The movie has been described as the "Star Wars of its time." Even if you can see the strings holding up the spaceships. The story is true to H.G. Wells' theme of one culture holding technological superiority over another culture as well as containing the 1950s themes of, paranoia of Communism, and sort of a blind faith in science and military domination. The down side is that in this version o f " War of the Worlds", no other cultures,either of race or religion, seem to exist in the United States. Although an African-American friend said he saw the movie as a kid and thought it was great. Young women's roles consist of serving coffee to men and screaming in horror. You can be a smart woman if you're older, relatively unattractive, and foreign. Still, great fun, a sci-fi classic.