Any movie, piece of artwork, or work of fiction can be taken out of context and be made to be more than it was intended to be. Sometimes these overanalyzing critics have interpretations that seem very believable, but many times these people have a personal or political agenda. These people want to prove their point or make their opinion seem like the right one. For example Tim Dirks says that one of the themes could be, “the numbing of our individuality and emotional psyches through conformity and group-think” (Dirks), but Dirks missed the point. It is clear to see that the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was made to scare people and had no intention of containing hidden meanings of communism and McCarthyism.
This movie was made during the time of McCarthyism and communism, so naturally people read their point of view into the movie and thought that was what the movie was trying to say. People saw different meanings when they watched it. For example, Kevin Whitehead argues that “Siegel’s film addressed the dehumanization of individuals—a sensitive subject in an age filled with tales of political brainwashing of American soldiers by the Koreans” (Whitehead). Although the aliens did take over people’s bodies and mind, you have to sit back and wonder if this is what Don Siegel was trying to say. If Don Siegel had made the alien’s come to earth and brainwash the people themselves (similar to what was being done to the soldiers) then it would be more believable that he made the movie about communism. Instead, Siegel made pods come to earth and make a replica of the person’s body and take over their lives. This concept is too veiled to be a picture of communism. Some interpretations of this movie are laughable. Tim Dirks said one of the themes could be “the spread of an unknown malignancy or virulent germ” (Dirks). This is a very far out interpretation because he is trying to compare the pods (something that takes away your body and makes you a different person) with a virulent germ (something that makes you sick). These two things don’t even compare. Another concept interpreted wrong is when “they are betrayed when Becky screams as a dog is nearly run over by a truck. Now the whole town is after them,” (Dirks) this also does not compare to communism. Communist people, although a one minded thinking group, would still react to a dog about to get run over by a car. This was a poor example of trying to convey communism. If Siegel had been making this movie about heartless robots it would have been a much better example. All these different crazy interpretations are just another reason to make you believe that Siegel did not make this about communism and McCarthyism.
I read many reviews and different interpretations of this movie before I saw it, so I was ready to watch this movie that was going to be full of many symbols of McCarthyism and communism. As I was watching I was looking really hard for these themes and couldn’t find one thing that related back to them. All the criticisms and reviews I read were blown way out of proportion. It seemed as if someone had too much time on their hands and decided to compare this movie with what was happening in real life around them. I could have watched the movie and said that Siegel was trying to relate this to 9/11 and terrorists taking over, or the pods being democrats and trying to make us one mindless politically correct town. These ideas are just as crazy as the ones relating McCarthyism to the movie. Siegel himself “denied an anti-Communist motive” (Whitehead). This proves he made the movie to be a horror movie and that is exactly what it will remain.
If you are watching this movie, and not trying to find some type of symbolism, it’s an enjoyable movie. Trying to put this movie in a certain genre is hard to do because it doesn’t fit into just one genre. It doesn’t completely fit the bill as a horror film because there are no gory scenes. There are a couple of scary parts in the movie which qualifies it to a certain extent as a horror movie. It also has some sci-fi movie qualities in it like when the humans grow out of pods that have bubbles. I would put this movie in a genre called “Scary Scientific”. This is one of those movies that if you watched it home alone at two in the morning you would be kind of scared, but if you watched it with a group of friends you would probably get a good laugh out of it. Invasion of the Body Snatchers isn’t a waste of time to watch though. The movie might be a little cheesy and lack any type of special effects but it is what is expected from a movie in the 1950’s. I find it fun to watch movies that were made a long time ago because you see what the audience expected from a movie compared to what we watch now. You can tell by all the remakes that the main idea of the movie (pods taking over people’s bodies) makes for an interesting movie.
Works Cited:
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.
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