Paper #3 Danny Glynn

Danny Glynn
Adam Weinstein
English 101
12 October 2007
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
In the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegal, there is an allusion to the Red Scare fears of Communism in America in the 1950s. In the film the small town of Santa Mira becomes infected with giant pods that produce clones of people in the town. These clones then take over the bodies of the people in the town and turn them into emotionless humans. The “pod people” represent the Communist who do not have the right to express their thoughts or show any of their emotions without facing punishment, and in American around this time their were people being brought in to testify about their so-called Communist affiliations, and as a result of these hearings hundreds of people either lost their jobs, lost their families, or some even lost their lives because they committed suicide (www.gadflyonline.com). Miles Bennell is the local doctor in the film and he refuses to be taken over by the pod people and convert to their ways of thinking and acting. Another part in the movie that shows characteristics of Communism is when Miles and Becky are standing Miles’ office and they see the town’s people begin to gather around the town square and get the orders to deliver the pods all over the county, no matter what social class they were in everyone did it. This is symbolizing Communism because in a communist government labor is supposed to be divided equally among everyone, not matter your social class. (www.projectsdday.chs.edu). With communism comes a single party government that forces people to agree with ideas the ideas of the government, and in Invasion of the Body Snatchers through out the whole movie, from when Jack comes back and tells him that joining the pod people would be the best thing for him to when Becky turns into a pod person and tells him the same thing, the pod people are constantly pushing their ways and saying they are the best because they do not have the choice to speak out against them like in a Communist government.

There are allusions in this movie from beginning to end, and when I was watching this movie there were some of the points that the critics made about the movie that I agreed with, and having read their reviews before I watched the movie I found myself looking for the parts that the critics were talking about and noticed most of the allegory they were talking about. To begin with, I agree with the critics that say the movie is thinly disguised as allegory for the communist scare, and in a review written by Richard Schieb he says “To say that Invasion of the body Snatchers is an outright allegory about Communism is to be overly literal about it all.” (www.moria.co.nz). I would also agree with Danny Peary who wrote about the scene in Santa Mira’s town square, where a loud speaker reads off the day’s orders and tells the locals where to take pods, and he says this is the quintessential fifties image of socialism and that people need people need their freedom of thought, and without it we are all like vegetables (www.gadflyonline.com). Furthermore when Tim Derks describes the pod people as being cold, unable to express emotion or closeness as an allegory for Communism is a valid statement because Communist are said to be emotionless people that are unable to express themselves without punishment, and therefore these people would be a direct symbol to a Communist (www.filmsite.org).

When I was watching the movie I saw the things that the critics were talking about, but only one of the reviews that I read referred to this movie relating to today’s society, and it was about McCarthyism and the nine eleven attacks on the World Trade Centers. I was looking for things in the movie that symbolized things going on in America today that were related to the allegory of Communism and I could not find one that stuck out to me, although their were numerous allusion to what was going on in the 1950s with the Cold War hitting its peak. I believe that this film is not relevant to today’s society because the threat of Communism is not near as high as it was in the 1950s when this film was made. The only thing that I saw in the movie that relates to both Communism and today’s American Society is conformity. In the movie all of the pod people act alike and do the same things and in American society today you see a lot of people following what other people and how they act. This is not necessarily Americans conforming to Communism, but it is Americans showing traits of a Communist government. At the end of the movie when Dr. Bennell is standing in the middle of the highway screaming about what has happen in Santa Mira and trying to tell the people that are passing by that they will be next, no one listens to him and they just keep driving by, and this resembles a person not being able to speak freely in a communist country, but after being taking to the police station, people begin to listen to him and begin to believe what he is saying. The police then call the FBI, this is representing the American government and how the government is for the people, and the people have a say in the American government. Once again this is only comparing the two governments and showing the positives of American government, and the two not being directly relevant in this film.

In conclusion, I would view Invasion of the Body Snatchers as a movie with allegory relating to the Communist government. I also agree with many of the parts pointed out by the critics that talk about this film relating to Communism, but I would not say that this film has relevancy today because the threat of Communism is not like it was in the 1950s.

Works Cited
Derks, Tim. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). 1996. 27 Sept. 2007 <http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html >

Halsall, Paul. Modern History Sourcebook: Stalin's Purges, 1935. 1997. 12 Oct. 2007
<http://projectsday.chs.edu.sg/2001/web%20reports/cat5/2/files/Communism.htm >

Scheib, Richard. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 1999. 10 Oct. 2007 <http://www.moria.co.nz/sf/bodysnatchers56.htm>

Whitehead, John W. Invasion of the Body Snatchers a Tale for our Times. 1998.
27 Sept. 2007 <http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-26-01/film-snatchers.html>