Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Political Allegory?

Meredith Streppa
Adam Weinstein
English 101
13 October 2007
Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Political Allegory?
Movies today often portray an escape from the real world. However, they also exemplify situations and happenings going on throughout the world in the present as well as past times. The movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, produced by Walter Wagner is very controversial when it comes to situations of the past. Many people believe that this film is a political allegory representing McCarthyism and a time of Communism. Many people believe that this movie is just a horror film, made to scare people. One man named Tim Dirks comments, “A quintessential, black and white B-picture…low-budget film is very effective in eliciting horror with slow-building tension, even though there are no monsters, minimal special effects, no violence in the take-over of humans, and no deaths” (Dirks). Although many people believe that the classic film, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, is simply a horror film, it is truly a political allegory describing the time of McCarthyism and communism around the world. It can even be considered a political allegory to audiences today.
McCarthyism is known as, “the term describing a period of intense anti-Communist suspicion in the United States that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s” (Wikipedia McCarthyism). To understand McCarthyism, one must know what Communism is. Communism is defined as, “an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. It is usually considered a branch of the broader socialist movement that draws on the various political and intellectual movements that trace their origins back to the work of Karl Marx” (Wikipedia Communism). Communism may look good on paper, yet when it started to be practiced in other countries in the 50’s and such, it proved to be not fair. In the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a man named Dr. McCarthy has had multiple calls about a weird epidemic going around in which people were not acting like themselves. After a few days, McCarthy realizes that something is taking over the town. It appears to be strange “pods” over ruling people’s bodies. Eventually, all of the people are turned into “pod people”, in which they act, talk, and do everything the same. The plot alone shares a big relation with Communism. Communism is aimed at making everyone equal, in a classless society, just like the “pod people”. In a scene with Dr. McCarthy and Becky in McCarthy’s office, McCarthy says that humanity has been drained away. This is a great deal like communism, people have no rights and in essence no humanity. Another point that McCarthy makes in the film is that people are born into an untroubled world where everyone is the same. There is no emotion or a feeling; the only instinct is the stay alive. This is a lot like communism, people do not have any say in the government and if they show any emotion towards anything about communism, they are often killed. They also basically have one instinct, and that is to survive and help their families survive. John Whitehead believed the same saying, “One in particular, Don Siegel’s 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, captured the ideology and politics of this time period perfectly” (Whitehead). He believed that this movie portrayed the time period of McCarthyism very well as well as the dehumanization of individuals during the war, and post war era.
Another link between this film and McCarthyism is the names in the movie alone. McCarthy was a U.S. senator in the 1940’s and 50’s. He spoke out against communism, and many people were often called out for being sympathizers towards communists. In the film, McCarthy, ironically the same name, speaks out against the “pod people” and frequently points out people for being “pods”.
This movie could also be related to times in our recent history. For example, the effects after September 11th. Many people started to call out terrorists, and openly bash people of the Middle Eastern descent. The terrorists were trying to prove a point that Americans were bad, and deserved to be punished. They share characteristics with the “pod” people. They all share one belief, and are trying to get more and more people to believe in the same practices as they do.
McCarthyism is a thing of the past; however there are similar things that people speak out against, the biggest example being terrorism. Our situation today is different, seeing as the majority of people in America do not support terrorism, yet there is still that small percent of people trying to sway our beliefs. Communism was a much bigger threat in the 50’s seeing as many countries believed in it. The belief also started to grow in the United States, which posed a large problem. This system may have looked good on paper, yet it did not work out when it was executed. The government of the United States spoke out greatly towards communism because they knew that it was not a good system to have. People still speak out about it today, yet because many more problems have come about, one does not hear about it as much.
All in all, the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers is indeed a political allegory defining a time of Communism and McCarthyism in the 1940’s and 50’s. As opposed to what many people believe, it is not just a B rated horror film. This movie, communism, and McCarthyism share many of the same characteristics that make me believe that this movie is a political metaphor.

Works Cited
Dirks, Tim. “Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956).” 1996. 26 September 2007. .>

Siegel, Don. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 1956.

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. >

"McCarthyism." Wikipedia. 12 Oct 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism.>

“Communism.” Wikipedia. 12 Oct 2007 .