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A ministry of the ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry) A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry. www.capalert.com/ Entertainment Media Analysis Report A service to His little ones through you in His name by His Word MAR25049  (2005), PG-13 [R-13*] (1hr 49min) The #1 Christian entertainment media analysis service on the Internet. We give you OBJECTIVE tools NO ONE ELSE CAN to help YOU make an informed decision for yourself whether a film is fit for your family. Over 1000 analyses for parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more. |
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(This section may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database Production (US): Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Amblin Entertainment, Cruise/Wagner Productions Distribution (US): Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG Director(s): Steven Spielberg Producer(s): Kathleen Kennedy, Paula Wagner, Colin Wilson Novel: H.G. Wells Screenplay: Josh Friedman, David Koepp Cinematography/Camera: Janusz Kaminski Music: John Williams Film Editing: Michael Kahn Casting: Terri Taylor, Debra Zane Production Design: Rick Carter Art Direction: Tony Fanning, Andrew Menzies, Edward Pisoni, Tom Warren Viewed At: Driftwood Theater 6 I was invited to and was able to attend a local screening of War of the Worlds (2005) late night Tuesday, June 28, 2005, the night before the first showing. I was also able to complete the scoring calculations early AM of opening day. Since I was able to get the scoring calculations completed early AM of June 29, folks who have joined our private distribution email list received the scoring data for this film at 2:55 AM the morning of the opening day, plenty of time before the first showing. Barring delays such as happened with this report, early information is possible for several of the films we analyze. If you join our private distribution list you may occasionally receive early information, too. But due to numerous higher priority action items (taking our foster daughter whom we will be adopting [adoption number eight] to her cardiologist and a plethora of foster/adoptive parenting and licensing matters) I was not able to prepare this Summary/Commentary nor the web page until today, July 3, a five-day delay. Since War of the Worlds is four days old already it may be useless to continue. But I am going to anyway. The bottom line is that until this ministry can provide enough operating expenses and salary that my wife can quit her job to be the one to stay home with the nine kids (seven adopted kids, one foster daughter soon to be adopted and another foster daughter), this ministry takes a back seat. Until full funding is available for operation of the CAP ministry, delays such as this are inevitable (and many analyses missed altogether). [I'll get to War of the Worlds in a minute or two.]
The ChildCare Action Project (CAP) Ministry is authorized by the Internal Revenue Service to receive public support per section 501(c)(3), ID: 75-2607488). Again, if full funding becomes available long-term, full-package early information on nearly all new release films will be available. On to War of the Worlds. There are a few things the same between The War of the Worlds (1953) and War of the Worlds (2005). First, they both use the same title except for "The." Second, both are based on the novel by H. G. Wells. Third, the main character in this 2005 version, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) chops at an alien probe tentacle as it snoops a wrecked house as Dr. Forester (Gene Barry) did in the 1953 version, but Ferrier does not chop the head of it off as Forester did. Also, "...in God's infinite wisdom" is used in the narration for both and for the same reason. One more. The same critter that saved mankind from the aliens in the 2005 version saved us in the 1953 version. Above is about all that was the same between the two versions. The level of extremes in the 2005 version was magnitudes more "severe" than the 1953 version. As noted in the comparative of the two films shown below, the content, though magnificent and awesome from an artful and technological perspective, showed the same contempt for wholesome values and moral standards as any other modern R-13.  Quite a change from the original. Quite a change for sure. Another sign of the times it is when that which is is more bold than ever is "honored among men." [Ps. 12:8] Indeed. we have become so drugged by the narcotics of extremes that what once was morally unacceptable has become morally invisible. The sage and seasoned Morgan Freeman provides narration of the introduction explaining how aliens have had their eyes on the Earth for a long time and are just now beginning their assault. For a long time indeed. Perhaps a million years (according to the script). Too bad mankind as we know it was not here to see it, figuratively speaking of course. In the 1953 version, the aliens (from Mars) were trying to exterminate humans so they could take over our planet. In this 2005 version, aliens are here, from where was not told, to harvest human blood for food like mosquitoes. Only these mosquitoes are assault machines about 100 feet tall with three legs, not six. The aliens themselves are about three feet tall but indeed do have a bug-like appearance. Thanks to vastly improved technology, we get to see more of the aliens in this 2005 version than the 1953 version. The beginning of the film brings the aliens to Newark, NJ ... and hundreds of other earthly locations. After dockworker Ray's ex-wife Mary Anne (Miranda Otto) with fancy new hubby in tow drops off the Ferrier kids, young teen with an attitude Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and preteen with an age-appropriately smaller attitude Rachel (Dakota Fanning), things begin to fall apart. Literally. In some of the most visually astounding and ear-piercing gargantuan and even godzillian Olympian cinematography I have ever seen, the aliens who arrived in lightning bolts bring up from the depths of the Earth their attack tripods left here a long, long time ago from a galaxy far, far away. Anything in the way is pulverized with such attention to cinematic detail as might not have been seen before. Let me sermonize for a few moments. About Robbie's attitude. It seems the only thing the young teen boy knows how to do is show disrespect toward and defiance of his father. The film was rife with teen and preteen arrogance at their father as he fought to keep them from harm's way. All arrogance by the children toward their father was justified, of course, by their parents being divorced and how the step father was so much nicer because he gave them anything they wanted. This dissonance is sort of like the father giving the kids meat-n-veggies while the stepfather gave them cake-n-ice cream. However "justified" by the story the arrogance and disrespect might be, it is wrong to be hateful to parents and they to their kids. The emboldenment to emulate such behavior created by no consequences suggests an air of acceptability of arrogance and disrespect toward fair authority. More often than desirable, your words explaining the unacceptability of arrogant and disrespectful behavior will mean little to nothing when the 20 x 60 foot character on screen is so successful at disrespect and defiance with no palpable consequences. Your kids will pick it up. Easily. Whether they act on it is a different matter, but whether they act on it the behavioral template is planted. And with the appropriate provocation, whether from you or an exo-familial source, the little straight pins of attitude will resurface. [Eph. 6:1 - 3, Eph. 6:4, Col. 3:20] A note about using aberrant behavior in and as entertainment as a contrast teaching tool. Too often using misbehavior in and as entertainment to teach about the evils of misbehavior teaches more how not to behave than how to behave. Instead of teaching them "how-not-to", using misbehavior in and as entertainment to teach may teach them "how-to-not." By the way, there was not one shred of progeny arrogance against parental authority in the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds. Why, then, is there so much of it in this 2005 version? Sort of has something to say about modern entertainment, doesn't it. Back to the film. A subplot that might not be picked up and may even be ignored by your kids in favor of the emboldenment-inducing displays of "kiss-off" by a teen to his father, Ray becomes more of a father than ever under the crushing dangers looming in or launching every minute. Once above the ground and fully functional, the alien tripods commence their massive destruction and carnage. Indiscriminately the aliens murder massive numbers of humans as they march through cities and countrysides all over the Earth. There is an odd point in the plot. If the aliens are here to harvest humans for food, why do the aliens disintegrate so many of us? Well, there's no accounting for logic. The "ray gun" weapons the aliens use literally explode the victim, evaporating much of the victim's body then casting body pieces and parts about like slabs of rotten meat. The tripods also gather humans by prehensile tentacles and pull them up to the tripod body. In one scene, clothes fell to the Earth like rain. Ray and kids are the focal point in this latest installment of extreme sci-fi mayhem. Stealing a van, Ray transports his kids and himself away from the aliens and their lust for human blood. Ray's goal is to get the kids back to their mother in Boston. But everywhere Ray goes, the aliens are there ... or soon get there. The frenzied appearance that comes from the use of a hand-held camera gives this film a chaotic and terror sense befitting the carnage and mayhem it portrays. One of the scenes truly worthy of the R-13 was Rachel watching hundreds of dead bodies float down a river. Even the filmmakers, in this case, recognized the inappropriateness of exposing children to such imagery and had Ray shield Rachel's vision from the sight but only too late to be useful. Repeatedly, Ray protected Rachel from sights he felt were potentially damaging to youth. The dead bodies in the river was one. The imagery of a downed 747 was another. The 1953 version presented not even one use of the three four letter word vocabulary nor even one use of God's name in vain with or without the four letter expletive. The 2005 version can't boast that. While War of the Worlds (2005) is void of any sexually-oriented material except for Robbie using an anatomical reference [Eph. 5:4], and while there was only one instance each of booze and drinking [Eph. 5:18], four of the six CAP investigation areas {Wanton Violence/Crime (W), Impudence/Hate (I), Offense to God (O) and Murder/Suicide (M)} each found content equivalent to many R-rated films. Each of three of those four investigation areas (W, I and M) found programming severe enough to earn a zero out of 100 score. The fourth of those four, Offense to God, revealed programming severe enough to earn a score of five out of 100. R-rated films in the comparative baseline database earned scores of 54 and below out of 100. While War of the Worlds (2005) is G-equivalent in Sexual Immorality and Drugs/Alcohol, it is equivalent to R-rated films in each of the remaining four investigation areas discussed below. The Influence Density score of 1.97 further corroborates the "R-ness" of this film since R-rated movies in the comparative baseline database earned influence density scores of 0.86 to 2.04 (the higher the figure the more "R" the film). I would say 1.97 fits right in there. The content found by the Wanton Violence/Crime and Murder/Suicide investigation areas has already been discussed to some detail. The content found by the Impudence/Hate investigation area consisted mostly of the arrogance and rebellion by progeny toward their father and a plethora of uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary [Col. 3:8]. The Offense to God investigation area found several uses of God's name in vain both with and without the four letter expletive [Deut 5:11], some of them by adolescents which invokes Luke 17:2. There were so many murders by the aliens that a cheapened sense of the precious worth of life itself may be invoked in the observer. If you suddenly realize after viewing this film it would be easier to kill anything, practice Phil. 4:8. Maybe we should all practice Phil. 4:8 anyway. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. CHAPTER/VERSE ***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry*** As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
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(The heart of the CAP Analysis Model)  Wanton Violence/Crime (W) Impudence/Hate (I) Sexual Immorality (S) Drugs/Alcohol (D): Offense to God (O) Murder/Suicide (M) |
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| There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our more than eight years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
| In the name of Jesus: Lord, Master, Teacher, Savior, God. Tom Carder President ChildCare Action Project (CAP): Christian Analysis of American Culture 100% dependent on your tax-deductible financial support |  |
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