There are few films to date that can completely capture the politics and cultural outlook of an era in American history. One of these films, however, is Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The movie was released at a pivotal time in our nation’s history. During the 1950’s, America flourished in many crucial cultural aspects. These included new types of music such as Rock ‘n Roll, the mainstream introduction of the television, and a rapidly growing economy. With these wonderful inventions and new life, America, nevertheless, also had a dark side. Joseph McCarthy, who was the senator of Wisconsin at the time, helped bring about the “Red Scare” with accusations of the communists invading American culture as well as the government. Any un-American act was subject to investigation which made many citizens lose their jobs, family, and even commit suicide. This “Red Scare” greatly affected Hollywood by shredding careers and reputations of anyone believed to be affiliated with Communism. This idea of McCarthyism spread like wildfire throughout our country. Although many, including director Don Siegel, deny any relation between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and McCarthyism, the evidence and overall storyline present overwhelming support to link the two together.
The political allegory of McCarthyism in the film is discussed in John Whitehead’s essay “Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for our Times.” Whitehead breaks the film down into many different scenarios which include interpreting the movie as a symbol for AIDS, fears of the decade, or even the central government controlling the political system. His most compelling interpretation as previously discussed is that of McCarthyism. He states that this movie was a double reading, both “a mirror of a particular moment in history and a compass indicating the symptoms of a growing societal illness” (Whitehead). Tim Dirks also presents us with a different variation of the McCarthyistic view. In his review, he explains, “Yet its main theme was the alien dehumanization and take-over of an entire community by large seed pods” (Dirks). He, like whitehead, also discusses the link between McCarthyism and the storyline by presenting communism in a similar fashion.
While personally viewing the movie, I immediately interpreted the allegory as the spread of McCarthyism in America. McCarthyism nearly destroyed Hollywood by creating the image of communism being evil. It was then the individual in the film industries choice to either be viewed upon as evil, or to keep their careers going. Just like the pod people in the film, Hollywood stars were in many cases brainwashed to show no emotion about their true feelings of politics or they were essentially destroyed. Not only were Hollywood stars swept by the ideas of McCarthyism, everyday citizens also had hearings for any Un-American act reported or affiliations with Communists. In the film, as the main character Miles escapes to the highway to try and save the world from the pods, a pod person stops the bunch exclaiming, ”Wait. Let him go. They’ll never believe him.” This case of not believing was similar in many ways to the trials of accused communists. The hysteria of McCarthyism was so woven into society, that the accused victim had no chance of getting off free even if they were completely innocent. The passing truck in this scene also had on the back, “Los Angeles-San Francisco-Portland.” I believe it was staged to put Los Angeles first because that is the location of Hollywood!
The one scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers that sold me to the idea of McCarthyism was when Dr. Kaufman and Miles were discussing the growing problems of the community outside of a restaurant. Dr. Kaufman seemed to sum up the entire community not feeling right about their loved ones as, “A strange neurosis, evidently contagious, an epidemic mass hysteria. In two weeks, it spread all over town.” When asked what causes such as hysteria he replied, “Worry about what’s going on in the world probably.” It can be easily argued that the writers purposely put this conversation in the script to link “what’s going on in the world” (McCarthyism) to the plot of the movie. Another concept I noticed about the film was that the police was the force mainly responsible of making sure everyone was turned into a pod person. As they are the controlling force in our communities, McCarthyism was the controlling force in our society which in turn made sure the views for Communism were changed.
Even though this movie was a perfect political allegory of the 1950’s in America, it can also be interpreted as a political allegory today. This movie still scares any audience, which is why it has been remade three times. Each time the movie is released, it is during a time where people are conforming to the ideas and ideology of that time period. It was remade during the Vietnam War as well as the Persian Gulf War. In each of these cases, the views of the nation outweighed individual’s thoughts, conforming them to the ideas shared by the majority. In today’s society Operation Iraqi Freedom and the resultant of 9/11 both mold our mindsets into wanting to eliminate terrorism and set up a Democracy in Iraq. The Iraqi people are indifferent about this change but America is not giving them much choice by keeping our soldiers in their country. Even though they fight back just as Miles did in the film, it is hard to stop an inevitable force.
In conclusion, even though many speculate this film has nothing to do with McCarthyism, after viewing the movie and dissecting the dialogue, it is clear both these ideas are linked together. Invasion of the Body Snatchers has a way of gripping audiences of all eras with its descriptive storyline and intriguing action. This movie continues to relate to the ideology of society by its adaptivity and pure genius. These ideas coupled with an always changing society allow this movie to stun audiences of any age and in effect, make it an American classic.
Work Cited
Dirks, Tim. “Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956).” 1996. 01 October 2007. http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html.
Whitehead, John. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Tale for our Times”. Gadfly Online. 1998. 9 Oct. 2007. http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-26-01/film-snatchers.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment