Movie Pairs: The Land of the DVD clone - War of the Worlds
The Land of the DVD clone - War of the Worlds
By Jessica Dwyer
You may be asking yourself, “What is a DVD clone?” Well let me explain it to you. A DVD clone is a film with very similar attributes to a theatrical release (sometimes the exact same title) that is released on DVD simultaneously with its bigger budget brother. This happens far more regularly of late, with the independent filmmaker’s piggy backing onto the big studios for a quick buck. And it works apparently since there are MANY of these clones running about at your local Blockbuster.
For this first time out, we’ve chosen War of the Worlds, the many times remade story by HG Wells, but never perhaps with more infamy, than by Tom Cruise. The year was 2005, and Tom Cruise’s career was being overshadowed not by giant alien spaceships, but by his own religion, Scientology. Which…actually…has its own share of alien spaceships, but I digress.
Tom had a major theatrical release in War of The Worlds coming out that year. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Steve decided to drop the cute and cuddly aliens and go for the kind that blow shit up and destroy your planet. With a budget of 132 million, WOTW ala Cruise was BIG NEWS. But as I said, Cruise’s couch jumping antics were even freakier than the flicks extraterrestrials. The media blitz that surrounded him detracted from the movie which was considered pretty good by audiences and critics.
The film departs from the novel, with Cruise playing a character not quite as roguishly charming as his norm. He’s a dock worker who’s divorced and isn’t the best dad. When the aliens attack he’s taking care of his two kids and has to try and keep them and himself alive while the world falls apart around them. The movie did well of course, even with the attacks on Cruise that were everywhere you looked. It also had some other notable actors, like Tim Robbins playing a pseudo shell shocked crazy guy and Dakota Fanning playing Cruise’s daughter and glorified purse throughout the film.
Now, like many a movie during the summer Spielberg’s flick came out on a Wednesday (6/29/05). Well, as every video junkie knows, new release day at the video store is Tuesday. So the DVD clone actually got a day’s jump on its big screen counterpart.
WOTW ala C. Thomas Howell came out on the 28th. With a budget of 1 million dollars, it managed to be to some a better film than the Cruise version. It stuck closer to the book (which isn’t saying much) with Howell playing another concerned dad who happens to be a scientist named George Herbert (cute huh? HG Wells, Herbert George Wells…okay maybe not so much). George is obsessed with his work and has become distant from his family. Enter the alien apocalypse and he gets separated from them and has to find out where they are so they can reunite. Along the way he meets wacky people like Jake Busey, playing once again another semi nuts military man. I think he’s taking tips from his dad…but who knows?
Another little tidbit in this is that Howell brought along his own son to play…his son! What a stretch huh? This version of WOTW actually went so far as to rip off a rip off. And by that I mean Independence Day, another overblown and unoriginal rip off of Well’s story. The cover of the DVD is so alike to ID4’s poster I could easily see them being sued. But who am I to judge? Derivative is derivative.
Apparently Howell’s version was a big enough hit at the video store that there are talks of a sequel being made. Who knew the Outsiders would be such a hit going up against outer space? You go Ponyboy!
