Courtney Hamilton
Adam Weinstein
10/13/07
According to Tim Dirks, the black and white film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is a movie pertaining to the fear of Communism during the 1950’s. The cheesy horror film touches the threat of communism and appropriately portrays its effects on the community. On the other hand, John Whitehead believes that McCarthyism plays the main role in the film. He believes that the movie eludes to the time of the Red Scare when communism plays a part in everyday life. However, there are many different interpretations of the movie and it depends on the way one views it. In my opinion, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, parallels the actions of the communist party during the Cold War due to its emphasis on stolen identities.
To begin, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, focuses on the loss of human emotion as an almost alien-like form takes over the town of Santa Maria. Pod people slowly start to take over the small community by placing seed pods around the town and planting them in peoples houses. If anyone acts somewhat suspicious the pod people plant their seed pods and wait for nighttime for the pods to conform. Once the pod people develop they have no mind of their own and thrive off the idea of perfection. This is one of the reasons I believe this movie is about the communist party. The communist party takes away ones ability to possess any of their own thoughts or ideas. They train people to think, act, and be clones of each other. According to Whitehead, “the alien pod people perfectly fit McCarthy’s profile of Russians and, not coincidentally, American schoolteachers. The Soviets were considered ice cold, outwardly peaceful but very authoritarian and emotionless.” (Dirks) This description of the Soviets clearly parallels to the pod people in the movie and the way the people have all the life sucked out of them. The pod people still look the same, but their whole personality is transformed leaving them with no real feelings of their own. Toward the end of the movie when Becky turns into a pod person, she tells Dr. Bennell to come join her and the rest of the pod people. She also states that life is much better as a pod person. This demonstrates the formation of a cult-like organization that remarkably resembles the characteristics of the communist party. There is also a scene in the movie where they show the seed pods being carted off to different parts of the world. Communists also try to recruit more people in order to convert them to communism and they use to fear to do so.
Aside from the communist aspect of the movie, the corny lines and spine chilling music probably made for a fairly frightening movie back in the fifties. The music has a way of spiking the drama and giving the scene a bit more of intensity. Also, the fact that Dr. Bennell is the only survivor from the town of Santa Monica makes for an alarming ending. As for today, people are not frightened by this type of movie. Scary movies today incorporate blood and gore in almost every scene. People today are not going to get scared if there is not blood and gore incorporated into a scary film. Now, people are used to movies such as Saw that involve jaws being ripped open involving life and death situations. Even though the movie does not make one jump out of their seat in horror, the cinematic features are very realistic. Although the cinematography today is viewed as mediocre , I am sure it made for a great film at the time. The main concern I have about this movie is the way the doctor deals with his patients. When suspected of a mass hysteria, the doctor subscribes his patients with drugs and then sends them on their way. In today’s society that would never be acceptable. As for the special effects, the development of the seed pods shows excellent detail for the time in which this movie was developed. The main character, Dr. Bennell, does succeed in evoking fear in the audience and does an excellent acting job. Invasion of the Body Snatchers demonstrates an example of the effects of communism, but all in all is not a movie recommended to sit down and watch with the intent of being frightened.
In conclusion, the film illustrates the fear of the communism depicted around the time of the Cold War. Many details of the movie lead to this concluding factor. One being that the pod people portray the same attributes of the Soviets in Russia when communism took place. During the Cold War, the communists exhibit a very bland personality and turn into robots of each other. Throughout the movie, the pod people exhibit these same traits. They lack the ability to love and care only about spreading the seed pods in order for more pod people to evolve. Also, the seed pods are sent off to different areas in order to treansform more people into pod people. Therefore, the seed pods represent the communists that do not tolerate any other political parties. Also, the absence of the pod peoples ability to make their own decision reflects that of the communist party. Invasion of the Body Snatchers demonstrates these qualities throughout the entire movie. As a result, the community is warned about the seed pods and the movie ends as society discovers finally begins to accept what is going on
Works Cited
Dirks, Tim. “General Review for Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” 1996. 27 September 2007. http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment