Tag: George Pal

Alien nation movie moments #4

With “District 9” having made a pleasantly surprising $37 million, it seems fitting to wrap this theme up with a couple of trailers from the grand-daddy of all alien invasion stories with a political subtext. H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds,” was pretty clearly intended as a metaphor about British colonialism. Certainly, any decent version of the story gives us an idea of what it must be like to have a vastly powerful nation suddenly invade for some reason of their own (not that that ever happens anymore).

We’re going to travel backwards in time with trailers for both the 2005 Steven Spielberg and the 1951 George Pal film versions.

“The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?” — H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, 1898

Below the flip, I’ve got a special audio bonus.

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Movie moment: “7 Faces of Dr. Lao”

Seeing as the latest Harry Potter film is burning up the box office, I thought I’d take a look back at scenes from notable fantasy films this weekend.

I haven’t seen “The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao” in many years, but it’s easily one of the best fantasy films of the 20th century. Directed by George Pal, best known for his versions of “War of the Worlds” and “The Time Machine” and adapted from a novel by Charles Finney by Charles Beaumont, one of the three main outstanding writers on “The Twilight Zone” television series, it’s one of the few examples where the casting of a non-Asian in an Asian role seems to offend no one. I think it’s the combination of the depth and humanity of Tony Randall’s performance, the fact that he plays a number of characters of different ethnicities, and the way the film toys with Asian racial stereotypes that’s given it something of a pass.

Anyhow, this scene (sorry, no efx, though the film has some pretty brilliant ones, including some cool stop-motion work from Jim Danforth) with young Noah Beery, Jr. is as close to expressing the Tao as anything you’re likely to see from Hollywood.

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