Paper#3, The Invasion of The Body Snatchers

Tim Howard

English 101

October 12, 2007

Conformity in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Invasion of The Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel, created a mass hysteria making people the movie was either referring to McCarthyism or Communism. The main reason why people believe it had to do with McCarthyism or Communism is because the movie came out in America during 1956. But it makes you wonder what would happen if this same movie came out now? Would it be changed to make you believe that it was another type of threat such as terrorism? The meaning of this movie is more than just talking about one group. Taking that into note, The Invasion of The Body Snatchers expresses the theme of conformity.
Many different critics have reported what they believe is the meaning of what this movie is about. Many people believe that it either based on McCarthyism. Others on the other hand believe the movie was based on Communism. I on the other hand believe the deeper meaning behind this movie and many other movies like this such as many different werewolf movies is that it is about conformity. Everyone becoming all the same thing whether or not they want to or not. Also the reason why many people believed that it was either McCarthyism or Communism is because the time era when this movie came out, during 1956.
One of the many different critics who have written about The Invasion of The Body Snatchers is John W. Whitehead. Even though Whitehead opinion of this movie was that it was based on McCarthyism, his article gives more than enough support to prove that it is just a basis of conformity. The first example of conformity in Whitehead’s article is when he says in his article that “It was both a mirror of a particular moment in history and a compass indicating the systems of a growing societal illness.” (Whitehead) What he says here is that because of the time when this movie came out that many people had the belief that this had to deal with either McCarthyism or Communism. Though the other part of this sentence proves to state that this reason people did believe that was part to the symptoms of a growing societal illness. This means that just as people were afraid of communist back, if it had came out such as a time period of today it could reference to area that the people of today’s society would be afraid of.
Another example of conformity in Whiteheads article is when he is quoting a man named Lavalley. Lavalley says “it is only because the government-dominated, bureaucratic, and conformist fifties was itself creating an America like this picture of the Soviet Union.” (Whitehead) This statement proves that the main reason why any of the reasons why people believed that The Invasion of The Body Snatchers was considered to be based on Communism or McCarthyism was because of the entire conformist in the time had people to believe this. Proving that from almost every aspect that you look at this movie from conformity can be seen from the movie, The Invasion of The Body Snatchers.
Another critic that has written about The Invasion of The Body Snatchers is Tim Dirks. In his article he states that during the making of this movie, before it was released to the public of America, they added a prologue and epilogue. This shows conformity as that the people even in the movie could not leave the movie as is because they believed the actual ending was too scary for America audiences. So adding this prologue and epilogue would allow the movie to end with McCarthy, the main character coming to a victorious ending and saving America from all of these pods.
Another example of conformity that Dirks uses in his article is when he refers to the scene were some of the pod people are talking to Dr. McCarthy and they say “We can’t let you go. You’re dangerous to us. Don’t fight it, Miles. Sooner or later, you’ll have to go to sleep.” (The Invasion of The Body Snatchers) This relates to conformity because all of these people in his town have turned into pod people and they want him to become one of them. The reason why Dr. McCarthy is dangerous to these pod people because he is different and he could tell other people about them. Also, the reason why they wanted Dr. McCarthy to go to sleep is because that was the way the pod person could take over the regular person. Only when that person went o sleep person could take over and conform into the community.
Both critics are correct as in to the fact that this movie is without a doubt about a certain group conforming other people to be like themselves. Although I do not believe that it can be determined to a certain group just because there is not enough information to prove of being just one group. But there is enough to say is talking about people becoming more conformed. This is shown through all the people in town who all been transformed into these other people through these sea pods. These created sea pods all acts alike which is very plain with no sense of emotion.
I believe that The Invasion of The Body Snatchers has a much deeper meaning behind it. That is that we all conform to some group. Sometimes that can be a good thing, but it also can be a very bad thing. Whether or not we know it or not our family and friends will start to see the influence. Just like the son noticed the change in his mom people know changes in your life also. Eventually over time we will change into the total different person and we might not even be recognized anymore. This movie is warning us not conform but to be ourselves. We don’t have to become mediocre! We can be our own individual self. Being conformed is giving up your individuality and we should run away from that just like in this movie like Dr. McCarthy does.
Bibliography Page:
1.Don Siegel, Invasion of The Body Snatchers, made in 1956
2.Tim Dirks, “Invasion of The Body Snatchers,” (review), http://www.filmsite.org/inva2.html
3.John W. Whitehead, A Tale For Our Times, http://www.gadlyonline/11-26-01/film-snatchers.html