War of the Worlds is by no means limited to metaphors about family, though. Like other works of science fiction, it reflects in otherworldly circumstances the realities of human nature and culture that generations of audiences can recognize. It's no wonder that science fiction and stories about alien life remain popular, or that The War of the Worlds alone has been retold many times as a radio drama, a musical, a TV series and a few films.

I read the book, listened to the Orson Welles radio broadcast, and watched the Spielberg film all around the same time in 2005. Each stands on its own as an interesting and entertaining part of the War of the Worlds universe. I recommend the book, which is still easily readable after 110 years, and the radio play that moved the action from Welles' England to New Jersey (which also serves as the backdrop for some of the 2005 film).

Of the three, the film is likely to be remembered least as a landmark in The War of the Worlds history. The book, obviously, is where the story first unfolded and is the basis for all other versions. The Welles show sent some members of the public into a panic with its newscast-like execution that begins with bulletins interrupting musical numbers with ever-growing alarm. (You can buy the broadcast on CD, or download it from Amazon.com for 89 cents as a “music download” from the album The Ultimate Orson Welles.)

The movie doesn't claim an influence like the book or the broadcast, but it is a notable retelling and updating of the enduring story. One of my favorite parts of this newer version is that the aliens' deadly tripod machines have been buried beneath Earth's surface for years, waiting for the moment when humanity would be primed for the slaughter. It's an interesting juxtaposition of alien life – which, by nature, is foreign and strange to our world – coming from within our own planet, so to speak. (According to the DVD's lone special feature about creating the aliens, Spielberg is the mind behind that from-underneath-they-come idea.)

I also appreciated the retention of Welles' general storyline, the unfolding of the alien arrival and demise, and the author's words at the beginning and end of the film, most notably this line: “With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.” Many science fiction stories address this tendency of man to become complacent in our daily routine, unaware of its consequences or of something beyond that routine that awaits, be it benevolent or malicious. You can see in the story an indictment of mankind's complacency, and an expression of the ills and needs of both individuals and the masses when ripped from comfort and thrust into a pressure cooker of uncertainty and danger.