La guerra aérea del futuro

It is frequently and falsely claimed that Porter created the story picture in THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. Melies was creating such films already, most notably in A TRIP TO THE MOON. Likewise, D.W. Griffith did not invent cross-cutting, although he did establish its usage as standard and produced what Lillian Gish called "the grammar of film." Here is evidence that he was not working alone.

This short film, based on a Verne novel, imagines the course of a future war, in which dirigibles are used to bomb cities. Although primitive by today's standards, it is clearly an epic picture and well worth the time of anyone with curiosity about the origins of film.

This is an imaginative early film full of special effects--what film historians call a "trick film". None of the effects, including substitution splices, miniatures and pyrotechnics, were invented here; in fact, they'd been employed for countless movies made earlier, especially in the work of Georges Méliès. Additionally, as others have mentioned, they do appear primitive today, but must have remained impressive enough back then to be used in so many pictures. Nevertheless, the narrative of a Zeppelin invasion of England is unique and proved to be a precursor to Germany's use of Zeppelins against England during WWI about five years later. In recognition of this, the film was re-released in January 1915. In film, as in real life, however, these airships were more frightening and technologically impressive than they were effective in battle. The film also features a primitive tank and fighter biplanes, as well as a funky-looking surface-to-air missile.

Walter R. Booth was one of the best trick-film artists of early cinema to follow in the footsteps of Méliès. Before making this one, "The Airship Destroyer", and others for Charles Urban's company, he made trick films for R.W. Paul. The earliest that survives today appears to be "Upside Down, or the Human Flies" (from 1899). Some of the other interesting early films to feature trick effects that Booth and Paul collaborated on include "The Magic Sword", "Scrooge; or Marley's Ghost" (both from 1901) and "The '?' Motorist".

For another Booth-Urban trick film available on the web, see "Willie's Magic Wand" (1907).

The 1st ever aerial warfare movie to be released took place in December 1909 when "The Aerial Destroyer," otherwise known as "The Aerial Torpedo" or "The Battle of the Clouds," or in the U.S. "The Battle in the Clouds" was initially seen by English filmgoers. United Kingdom's director Walter R. Booth, who specialized in special effects, produced this invasion film, which derived from a popular literature genre in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Booth's film drew inspiration from H.G. Wells' recent story, "The War In The Air (1908)".

Booth's effects are sure to illicit a laugh from today's sophisticated audience. This fantasy shows balloon airships (dirigibles) invading an unnamed country, bombing armored vehicles and city buildings. The suffering country sends war planes to shoot down these airships. Made in 1909, such rudimentary planes reflect the rudimentary understanding of how aerial vehicles looked like. There is a drama within the war confines of "The Aerial Destroyer" with a couple of unmarried lovers who have been rejected to enter matrimony by the woman's father. Booth was ahead of his time inserting what has become standard in wartime movies by containing a love interest inside violent films in an effort to attract the female audience.

What makes Booth's film so prophetic is that in seven years Germany would fly dirigibles over the English channel to bomb London during World War One. Howard Hughes' 1930 film, "Hell's Angels," would be more graphically believable than Hughes' early effort here.

Airship Destroyer, The (1909)

*** (out of 4)

Early science-fiction film (some consider it the first) about a Zeppelin that takes off in the night where three men use it to drop bombs on England. I guess you could call this an early "fear" film as it's pretty clear that it was made to put fear into people watching the film that an invasion could come from the sky at anytime without any notice. I really don't agree that this is a science-fiction film but for some reason people consider it one. The special effects for the most part are pretty good with one great shot of the Zeppelin off in the distance while another one, with actors that we can see, comes floating in the shot. The ending doesn't hold up very well due to some obvious effects but it's still fairly impressive for 1909. Original German title: Der Luftkrieg Der Zukunft.

"The Battle in the Clouds" (a.k.a. "Airship Destroyer") is a really amazing film to watch. After all, even though its special effects are incredibly crude by today's standards, it was exciting stuff back in 1909 and must have really wowed audiences. In addition, much of what you see was sci-fi for the time but would be used just a few years later in WWI! Historically speaking, this is an incredible film.

During the course of the film you have no idea what the nationalities are of either side and I assume this is to increase the distribution of the film. No use offending anyone. Ironically, the version of this French film I saw bore a German title! It begins with some folks launching a blimp. It's not a Zeppelin sort of thing but looks more like a pointed sausage suspending a platform. There is no way this small balloon would provide enough lift for the guys but that's part of the charm. In fact, you see lots of blimps bouncing about--all little sausage-like things. But the main one is bad, as the crew start raining down bombs on the poor people below. Here is where it gets really creepy. Some inventors down below bring out their hardware to try to knock down the blimp--including a crude tank-like armored car, an airplane and a propeller-driven guided missile!! It's really amazing stuff and rather exciting for the day.

If you see this film and don't know that this sort of stuff predates the use of such equipment in war and you don't know how crude special effects were back in the day, then you probably won't be that impressed. However, as a retired history teacher and film nut, I was simply blown away by this movie.