War of the Worlds

Tuesday night, I watched a portion of everyone's favorite 1953 thriller, "War of the Worlds," on AMC. I especially liked the rather casual way they dropped an atom bomb on the Martians' Southern California camp, as millions of people watched, many without adequate eye protection, from the beautiful San Gabriel foothills, and how no one seemed particularly surprised that the bomb failed to dent the Martians' defenses. Having recently come out of WWII, I guess people then had a much more robust sense of slaughter and mayhem than they do today.