Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Popcorn in your hands steadily moves towards your lips until at the last moment you jump and the popcorn flies away to hit someone behind you. The movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers tries to show the American public the dangers of conformity in a time of fear. This movie released in 1956 was a sci-fi horror and seem to have parallels to an issue called McCarthyism.

The movie was set in a small town where everyone knows each other. The doctor of the town returns from a conference to find the town a bit strange. While the doctor was away at the conference some of the town’s residents are changed out with alien that have no emotions. The way the aliens change out the humans is with giant seed pods during the sleep of the unsuspecting human. His paranoia seems to subside after being proven wrong. When the alien invaders begin to change out him and his girlfriend, the two struggle to fight against the group of alien invaders. The movie was made around the height of the red scare in America.

The red scare was a belief that communism would lead to the destruction of the American democracy. The red scare was started by Senator Joseph McCarthy in series of hearings where the infamous senator accused individual of being communist. McCarthy was able to force Americans into groups of either with or against America. Even though the hearings by McCarthy lasted for a brief time some people lives could be ruined. A way to avoid McCarthy’s destructive power was to conform and help him find communist. The director of the movie, Don Siegel “saw the conflict between society and the individual as a perpetual one-more a metaphysical battle than a political one…the real enemy was, therefore, totalitarian conformity”(Whitehead 5).

The movie which in its time would have been a good movie to see with a date could be seen as a B+ movie. The special effects were few but well done and the dialog would be slightly above average. Someone from any generations could watch and enjoy this movie without knowing anything about McCarthyism but still see how the individual fights against conformity.

The movie seems to draw certain parallels at the time it was made to McCarthyism. The alien invaders had no emotions and McCarthy had said the Russians where cold and emotionalist. Also the aliens where a group forcibly changing everyone and McCarthy had changed public opinion to find anyone who was a communist supporter. Certainly McCarthy was scaring decent Americans who had an individual stance on communism into hiding just the way the doctor was forced to hide out in the cave towards the end of the film. The aliens were a group that had to have everyone changed in order to complete their goal and McCarthy was searching everywhere there was power to move people’s opinion. Since movies could be the best way to talk to the American public McCarthy attacked Hollywood aggressively.

McCarthy blacklist Hollywood writers, actors, and directors. “No more than 10 percent would be able to return to careers in Hollywood” (Georgakas). McCarthy had made a huge impact on the movie industry. McCarthy had really been able to deal out this damage only because people were conforming to his ideas without questioning them. With democracy the people are given a freedom to think and act according to their beliefs not the beliefs of the majority. Democracy is protection of the minority, but McCarthy was attacking the minority and no one thought otherwise. The alien invaders were hunting out the doctor and his girlfriend off the simple fact they wanted not to become an alien.

In society when someone gets a strong hold of the public’s opinion fear can be fabricated. McCarthy was belting out stories of how the Russians were bent on getting rid of the American democracy with the communist party. Much of what happens in times of fear and crises is people will give up certain freedom to feel safe. During the red scare Americans gave up the freedom to be associated with any type of political party. After the terrorist attacks on the world trade center Americans allowed the federal government to spy on anyone’s conversations over the telephone. Just as it was then in the 1950’s and today with the Patriot Act society bends to the will of few to protect them from a threat.

This movie stands as a fight against conforming to the will of the majority. Ether a threat far away in space or in the very town you live in the actions of the society hasn’t changed in fifty years. People need to realize that giving up their freedoms is no way to protect their selves from an alien attack.

Work Cited

Dan Georgakas, “The Hollywood Blacklist” Encyclopedia of the American Left (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992)

John Whitehead, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for Our Time” 2001