Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Revision)

Melissa Lovell
Eng 101
Weinstein
12 October 2007

The movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers has been around for a while. Before we watched the movie with the class, our teacher told us to read some critical interpretations some other people had made when they watched the movie. The one interpretation that stuck out to me the most was the one that suggested that this movie was a science-fiction movie with an underlying message about politics and communism. The next day in class when we started to watch the movie, all I could think about was if it was a science fiction movie or not. The movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a science fiction movie with an underlying message about communism.

Tim Dirks stated in his critical interpretation that this movie is a science fiction movie. Dirks does see a political message in the movie. He thinks that there is some form of science fiction in the movie and he also thinks that it is underlined by some political message referring to communism. The movie is about pods that transform into the people that they are around. When you go to sleep, the pods take over your mind and then take over their bodies. Tim Dirks saw the people being taken over by the pods but he also saw the references to communism. He saw the way the people acted after they had been taken over by the pods and he saw how that could relate to when communist take over a country. He knew that when some people saw the movie their were going to see the reference to communism, but he couldn’t help but also see the science fiction in the movie. When the movie came out there had just been the Red Scare and so most people had communism on their mind so I think that maybe that is why some people saw the communism in this movie. He also thinks that some people think that the movie is about communism because the writer and producer were thought to be communists. The things that you hear before you watch the movies are going to greatly effect how someone views a movie. Many others have viewed his interpretation the same way.


When I watched the movie, the interpretation that I took away from the movie, it that it did indeed have some messages that showed that the creator was talking about communism. I even thought that it was a tad bit scary. We talked as a class before we watched the movie and after we watched the movie. Some people in the class thought that the movie did have some communism ideas in the movie. Some others in the class thought about the movie in a sense that it was only a science fiction movie and that there were no underlying messages. The people are so normal at first and then when the pod people take over their bodies they become like robots. The things that the people said and the way they acted were funny. Some people in the class argued that the pods that took over the peoples bodies was just like what the communists do when they take over a country and the people there. In one part of the movie, the people that have been taken over by the pods get more pods to take to their families in other counties to turn them into pod people. Some people in the class also saw how some one could have taken that as communism. When we talked as a class, we discussed that the era that movies are made in and the things that are going on influence the way that people view the things that are in the movie. So if you decide to watch the movie with the thinking that it is going to be scary, you should be prepared for a few scary moments.

If you watch this movie, you should expect to see some fairly scary moments. At one point in the movie, the doctor is looking in the basement for a pod and he opens the top to a cellar type thing and there is a pod body growing in there. I have to say that this part of the movie scared me. There are some good parts when the people change from normal humans to pod people and they start acting different. They act quite creepy and they seem just like robots. There is a good chase scene when the doctor and his girlfriend are running away from the people who are trying to turn them into pod people. Then the girl gets taken over by the pod and she just changes all of a sudden. She is talking to him and then all of a sudden she changes and looks weird and starts talking weird. It would not be the best scary movie now days, but back when it first cam out I bet it was one of the scariest movies out then.

I would suggest watching this movie to everyone. It has its scary moments and then it has its funny moments. I think that it is always fun to watch old movies and see how many things have changed since then. Some people may watch the movie and see the political allegory, the communism, or some other form of government involvement in this movie. Some people may just see the movie as a bad science, fiction movie.