Review of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The fear of communism is a prominent theme in the classic 1954 film the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This classic film was made during the cold war era when a rising fear of hidden communism began to sprout up within the United States. When this rising fear is closely similar to the theme of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers in which people are silently being replaced with unemotional and unfeeling replicas of themselves as they sleep. Communism is defined as 1A) a theory advocating elimination of private property 1B) a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production with the professed aim of establishing a stateless society. In the Invasion of the Body Snatchers Dr. Miles Bennell, the main character of the film is a local doctor that begins to realize the silent takeover of the pod people and tries to thwart their takeover of his town. The doctor fights for his freedom to do as he pleases and his ability to love and be loved. In a communist country the citizens lose all sense of individuality as well as their basic freedoms and rights. In the movie this dehumanization is known as being “one of them” or being unable to express emotion or closeness.

Tim Dirks review of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers is mostly a background check of how the movie was made along with the original dialogue and then the added prologue and epilogue test. Dirks does give the themes and descriptions of this movie and its three remake counterparts. Dirk views the theme of the movies as a battle between group think (communism) and individualism.(Dirks) In my opinion I personally do not see Dirks review of the movie as in depth as Whiteheads where he covers theories, ideas and other peoples reviews of the movie as well. Dirks does not in my mind give his own theory or reasoning for the making of the movie. I do agree with Dirks idea of the theme being a type of allegory between Communism and McCarthyism.

John Whitehead’s review of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers “A Tale for Our Times” tells of how he thinks this movie parallels largely to communism and McCarthyism. His article also compares the movie to mob hysteria and fear of aliens due to space exploration. In his article Whitehead describes the Russians as “ice cold, outwardly peaceful but very authoritarian and emotionless” this description fits the pod people of the movie almost hand in hand, which shows that the idea of the movie was in fact based to compare and scare people of the communist U.S.S.R. (Whitehead) I agree with Whitehead where he states that people in the United States feared the communist country U.S.S.R. largely in part to the development of the atomic bomb and its ability to obliterate humanity in the masses. I disagree with some of the theories that this movie was about a widespread breakout of AIDS or that it is solely about invading aliens .Despite how this movies theme was derived this movie is what it is a movie and I believe the message it sends and the criticism it has received is extremely overblown.

This film probably would not appeal to most audiences today but the message it sends could be related between the Cold War hysteria between the United States and the U.S.S.R. to today’s tension between the United States and Iran who is a rising nuclear power. Audiences today have the ability to watch three or four different versions of this movie so if this black and white version of a sci-fi thriller does not fit their taste they have a few newer versions to choose from. In my personal opinion I enjoyed the movie and each scene kept me on my toes wondering what would take place in the next scene. I also think this movie can help us remember to be individuals and remind us not to conform to others people’s actions or beliefs.


Works Cited

Dirks, Tim. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1956).” 1996-2007. 7 October 2007 www.filmsite.org/inva.html

Whitehead, John W. “’Invasion of the Body Snatchers’—A Tale for Our Times.” Gadfly Online. November 2001. 4 October 2007 www.gadflyonline.com/11-26-01/film-snatchers.html