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Popular Culture Review
transposed to the character of Sylvia’s Uncle Matthew (Lewis Martin), pastor of
the local church and the story’s sacrificial pacifist. What is so disturbing about
the Ogilvy character and his fate in the 2005 version is the manner in which the
curate and artilleryman characters are melded together, and the logic used to
justify his murder.
What are the qualities that make Harlan Ogilvy a threat to Ray and Rachel?
First, Ogilvy is a drunk, and his inebriation renders him increasingly unreliable
as events unfold. This is an understandable concern, but one which Ray never
addresses; no attempt is made to convince Ogilvy to stop drinking. Second,
Ogilvy advocates a different method of dealing with the threat of Martian
invasion, although his argument is inconsistent. At first, Ogilvy suggests active
confrontation with the Martians, but he is convinced otherwise when the Martian
reconnaissance tentacle probes the basement in which the human characters are
hiding. After that, and after seeing the Martians feeding upon the blood of
human victims, Ogilvy hysterically rants about living in the tunnels under the
cities and forming a resistance. This is the artilleryman’s plan from the novel,
but added to it is the notion that the forces occupying a nation can never win; an
argument left over not only from our own Revolutionary War, but also from the
Vietnam War. Significantly, this latter notion is one that present day leftists use
to critique U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. What renders Ogilvy
obviously irrational is his own frantic effort to dig a tunnel. Ray kills Ogilvy not
only