“War of the Worlds” has finally descended upon us, and no doubt across the country as screens begin to flicker, people are whispering one question:
“Tim Robbins is in this?”
He is. No, Robbins is not your usual blockbuster sci-fi, action-hero guy. But “War of the Worlds” isn’t your usual blockbuster sci-fi, action-hero movie. Based on the 1898 H.G. Wells novel, it’s about the end of the world, sure, but it’s also a profound exploration of the human fear and terror that come from confronting the unfathomable and what that does to body and mind. The new movie version–as reconfigured by director Steven Spielberg–is influenced by how Americans perceive fear and terror in post-9/11 America.
“It’s certainly about Americans fleeing for their lives, being attacked for no reason, having no idea why they are being attacked and who is attacking them,” Spielberg says.
So if Tom Cruise (and special effects) are the movie’s twin superstars, then Robbins–whose role consists of a 20-minute sequence during which he shares a basement with Cruise and his movie daughter–is the embodiment of that terror. Cruise wants to race his family to freedom. Robbins, as Ogilvy, is a tortured soul who, when confronted by terror, loss and confusion, goes insane. Spielberg called him directly about playing the part; Robbins accepted after reading the script.
“I thought, what a great challenge to have to create a distillation of terror within one basement and one person after this onslaught of terror,” Robbins says. “After the special effects and after the massive scope of what you’ve seen, the humanity that has been lost, the madness that has ensued, then to take all of that and make it a little microcosm.”
He shakes his head. His anti-war positions are well known, and these are subjects that fascinate him, preoccupy him and, at times, even terrify him. The nature of war. The impetus that drives one world–or, as he puts it, one country–to attack another. The way terror changes human nature, perverts it.
