Invasion of Body Snatchers Paper #3

Jared Sims
English 101
Adam Weinstein
October 11, 2007

It is evident that the film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), has a heavily drawn influence from the socialistic ideas of Communism combined with the ideas from the McCarthy Era. The main plot of the movie is centered around pods that fell from space that take form of human’s bodies and eventually take over people’s minds when they sleep. A man by the name of Dr. Miles Bennell returned to his home town of Santa Mira,Ca to find people claiming to be people who they really weren’t (Dirks). Bennell’s quote when he returned to Santa Mira summed up the actions of the people in the town, “Sick people who couldn't wait to see me, then suddenly were perfectly all right. A boy who said his mother wasn't his mother. A woman who said her uncle wasn't her uncle (Dirks)”. Throughout the course of the movie, Dr. Bennell tried to unravel the mystery of why people were acting so strange. Eventually, Miles unravels the truth only to seek for help before the epidemic spreads. People under Communist rule remind me of ants, all working for a common goal under one leader. The people overtaken by the pods exhibited the same traits of one who was under the rule of Communist regime. The Cold War overtime led to the fear that Communism would be spread into America, this led to the ideas of McCarthyism (Whitehead).

Dr. Bennell’s quote, “In my practice, I've seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. Only it happened slowly instead of all at once. They didn't seem to mind...All of us - a little bit - we harden our hearts, grow callous. Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is to us, how dear. (Dirks)”, reminded me not only of Communism, but present day views on life. Communism enslaves its people into what seems like one company which is the government. The main idea of Communism is to give government control of all means of production, and have no social classes (Wikipedia). The pod people seemed to be living in a euphoric state that made them believe that they were all equal and had no say in how they were to live their lives. My aforementioned reference to people under Communist regime reminding me of robots comes from the fact that robots are made to perform a simple task that they are programmed to do. People under Communist regime also are raised to conform to government regulation and exist solely to benefit the government. Modern day views of what is right or wrong have dulled since times of past. It is evident the world is becoming more and more corrupt by the issues coming up in society. Conformity to an extent can be positive, but when a group is made to conform, general attitude most of the time is going to be negative. People under Communist rule do not like the position they are in but know that it is what they have to abide by so they conform to their government.

The Patriot Act adopted after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 allowed the government to invade privacy of people if they suspected them to be affiliated with any terrorist regime. The way that McCarthy led his hearings and the whole process involving the trials and hearings of those suspected to have pro-Communist beliefs seemed to associate itself with the Patriot Act (Whitehead). At the time, people were scared that the Cold War might spread ideas of Communism into the United States. There was a panic induced initiative that was began by McCarthy to try those that had any pro-communist affiliation. If found guilty, you could be assured you were going to lose your job, possibly family, and most people would turn against you (Whitehead). I look at the way Communism was treated during the McCarthy era, the same as terrorism is treated presently in America. After September 11th, there was an anti-terrorism movement that sparked conflict with Afghanistan and Iraq to avoid anything of that magnitude from happening again. Immediately after September 11th, officials were scouring the United States for alleged terrorists and attempting to weed them out of our country. A resentment for people with middle eastern descent also has increased during the present day as result of the terror attacks. You may associate the resentment of a certain race of people today with the resentment of those with pro-Communist affiliation during that era.

Individualism seems to stand out as an interesting point of debate in the movie. Individualism is what defines people, not only personally, but also on an industrial level. Entrepreneurs make our economy thrive by constantly introducing new products into the market. By allowing people to develop new products and start new companies, our economy is debatably the best in the world. Communist nations such as Russia and Cuba have bad economies, due to the fact that the government controls all means of production. People in Communist nations do not have the freedom to develop products, or start new businesses that would increase their nation’s economy such as those in other nations.

To conclude, I feel as if this movie was made specifically to portray the effects of Communism. It is directly related with controversy that was occurring at the time the movie was made. I think that all people could benefit from watching this movie, no matter how old it may be. Although the movie may be a low-budget, cheesy, horror film, it also portrays how a simple ideal could involuntarily corrupt a group of people. I would recommend this movie.



Works Cited
Dirks, Tim. “General Review for Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” 1996. 27 September 2007. http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html.

Whitehead, John. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for our Times”. Gadfly Online. 1998. 26 September 2007. <http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-26-01/film-snatchers.html>.

Siegel, Don. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 1956.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism.