Anyone who knows me knows that I like classic Sci-fi, and that I dabble around with video. In my case the video is all very basic stuff and nearly all is centered around promoting our foster dogs so they have a better chance of finding a forever home.
Today I came across this video. Using World War I archival footage, some CGI, and reenactment footage, this short film shows what a Martian War of the Worlds would have looked like in 1914. It’s very well done.
Great martian war from PLAZMA on Vimeo.
I have several versions of The War of the Worlds on DVD:
- The original Paramount version set in the 1950s with the manta shaped flying machines and staring Gene Barry. Having read the book many times this version and it’s flying machines was a disappointment.
- The modern version staring Tom Cruise. Better but still not very faithful to the book.
- A 2005 Pendragon version set at the turn of the century (19th-20th) and staring Anthony Piana which uses jerky, stop action photography for the martian walking machines. The movie is long (180 minutes) and the acting is not the best, but I feel this one is most faithful to H.G Wells’s original manuscript.
Because I am such a fan of this book and the various movie take-offs, I very much enjoyed PLAZMA’s steampunk version, even though it’s just a few minutes long I hope you will too. If you do, the project has a web site at The Great Martian War, where more video clips and lots of photographs as well as info about the (fake) documentary they are working on are available. (NOTE: this web page was hosted by The History Channel and has since been taken down. I can find no replacement “home” for them.
