If you ever rent the video 'Gods and Generals" just be prepared for THIS spoiler- the North wins. But since I've upset a few people here in this thread, I won't go into how 'All Quiet on the Western Front' ends up. (Hint: Don't bet your deutchmarks on the home team). And with most insincere apologies and a too-hip attitude, I continue....... (wheeee!)
So far, I've enjoyed Uncle Tom's Cabin, although it certainly could be considered somewhat condescending. Also, it suffers from what so many books of the period suffer from, and I mean truly interesting, well-written books - so many of the 'good' and straight forward characters in even the most casual of circumstances speak as if they are noble knights reciting poetry in large wood-paneled university hall to an audience of academics. That is a form of dialect, too, I guess you could say, but it comes off as unrealistically proper, even pompous, as the dialect as some of the 'lower' characters comes of overly slang-y and crude. I felt the same way about this while reading Dracula and Oliver Twist. Mark Twain's work is generally not as bad in this regard, but then some his stories aren't quite as old. Sometimes the dialect-heavy novels almost need a decoder. This isn't the fault of the writer of course, just the changing of times and styles. The themes, struggles and truths in the books might be timeless, but how they conveyed, not so much. I'm sure in another 50 years Catcher in the Rye or Ya-Ya Sisterhood will seem almost written in Esperanto. Tom Robbins' writing is almost there already, and Clockwork Orange - sheesh!
But as far as War of the Worlds goes, I have enjoyed all of the film versions, and this latest looks just as good as the others in its time and place considering budget and effects. In fact, it's about time I did get off my butt and read the novel, especially since I enjoyed The Invisible Man so much. My hope is that Hollywood didn't take too much license and kill off the aliens in some other way (or have them win!) The idea of Martians being killed by germs is at the same time somewhat silly, and absolutely brilliant, even today.
A broadcast similar to War of the Worlds was "Special Report" which was shown on TV in the 1980s. A fictional newscast about domestic terrorists planting an atomic weapon at a U.S. harbor, the network made sure to run a crawl at the bottom of the screen mentioning that what viewers were seeing was not real. In 1994 CBS also had a show on (can't remember the name)
where meteors were crashing to earth, being propelled by some sort of extraterrestrial intelligence. They didn't run the crawl that time, but announcements were used during the breaks telling that this show was also a work of fiction. That didn't work, and there were a few nervous types that thought it was true. I even got sucked into it until I started switching channels and noticed strangely that no other network was covering the destruction of the planet, then switched back and caught one of the announcements. It was a VERY well done show.
