Compare how key messages and values are explored in two American Films you have studied in reflecting the period they were made

Compare how key messages and values are explored in two American Films you have studied in reflecting the period they were made

In the two American movies, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and War of the Worlds certain themes are explored high lighting important messages and values surrounding the time they were made. Both correlate with the situations occurring during the time periods.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers was made in 1956 during a time when Joseph McCarthy was in charge, and with his paranoia of Communists taking over the country it resulted in a lot of fear for the citizens he ruled. This is reflected in the movie through the use of  the antagonists, the Pod People (which can be interpreted to be McCarthy followers or Communists- but for this essay, they are presented as McCarthy followers), which show how a mass amount of followers with certain ideologies can take over the opposing smaller group, which would ultimately annihilate the smaller following.  It also shows the difficulty to escape McCarthyism as even if you did not follow it, you would become a suspicion and labelled as a communist, which turned people against you. This is shown through Miles and Becky because as the story progresses their now-pod-people-family- and-friends are turning against them and trying to force them to divert to their ideologies.

This is similar in War of the Worlds; it came out in 2005, not long after the terrorist attack on the world trade centre and the film makes a connection between the current culture and society and portrays it on the big screen. It presents the fear and paranoia of another expected terrorist attack and has certain allegories that links with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A lot of the shots on the attacks are shown from low angle shots, presumably to make the attackers seem more threatening and stronger, but also, because the shots of 9/11 were from witnesses on the ground looking up. There are other strong connections such as people hiding behind cars to curiously take a look at the strange happening and the iconography of people being vaporized into grey dusts whilst others are covered it links with the streets when the twin towers fell. Also shots of people filming the attack on cameras and mobile phones links with the fact that most of the 9/11 footage came from witnesses on the ground using the same devices to record the attack.

There is another iconic scenes whereby when the outsiders are attacking Rachel shouts “Is that the terrorists?” which sums up the society she grew up in with the fear of another attack and expectancy of one happening due to the 2001 attacks.

The 1950s was also very patriarchal society which is again reflected in Invasion of the Body Snatchers as Miles, the protagonists is the active character, shown protecting the other characters and making decisions where as the female characters like Becky are shown taking care of the men, making them coffee and being the more passive characters that need protecting. There is a scene where Becky and Miles are being chased and it’s Miles who is literally pulling her along and carrying her as though she cannot manoeuvre herself, and in the crowd that is chasing them, not one of them is a woman. This shows how women were thought of in the 1950s, only useful to make a cup of tea and a typical liability for the men.

You can see in War of the Worlds that Spielberg tried to slightly divert from this view but failed at his attempt, as overall Ray, the protagonist was the ultimate active hero protecting his family and getting them home to his ex-wife. His ex-wife in the beginning of the movie tries to clean up Rays house, which can be thought of as an active act, but in comparison to the theme of the movie, a clean house is irrelevant due to the mass destruction of most of the world.

The two films are both Sci-fi, which gives the director a chance to explore the ‘what-if’ situations, and in this case, it would be ‘what if aliens attacked?’ and whilst War of the Worlds has the typical happy ending with a reuniting of family to give a sense of hope for the audience, Invasion of the Body Snatches however, does not have a full resolution with the defeat of the pod people. This is because whilst the film was being made, McCarthyism was still occurring and nobody had any clue to how it would end which is reflected in the movie as the Pod People are still out there and growing in mass amounts.