Self sacrifice as core of civilization in Spielberg’s War
One of themes in George Pal’s “The Time Machine” was the concept of self sacrifice.
The time traveler, in a scene in which he describes himself as a “tinkering mechanic” claimed that one of the fundamental pillars of civilization was self-sacrifice. In this same scene, he said he hoped to become the spark that brings humanity back out of its dark age.
In this regard, it appears that Steven Spielberg’s 2005 War of the Worlds drew some inspiration, especially regarding the character Robbie, who seems to have become the foil for Ray, the main character, the spark that eventually units Ray into becoming a responsible human being.
Although both characters seem to start out as self-centered, Robbie changes first, and in some ways, becomes a model for Ray – in much the way the time traveler did when fighting the morlocks in the 1960 movie.
Robbie wants to help – especially after the seeing the rubble left from the air plane strike – symbolic of 9/11 and the reaction of youth to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Robbie later seeks to join a military unit that is traveling back to combat the aliens, and on the ferry, rushes back to the aid of those struggling to get aboard after authorities had abandoned them and left them clinging to the boat.
Robbie became the spark for Robbie in showing him the need for self sacrifice, so that he is slowly becomes the person that can eventually save Rachel from the belly of the beast later, just as the time traveler rescues Weena in George Pal’s film.
In the film, the time traveler’s resistance to the Morlock aggression spreads to one or more of the Eloi, just as Ray’s resistance when captured causes others to work with him to help destroy the alien machine.
This concept of cooperation and self-sacrifice appears to be a theme common in both Pal’s film and Spielberg’s, since both Ray and Robbie were so notorious in their lack of self sacrifice at the beginning of War of the Worlds.
In this way, Spielberg appears to be drawing from the same well of hope that George Pal did, in saying that these small actions by these small people begin the process of restoring the civilization that selfishness that led to the deadly events and the invasion of savagery unleashed by the aliens and the morlocks.
In the novel War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells makes it very clear that this is a story that compares the inhumane treatment the aliens inflicted with treatment humans routinely inflicted on so-called inferior races. Spielberg’s film reinforces this arrogance of technologically superior races seeming to say that science and powerful weapons are not what makes up a civilized society, and that stripped of everything, all wealth, all modern conveniences, civilization can continue as long as the spirit of self-sacrifice and the ability to work towards a common goal exist.