Don Seigel’s 1956 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is a perfect example of a political allegory. In almost every scene of the movie, there is an underlying theme of communism. This movie was made at a very fearful time in American history. A time where mass hysteria flooded the United States and where everyone had a fear of communism taking over America. This movie was produced shortly after the end of World War II. Following World War II, the atomic bomb and the Korean War, Americans were confused and neurotically preoccupied with the international political events- much like they are today. (Whitehead). Also the Cold War was beginning. All these events put most Americans in fear of what might happen or what could happen. This wide-spread fear was captured perfectly in this movie. In the opening scene we are introduced to this same fear when Dr. Miles Bennell says, “Something evil has taken possession of this town.” When Becky returns to town she tells Miles, “Coming home, I feel like a stranger in my own town.” This statement foreshadows the Pod take over of the town. The first character that we notice in the movie that is obviously a pod is the police officer. This symbolizes communism getting into the government. Once it takes over the government it can then take over the people. This is because in a communist government the government runs everything and pretty much tells people how to think, what to do, and how they should live. Everything about the pods are the same except they do not show any emotion; similar to Soviet soldiers. When asked by Dr. Miles what was going on in the town, Dr. Kauffman replied, “Epic mass hysteria.” “Worry about what’s going on in the world today.” Dr. Kauffman’s statement could just as well have been the thesis statement for this review. An example of the constant worry is displayed when the clock dings and Becky jumps and screams in fear. Another example is when the gas man was in the basement and Becky and Miles heard him down there and they were very frightened. They were paranoid about everything just as the American people were in that time period. The way the police officers walked and talked could easily been mistaken for the Soviet communist government and military during the late 1940s and early 1950s. In one scene, Miles and Becky were crouched below the window of a closet door and a policeman walked in very slowly and all one could see was the top of his head through the window. When I saw this scene I immediately thought of a communist government hunting someone who was a threat to them. One can see the resemblances between the local government of Santa Mira and a communist government. The government of Santa Mira forced the people to live just how the government wanted them to. The best example of communism in this movie is when all the people of Santa Mira gather on the corner of the street and get orders from the town officials over a loud speaker. Each person got seed pods to place all over the country. This is a direct representation of communist governments distributing rations to citizens of communist countries. Miles says, “It is a disease spreading throughout the whole country.” Similar to that of a communist government, the pods would not allow Miles and Becky to leave the town because they were a threat.
John W. Whitehead’s “A TALE FOR OUR TIMES” in an accurate criticism of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” I agree with John Whitehead. “Body Snatchers” is not just a sci-fi/horror film. Not only does he find that communism is a major theme of this movie but also the wide-spread hysteria of the 1950s. Don Seigel’s 1956 classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” captured the ideology and politics of this time period perfectly (Whitehead). He also says that the new advances and new science findings contributed to the making of this movie. “Body Snatchers” brought respectively to the science fiction genre that emerged in post-war era, a genre that was exploding on screens around the country, partly due to the numerous post Roswell UFO sightings (Whitehead). The other view of the film is an allegory for communism and McCarthyism (Dirks). Contrary to Whitehead’s perspective of hysteria playing a role, Dirks feels that the film is more about the dehumanization of the human race. It is also interpreted as the numbing of our individuality and emotional psyches through conformity (Dirks). After watching the movie, Whitehead and Dirks made too much out of the McCarthyist themes.
This movie is relevant to today’s society and I would recommend watching it. This movie can be interpreted to fit any generation because of the fact that people tend to get scared when there is a war or a big event in the world. Today it fits in our society because of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the war on terrorism, and the anthrax scare. Just as Miles and Becky were paranoid about everything in the movie, many Americans today are paranoid because they think that every middle-eastern person is an American hating Islamic terrorist.
Whitehead, John. “A TALE FOR OUR TIMES.”
Gadflyonline.com. 01 October 2007
http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-26- 01/film-snatchers.html.
Dirks, Tim. “Invasion of theBodySnatchers (1956).”
Filmsite.org 01 October 2007
http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment