Historical Innovation: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

During the 1950s in America, Hollywood was producing films that were generated by a type of postwar disenchantment. Shaped by the aftermath of World War II, distrust of communist intentions made its way into American filmmaking as metaphors in horror and sci-fi films. By creating metaphors for the social anxieties that surrounded the US at this time, filmmakers were able to add underlying tones of current political agendas into Hollywood blockbusters. The film I chose, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ was released in 1956, directed by Don Siegel, and stars Kevin McCarthy and Dana Winters. The black-and-white film is set in the fictional town of Santa Mira, California where Dr. Miles Bennell (McCarthy) notices that the people in his town are worried that their loved ones have been replaced by imposters. These imposters, although look completely identical to their original, have seemed to have been replaced by emotionless imposters. After many doubts from not just his own logical and medical ideology but from others in the town as well, his suspicions turn out to be true. This quaint, Californian town has been taken over by alien life forms that morph into their human twins in plant-like pods, and have an unstoppable mission to turn the entire town, and the rest of the world, into these alien creatures. This film represents 1950’s cinema because it presents a narrative of anxieties around communism, the fear of the “unknown” especially in technology and space, and the panic around nuclear radiation and nuclear materials being used in the war. Through the use of science fiction effects and a mysterious and unseen monster or antagonist, the film can create a tone of pure paranoia and distrust with the characters and the events in the film.

The ideals of McCarthyism are strong in this film, as Dr. Bennell becomes more and more paranoid in trying to distinguish who has/has not been changed. He must make assumptions about the people around him to attempt to know whom he can trust. During this time, America was paranoid about communism seeping into their politics and films and the McCarthyism practice of public accusations against people related to communism and socialism was common. The stereotype around communism at this time was cold, emotionless people set to turn everyone towards their beliefs. In the film, people were turned into emotionless robots set to make everyone like them. Bennell states in the film, “in my practice, I’ve seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. Only it happened slowly instead of all at once. They don’t seem to mind… All of us- a little bit- we harden our hearts, grow callous. Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is to us, how dear.” (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). This could be related to the fight against communism and the fight to protect American ideals and the American way of life. An even more specific moment in the film occurs in the final scene when Bennell is escaping Santa Mira. He is running through the highway trying desperately to get a car to stop and listen to his warnings. Everyone is dismissing him, so he turns directly to the camera in an extreme close-up shot and speaks to the audience in an obvious call to action, “Look, you fools, you’re in danger! Can’t you see?! They’re after you! They’re after all of us! Our wives, our children, everyone! They’re here, already! You’re next!” (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). This is arguably the strongest line in the film, as Bennell is speaking directly to the audience and warning them that these unknown and mysterious creatures are not just taking over their beloved small American towns, but that they already have. This could be seen as an allusion to the deep-rooted American fear of communist ideals taking over US politics, and the choice to speak directly to the audience makes this an even stronger message, telling the viewers that they too should be afraid of the unknown rather than just the characters in the film. By using science fiction conventions as metaphors for real-world war, politics, and corruption, the film can successfully create a fictional world of horror and otherworldly experiences and relate it to the state of America during the 1950s.

The fear of new technology and space during the 1950s was strong. During this time, dramatic improvements in a variety of technology altered American culture and the way that Americans viewed civilization. As more families owned televisions, they came to rely on them more and more for news and entertainment. Furthermore, the Cold War was a competition between the Soviets and the United States in every sense. Although the Space Race did not start until after this movie was released, the tensions between the two countries were high and both were working towards exploring space. The seed pods were considered an extraterrestrial invasion, where these alien plant spores that fell from space root themselves into the ground and grow into identical copies of the town’s citizens. The idea of an extraterrestrial invasion could be a metaphor for both an invasion of communism and the Soviet Union as well as an invasion of otherworldly aliens from space. Both ideas create a fear of the unknown and the fear of a powerful entity taking over the quiet and conservative American way of life. Dr. Kauffman (already changed into his alien form) observes this idea in the film when he says, “now just think, less than a month ago, Santa Mira was like any other town. People with nothing but problems. Then, out of the sky came a solution. Seeds drifting through space for years took root in a farmer’s field. From the seeds came pods which had the power to reproduce themselves in the exact likeness of any form of life” (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The un-human desire for a world with no emotions is very alien and could be a subtle allusion to the postwar disenchantment with US life that followed WWII. The post-war American pessimism that occurred during the 1950s created pessimism to the point of nihilism. During the film, Dr. Bennell argues with Dr. Kauffman about the need for emotions in life, when Kauffman replies, “You say it as if it were terrible. Believe me, it isn’t. You’ve been in love before. It didn’t last. It never does. Love. Desire. Ambition. Faith. Without them, life is so simple, believe me (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The film leaves the interpretation of what these body snatchers exactly are up to the viewer when Bennell states during a narration, “Maybe they’re the result of atomic radiation on plant life or animal life. Some weird alien organism – a motion of some kind…whatever it is, whatever intelligence or instinct it is that govern the forming of human flesh and blood out of thin air, is fantastically powerful… all that body in (Becky aka Dana Winters) cellar needed was a mind” (Invasion of the Body Snatchers).

The film overall is highly assuming and never gives the audience a straightforward answer to the question, what do these pods represent? Since the most obvious fear in 1950s America is communism, many comparisons can be made between the fear of communism and the fear of body snatching seed pods. The anxiety of ordinary Americans being communist spies is reflected during the beginning of the film when characters claimed that their friends and family members were missing something inside themselves that made them appear as cold, emotionless replicas of their once human selves. During the scene where Dr. Bennell and Becky hide in his office after being chased by the new townspeople, the director uses high-angle long shots from the office looking down on the center of the town. Although it appears that these people are going about their normal Saturday activities, the town is filled with replicas who are mindlessly moving about before they can complete their mission of picking up pods to replace the humans in their neighboring towns. The sensation that this transition is something that feels familiar yet so foreign. Miles (Dr. Bennell)’s office is cluttered and claustrophobic, showing how trapped the two characters are in the town. The constant disbelief in the film towards any characters that question this transition creates a subtle nod to the idea of “The Red Scare”. Dr. Kauffman initially refers to these worries from the townspeople before they are changed as an “epidemic of mass hysteria”. At this time in America, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was formed to lead witch hunts against people in all areas of America that were suspected of having communist or leftist ideals. Blacklists were created and people that were considered a threat to the American way of life were jailed. This creates a possible second narrative, one that is questioning the social conformity and single-minded ideas that were promoted and encouraged during this time. These ideas show up in the film as a possible critique of the anti-communist frenzy that occurred during the 1950s, and a satirical approach to the Red Scare and McCarthyism. Both criticisms are apparent in the film, giving criticism and comment on both the external threat of foreign invasion and the internal threat of conformity and absolutism.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers exudes a cultural sentiment of the American 1950s through the critique of communism, post-war anxieties, political corruption, and social disenchantment. Although Siegel denied viewers’ speculations about the film and claimed that there were no political intentions in his film, the open-ended themes and fact that the mysterious antagonistic power was never shown on camera leave the answer up to the mind of the viewer. The scariest part of the film was that this enemy was never given a form, rather it stays in the mind as an idea, enhancing strong paranoia and anxiety in the hearts of the film characters and viewers alike.