Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Essay 3

Invasion of the Body Snatchers – Essay 3

Dr. Miles Bennell sits in a stark white mental hospital, furiously rambling off details of the supposed alien invasion that has occurred in the quiet town of Santa Mira. He pleads with the doctor, “Make them listen to me before it’s too late!” Miles’ warning was not just the doctors in the psychiatric ward, but also a warning to the public, who, gripped by fear and panic, had become numb to death in the nuclear age. The 1956 film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is a commentary on the reality of death and accompanying hysteria that became prevalent in America after World War II.

Many critics argue that “Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is about Senator Joe McCarthy’s fanatical “witch hunts” against supposed Communists in the 1950s. This interpretation is often attributed to the frantic townspeople who are consumed by the fear that someone, or something, has possessed their relatives. Jimmy, a young boy in Santa Mira, is convinced that his mother isn’t really his mother at all. Hysterical and crying, Jimmy pleads with Miles, “Don’t let her get me!” When Dr. Kauffman and Miles discuss the recent occurrences in Santa Mira, Dr. Kauffman refers to the dozens of paranoid patients having been consumed by “an epidemic of mass hysteria.” Parallels to McCarthyism, which resulted in a frenzied search and the subsequent blacklisting of suspected Communists, can certainly be found in the film.

Critics also believe that “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is an analysis of Communist Russia. Tim Dirks says that the movie’s “main theme was the alien dehumanization and take-over of an entire community… And it told of the heroic struggle of one helpless but determined man.” During the Red Scare, Communists were portrayed as heartless, emotionless, and cold, much like the pod people were. Those who fought against these forces were brave and heroic, similarly to Senator McCarthy was in his battle against Communism. Later in the film, Miles and Kauffman have this brief exchange, occurring after Kauffman has been taken over by a pod person.

Kauffman: “You’ll be born into an untroubled world.”
Miles: “Where everyone’s the same?”
Kauffman: “Exactly.”

This conversation demonstrates the belief that Communism was a force that removed all differences from a population, making them exactly the same. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” presents an anti-Communist message, but this is not the only issue that the movie is commenting on.

While the arguments that “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is about McCarthyism and Communism are valid, I think that the movie’s meaning has a greater scope. World War II exposed the reality of death that had not been fully grasped before that time. John W. Whitehead points out that the dropping of the atomic bombs at the end of WWII showed Americans that “…death was no longer a wispy, terrifying phantom that chose its victims at random but instead became a calculated, mechanical weapon that obliterated humanity en masse.” In “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, the people of Santa Mira are virtually being killed off – the aliens take over their positions in society without explanation as to what happens to the peoples’ bodies. The concept that some foreign enemy could swoop in and destroy the masses became a pronounced fear for scores of Americans in the 50s.

Miles is the hero of the film, but he still brutally destroys several pods. The audience accepts his stabbing of a pod and the burning of several others without protest. Since Miles is the assumed ‘good guy’, it seems pretty harmless that he is killing the ‘bad guys’. Likewise, most Americans saw nothing wrong with the dropping of the atomic bombs or the death of millions of Axis soldiers because thei end result was to defend good from bad. Death was not always some haphazard happening, but it was a carefully planned and executed event. While Americans were fearful of this happening to them, they saluted it was a triumph when their enemies took heavy casualties. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” depicts the numbing effect that World War II had on the American conscience.

The hysteria that occurred in the post-World War II years is reflected in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Nuclear war was a concern for America during this time, and Miles even mentions it as a possibility for the appearance of the strange pods. When a bubbly pod begins to open Miles’ greenhouse, he remarks that, “Maybe the results of atomic radiation” have caused the pod to form. Critics at the University of Michigan call “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” “ a film that echoes cold war paranoia”, citing the assimilation of the townspeople into the society of pod people. Western democracies were afraid of Communism because it seemed to be a death of freedom; it was a form of government in which assimilation was not a choice but a requirement. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers’” scenes of mindless pod people gathering in the town center showed how many thought the Communist Party would operate.

“Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was first released more than fifty years ago, but it is still a relevant film today. World issues and politics have changed since 1956, but many of the fears and problems are the same. Threats of terrorism are just as real and dangerous as Communism, if not much more so. Fear is still prevalent today, and hysteria does exist on some levels. The United States even has different ‘threat levels’ that are raised and lowered according to global occurrences. A raised threat level tells us to be on guard and to be fearful. Even today, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” can be seen as an interpretation of how desensitized our nation has become to the ideas of death and the fear we still show to the unfamiliar.

Works Cited:

“Promise of Science: Alien Life.” Science Fiction Film Site. 12 October 2007.
http://www.umich.edu/umfandsf/film/promise/alien_life.html

Whitehead, John W. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale For Our Times.” Gadfly Online. http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-26- 01/film-snatchers.html

Dirks, Tim. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).” Greatest Films. 2 October 2007. http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html