Popular Culture Review Vol. 20, No. 1, Winter 2009 | Page 70

66 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