SSC Film Studies

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

The key messages and values explored in War of The Worlds and Invasion of The Body Snatchers are things such as Patriarchal society, McCarthyism, communism, post 9/11, male gaze, active and passive roles and many other things. However I will only be discussing the important messages and values that are explored within the two films and how they have been reflected in the period they were made.

 Firstly I will discuss how the roles of men and women are viewed throughout the two films. Throughout the two films the male protagonist drives the story forward and in many situations is seen as the hero. The male characters play a significantly more dominant role than the female characters for example in IOTBS the protagonist (Miles) Is given the task of finding out what is going on in the town and why people are acting strange. The male characters are portrayed in both films as figures of security and safety, this is seen in both films. Firstly in WOTW the protagonist (Ray) is seen as a figure of safety and security by his children as they look to him to protect them and keep them safe. Secondly in IOTBS Miles is seen as a figure of safety and security by Becky. Becky puts her faith in the hands of Miles as he is the only person in the town that she can truly trust.  Women take a very passive role in the two films and are portrayed as an object that the male roles must save in order to maintain their hero like status (male gaze theory), an example of this is the scene in WOTW where ray is trying to get his daughter out of harms way as several men try to highjack the car they where currently in.

Another underlining message is the portrayal of McCarthyism within IOTBS. This is done by making the main villains (the pod people) very similar to McCarthy’s followers, by making the pod people indistinguishable from the average humans. Just like the pod people McCarthy’s followers cannot be identified by the naked eye because what makes them unlike the average populous at the time was their political view. Also just like McCarthy the pod people are trying to force their ideologies upon the town without them letting them think for them selves. The underlining message of McCarthyism is portrayed in the film to show the political tension that was occurring at the time the film was made and to show the public what McCarthy was trying to do to the general public.