'War of the Worlds' Alien Denial Premise~

[alz0rz]

I'm sure many of you have seen or know about the recent remake of 'War of the Worlds'. If you know about this then you should know that it was insipired by a previous movie by HG Wells which was based of a radio broadcast that was intended as a good play act but people thought aliens were actually invading Earth. So basically I was reading a site about the original radio broadcast back in 1938 and stumbled on a interesting point.

" On October 30th, 1938, the United States experienced mass hysteria--most pronounced on the east coast in New York and New Jersey--in response to a radio broadcast put on by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater On The Air. The public reaction has prompted decades of research into mass hysteria, been used as a model by the military around the world to design information warfare against enemy troops and civilian populace, and used as the most compelling reason to protect the public from the knowledge of the presence of aliens on Earth."

So .. do you guys think this is still a part of the government/military now? Could this premise be the reason that if they knew anything about anything now they can put this before anything and say the world isn't ready to know as is seen in Stargate? Mass hysteria... etc. I personally think it's a silly premise for the newer generation which is in tune with this type of stuff, with science fiction available more vividly rather than the older generation. I think if the world were to find out about the existence of something other worldy - I believe that we may be able to handle it, I'm not saying there will be those people who will panic by just the thought of it.

So.. what do you think This isnt a consipiracy thread or anything!!! Its just something interesting that a silly radio broadcast may be keeping something from being told to us!!!! :d comment as needed!

//alz0rz

[Macharius0]

I'm sure many of you have seen or know about the recent remake of 'War of the Worlds'. If you know about this then you should know that it was insipired by a previous movie by HG Wells which was based of a radio broadcast that was intended as a good play act but people thought aliens were actually invading Earth. So basically I was reading a site about the original radio broadcast back in 1938 and stumbled on a interesting point.

" On October 30th, 1938, the United States experienced mass hysteria--most pronounced on the east coast in New York and New Jersey--in response to a radio broadcast put on by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater On The Air. The public reaction has prompted decades of research into mass hysteria, been used as a model by the military around the world to design information warfare against enemy troops and civilian populace, and used as the most compelling reason to protect the public from the knowledge of the presence of aliens on Earth."

So .. do you guys think this is still a part of the government/military now? Could this premise be the reason that if they knew anything about anything now they can put this before anything and say the world isn't ready to know as is seen in Stargate? Mass hysteria... etc. I personally think it's a silly premise for the newer generation which is in tune with this type of stuff, with science fiction available more vividly rather than the older generation. I think if the world were to find out about the existence of something other worldy - I believe that we may be able to handle it, I'm not saying there will be those people who will panic by just the thought of it.

So.. what do you think This isnt a consipiracy thread or anything!!! Its just something interesting that a silly radio broadcast may be keeping something from being told to us!!!! :d comment as needed!

//alz0rz

If that's the case, the military grossly overreacted. I think a lot of the panic was due to the current political situation. WWII was on the horizon, and anything was quite literally capable of happening in the minds of many. Many people were on the brink of panic already.

Nowadays things are different, I think by supressing such information, the only possible result would be global massed panic should the crap ever hit the fan, imagination is one thing, to realize it is something else entirely. The government should be upfront with this sort of information. Suddenly finding out such information was buried for 60+ years as some alien race is mopping the floor with us would be less than an ideal situation. Many people would respond with extreme anger and quite possible hamper any sort of resistance or reconstruction.

Just as a friendly historical sidenote. The recent "War of the Worlds" remake by Steven Spielberg, was actually inspired by the novel H.G. Wells first published in 1898. The radio address was broadcast on Oct. 31, 1938 by CBS' "Mercury Theatre" and featured Orson Welles. Later a feature film was released in 1953 that starred Gene Barry and Anne Robinson, (who both appeared in the recent Spielberg remake that contained elements from both the novel and film). Additionally, a film adaptation was released by Pendragon pictures recently, in line with H.G. Wells original novel that started it all.

[Matt G]

If that's the case, the military grossly overreacted. I think a lot of the panic was due to the current political situation. WWII was on the horizon, and anything was quite literally capable of happening in the minds of many. Many people were on the brink of panic already.

Nowadays things are different, I think by supressing such information, the only possible result would be global massed panic should the crap ever hit the fan, imagination is one thing, to realize it is something else entirely. The government should be upfront with this sort of information. Suddenly finding out such information was buried for 60+ years as some alien race is mopping the floor with us would be less than an ideal situation. Many people would respond with extreme anger and quite possible hamper any sort of resistance or reconstruction.

Just as a friendly historical sidenote. The recent "War of the Worlds" remake by Steven Spielberg, was actually inspired by the novel H.G. Wells first published in 1898. The radio address was broadcast on Oct. 31, 1938 by CBS' "Mercury Theatre" and featured Orson Welles. Later a feature film was released in 1953 that starred Gene Barry and Anne Robinson, (who both appeared in the recent Spielberg remake that contained elements from both the novel and film). Additionally, a film adaptation was released by Pendragon pictures recently, in line with H.G. Wells original novel that started it all.

How widespread is the distribution of the Pendragon fillm and more importantly - does it include the original themetune?

[Macharius0]

How widespread is the distribution of the Pendragon fillm and more importantly - does it include the original themetune?

I haven't much of a clue really. The film was released only about three weeks ago for DVD and video. This link might be of some assistance. http://www.pendragonpictures.com/WOTWKEY.html

[Mr Prophet]

How widespread is the distribution of the Pendragon fillm and more importantly - does it include the original themetune?

What do you mean by 'original' here? The theme tune of the book, the theme tune of the 1953 movie or the main theme of the Jeff Wayne concept album?

...

Or the theme tune of the TV series that spun-off from the 1953 movie forty years later and blew beyond all other variants and owed rather less to Wells than to The Invaders?

But on the topic in hand, the panic following the radio broadcast was exaggerated because it made a good story. People freaked, but not on such a huge scale and most of the good pictures were posed for the papers the next day.

Nevertheless, I'm sure that there is a policy - for most governments - in existence of denying disaster. Panic is very dangerous and if you had a false alarm, you'd end up with massive death and destruction to no real end.

I can't point to specific cases of alien denial policy, but on the general principle, think of 'duck and cover'. When there was a serious fear of nuclear war, what did the US Gov'mint tell people to do?

DUCK AND COVER!

Get under a table and you'll be fine. Really. A similar British policy inspired the bleakly comic masterpiece, When the Wind Blows.

[Matt G]

It's called 'Eve of the War'. I can't believe you don't know what I'm talking about!

http://www.smokecds.com/play/178081(excerpt of a remix)

[Mr Prophet]

It's called 'Eve of the War'. I can't believe you don't know what I'm talking about!

http://www.smokecds.com/play/178081(excerpt of a remix)

Clearly, I do, since that is the first track of the Jeff Wayne prog-rock concept album, snappily entitled: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of H.G.Wells' War of the Worlds; just trips off the tongue. Fantastic stuff, although presumably sans Richard Burton in this case. On the other hand, since it post-dates the 1953 movie, it can hardly be called 'original'.

Since this is the theme of a concept album, however, rights issues would probably make it difficult to use for any movie project. I mean, no doubt the Spielberg machine could have afforded them, but not a small, independent film-maker.

[Matt G]

That WAS just a remix Mr P. The first time I came accross the track was when it was in the charts in the early 90s. I believe the artist responsible was U96. Have I been able to track down a full mp3 anywhere? Have I frack!

[Darth Buddha]

The current generation is in tune with this sort of thing?

I find that difficult to believe when many folks don't understand why evolution is a scientific theory and creation "science" is a dogmatic creed that is neither science nor even theory.

If aliens were announced, there would be doomsday cults claiming it was the end, cults claiming they were here to save us, massive disruption in investment circles, in the economy in general...

No, I don't think this generation could handle it at all.

[alz0rz]

Bump, because I finally remember my GW password from 5 years ago ;/