advocate gruesome films, but War of the Worlds is *far* from what many other films are out there (Blade 2 anyone?). It is sad that such voilence even exists. Before films were made, voilent and horrorifically detailed works were written in literature and in books. Look at Dante's [b]"A Divine Comedy"[/b].


[b]EDIT:[/b] This film got a [b]PG-13[/b] for [b][i]Frightening sequences of Sci-Fi violence and disturbing images.[/b][/i] I was suprised to see parents were taking their 6 years olds to this film. It's unfortunate that many do not look at the ratings nor the short explanation for the rating that is on every film poster and trailer! It's the same argument with parents and violent video games, they don't [b]READ THE LABEL, SO THEY BUY THEIR 10 YEAR OLD A RATED MATURE GAME![/b] What do we need to do next? It's the parents fault for not looking at the rating on the product nor the very brief description under the rating.

Edited July 9, 2005 by Paladin D

[Guest Eremite]

*Without referencing any movie in particular, my thoughts:

Movies, like any other artform, must reflect reality. We can't expect every movie to be pollyanna, because life is far from pollyana. I heard Barbara Nicolosi (a Catholic lady who works in Hollywood) quip once on EWTN that we first have to take sin and death out of the bible before we can take it out of movies.

Now, there is a tasteful way to reflect sin and death, and an untasteful way. A lot of movies are a mixed bag in that regard. On the other hand, a lot of movies have no purpose, artistic or moral. They just exist to push things like sin and death.

The task for Christian movie goers is to discern wisely and hold fast to what is good. We have to support films that more or less reflect beauty and truth, even if not perfectly. Otherwise, Hollywood won't make them.

Consider Flannery O'Connor, a devoutly orthodox Catholic who wrote very real (and sometime macabre) stories. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a pretty violent story. But the meaning behind it is profound.

[quote]"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." [/quote]

[yiannii]

I want to watch the movie but I won't because Tom Cruise is in it...LOL

[cyndy9w]

Eremite: you're right. There is a tasteful way to depict death, and a distasteful way. I'm certainly not for taking all death out of films. It's just that this film is so gruesomly full of it (though it's not the worst I've seen), that it becomes ridiculous.

I stick to my point- watching films like this hardens people's opinions of human dignity.

I like Flannery O' Connor. You're right- he's known for his grisly characters and depressing faults. But there IS always a profound message behind what he is saying, and in at least the stories I've read by him there is an obvious moral force oppossing the immoral ones.

I'm just sick of seeing Godless movies like this. I know, I know, you're going to tell me "it's just Hollywood, it's always been that way". Well I believe it gets significantly worse, and I have a few things to say about it. The other day my friend said to me "the Devil's greatest triumphs come out of silence". I don't plan to keep my mouth shut, from now on, about the things I see that are startlingly immoral in movies. Okay, I'm done.

[God Conquers]

War of the Worlds had the worst ending in Movie History.

Spielberg is a chump.

[Quietfire]

I grew up in a household that, for the most part, refused to allow horror movies to be shown.

There were the few exceptions, but even then, a parent was always there, and I still checked under my bed and my closet before turning in.

Im having a really hard time dealing with Tom Cruise anymore, or anyone who believes we were planted here by aliens.



Run Katie, RUN!!!!!!

[Cathurian]

If this movie and others that were similar did not edify you -- don't watch it. Spread the word about why, too. I think you have a very valid point, but I would also like to share why I came out of that movie feeling edified.

What I noticed most of all is how sudden and worldwide this was. One day, and giant alien robots just pop out and zap people. That's the end of a lot of lives, who were probably expecting to live a lot, lot longer -- and for me, this movie illustrated, in the way that mere words just don't, what it would be like if the end of the world were in 30 minutes. Not with aliens of course, but with sudden loss. Are we ready? Are we watching? I got a profound reminder of my own mortality. Like when Rachel showed her 3rd place ribbon; didn't that seem incredibly pointless? In the end none of that is going to matter.

About Robbie -- maybe I just interpreted this wrong, but from his comments, I thought the reason he went with the military was to FIGHT with them, not just watch. I was thinking during that scene, "Gee, even though Robbie did what I believe to be the most honorable thing anyone who was ALONE could have done -- going to fight -- he had a family who was concerned about him, and that changes everything. Obedience to our parents is important." Then Robby gets, apparently, blown up. "Oh, see. This is what happens when we don't listen. Robby thought he was doing right, but that was wrong." And then the movie goes on to show Ray and Rachel's grief about Robbie, and all that could have been avoided if Robbie didn't run off. Even for a noble reason. I think the movie did well, in that it showed only negative consequences to Robbie's action. It could have easily shown instead Robbie dying heroically, and everyone else dying screaming. That would have been an anti-family message, but I think the movie showed a very pro-family message, not only in this part, but in Ray's care for Rachel, and the whole idea that they are going to Boston because that's where Mom is. No other reason but family.

Also, I disagree with the "every man for himself" idea -- this was shown to bring only violence and more people dying. When the guy (was it Robbie? Can't remember) was pulling people off the ramp and into the boat, this was met with a smile and some brief "nice" music. Helping people was shown as good here. And let's not forget how they took down a whole alien robot just by pulling on that one guy and not giving up. If that's not promoting love for one another, I don't know what is. Apparently, trying to save other people, however fruitless it may seem, will kill the robots! That was a big deal.

The one thing that bothered me was that when Ray killed that other guy it seemed excused under "ends justify the means". That was stupid. Murder is not justified, ever.

However, I walked out of the theater feeling very edified and reminded of how short life really is, and that it could end at any moment, and when it comes, will we have the courage to act as we should? Will we obey our family, will we not murder, will we help others? And I think the movie, overall, did a good job of showing the consequences of our actions.

[IcePrincessKRS]

[quote name='cyndy9w' date='Jul 9 2005, 11:22 AM']
I like Flannery O' Connor. You're right- he's known for his grisly characters and depressing faults. But there IS always a profound message behind what he is saying, and in at least the stories I've read by him there is an obvious moral force oppossing the immoral ones.
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[/quote]

Just a side note, Flannery O'Connor isn't a "HE" She's a SHE.

[cyndy9w]

oh she's a girl- silly me!

[dairygirl4u2c]

we should
boycott the movie..
send letters to the editor..
send letters to the producers and actors etc..
who's in?

[Ellenita]

[quote]I just saw War of the Worlds. Who knew that used to be a book?[/quote]

War of the Worlds by H.G.Wells is a 'classic' book which we had to study as part of English literature in the UK at one time.......

You need to remember the time it was written - it influenced the sense of dispair and impending doom in the book.

The film is the Hollywood version and not entirely truthful to the book.

[Socrates]

Oh no! :bugeyes: This is terrible! Now kids everywhere are going to want to build Martian tripods that ingest humans!