The War of the Worlds (DVD, 2005, Collector's Edition)

For its time, the 1953 version of "War of the Worlds" was an outstanding and frightening 1950's science fiction film loosely based on H.G. Well's fictional story with the same title (Well's story takes place in England, this one, Los Angeles). Excellant special effects by producer, George Pal (the film won an "Oscar" for this catagory). I love the use of the then futuristic Northrop YB-49 "Flying Wing" used to deliver the A-bomb on the "Martians". Pretty good story with some lines and scenes that'll leave you laughing even though that wasn't the director's intent! Color print still looks great after all these years as it should since it's "Technicolor". DVD includes commentary by the two major actors in this picture, Gene Barry and Ann Robinson as well as commentary on an additional showing with film director Joe Dante and film historians Bob Burns and Bill Warren. Other features on this DVD include the original trailer, the making of the movie, a film about H.G. Wells himself and a sound recording of Orson Well's 1938 radio production that apparently scared much of the country into thinking there really was an attack by "Martian Invaders". All in all, a very good value for the money.

This classic 50's movie is still such a joy to watch, in this dvd version the movie is crisp & clear, the colors are beautiful! The extra features are many & fun! they even have the stars of the movie doing commentary & there is a wonderful documentary on the writer H.G. Wells. A must for any fan of War of the worlds, H.G. wells, or great sci fi movies from the 50's

This 2003 edition of the War Of The Worlds has been promoted as the definitive edition of the film. I found that this DVD transfer is inferior to the 1999 Edition in every way. This new 2003 edition was taken from different preprint material than the 1999 edition. I have projected both versions on a 1080i DLP projector and the 2003 edition falls short of the 1999 edition, in color saturation as well as sharpness. It appears that the print or preprint has a registration problem. What this means is that the print that this 2003 edition was made from was slightly out of registration. In short, other than seeing some minor highlights in the shadow areas of the picture that may be more revealing than the 1999 edition, this DVD transfer is not superior to the 1999 DVD. I will give Paramount credit, however, for sticking to the original 4:3 full frame format and not converting the film to a widescreen format and cropping the top and the bottom the frame in order to satiate the people who want everything widescreen.

A science fiction classic! When I tried to find this at my local library and video stores, non of them had it. Unbelievable! All they had was the recent re-make with Tom Cruise. That one had its moments, with some neat special effects, but didn't like the story line and disfunctional kids and family. It also left God and his wisdom out of the story line, which is a biggy to me and my family.

This is good example of what happened when librarys and video stores switched to DVDs. They got rid of many of these classic videos they had in their inventory. Sad, sad, sad, that many people won't see these classics anymore! Thats why I was thrilled to find lots of copys on eBay of this old classic movie, and at a cheap price to boot! I will be buying other great old movies in the future that you can't find at video stores or the library anymore. Keep up the good work eBay in getting us the classic movies! My received DVD was new in the box, perfect shape and plays great--all for a very reasonable price! Great deal! Paul in Minnesota

While the newer Spielberg/Cruise is visually unmatched, the original George Pal movie is the one that started it all. It still holds up quite well even without all the newer bells & whistles of modern special effects. I have both versions of War of the Worlds, and enjoy them both. It's nice though, to experience the original movie.