Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Great Martian War


Great martian war from PLAZMA on Vimeo.

The clips are from a false documentary presented at the 100th anniversary of WWI.

The uploader combined clips of the documentary with music. The various threads I've read, three so far, all dish grief for the choice of music. I like the combination a lot. What do you think?

The idea is combine archival material with special effects. Just as H.G. Wells warned about the horror of mechanized war through his science fiction, The War of The Worlds, the producers wanted to use science fiction to convey the reality WW1. Or something. I read that on their producer's q/a page where we also read:
Whether it is ‘Invasion of The Body Snatchers’ looking at McCarthyite witch hunts and Communist infiltration, ‘Cloverfield’ looking at the events of 9/11 or HG Wells himself using ‘War of The Worlds’ pre WW1 to express his deep and well founded fears of what a great war would be like in the industrial age, sci-fi has always been a powerful means to hold up a mirror to the real world. Even ‘Lord of The Rings’ can be seen as an attempt to fantastically fictionalise the epic, bloody war Tolkien witnessed first hand as an officer on the Western Front.
No wait, what? Invasion of The Body Snatchers was about McCarthyism? I did not know that.

In the documentary they caught one of the Martian machines. The Martian machines come in three types, 300' Herons, 20'spiders, and lice.


This must be a spider. The humans also encounter a highly responsive liquid metal that powers all the machines. The substance appears to be intuitive. Once it is in the possession of humans they realize the tide of the war had changed. 

Obviously the humans survived.

10 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

(1) [S]ci-fi has always been a powerful means to hold up a mirror to the real world.

Wrong turn taken right there.

Unless ankle biting is power worthy of mention.

By that definition, there isn't much that's not powerful.

Useless.

(2) In Boy Scouts they taught us how to use a mirror to send a distress signal.

I seriously doubt that holding up a mirror, especially to the "real world," without more, accomplishes much of anything.

(3) Speaking of Sci-Fi and those lecture discs I listen to, it would seem that apocalyptic literature was a form of popular entertainment, back in the day, and that the Book of Revelation was an allegory to the relatively current political situation way back when. 666 was an encoded reference to Emperor Nero or someone like that. You have to know Ancient Greek or Aramaic or something to figure it out.

Powerful.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Even ‘Lord of The Rings’ can be seen as an attempt to fantastically fictionalise the epic, bloody war Tolkien witnessed first hand as an officer on the Western Front.

Which is another way of saying people can read a bunch of wrong-headed stuff into anything.

Tolkien was a serious scholar. He thought British culture needed a cogent mythology and he set out to create one. That's a beer much bigger than a single war.

I like the story about him that he hated everything modern so much that he refused to ride in an automobile.

Oh, and speaking of pseudo-insight, intellectual laziness and self-indulgence . . . NIG.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Done. Moving on.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Not quite yet.

Wife and I did a taste comparison at dinner.

In this corner.

In this corner.

The outcome? TWO WINNERS . . . HOORAY!!!!

Unknown said...

2 things the left obsess over as THE MOST heinous events in history! - surpassing communism itself and Hitler! : Interment of the Japanese during WWII and Joe McCarthy.

Unknown said...

Internment

chickelit said...

The music sounds a little too techno to match the visuals. I'd prefer something more metallic and sinister.

IMO, the best synching of archival footage with "modern" music is this YouTube of A-Bomb and H-Bomb testing set to White Zombie: link

Rabel said...

Speaking of survival, you'll all be glad to know that Rabel has filed his post-extension income tax return with 4 hours to spare.

I sold off a mutual fund last year which I had held for many years. The capital gains calculation was a bit complicated.

I owed a thousand bucks beyond what I sent in in April. Damn. But I'll rest easy with the knowledge that my money will be well spent by our leadership in Washington. Possibly on defense against the next Martian invasion.

Rabel said...

PS: I plan on some advanced toddying the rest of the evening and may not be responsible for the content of any posts after midnight.

XRay said...

I didn't like it. Sacrilege and abuse of those who fought in the great war. Their images and sacrifices belittled for little of worth.