essay question

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

The two films I have studied are Invasion of the Body Snatchers and War of the Worlds. Both of these films represent on-going events at the time they were made, Invasion of the Body Snatchers representing past society however War of the Worlds focusing on modern society. Both of these American films have a sci-fi genre however Invasion of the Body Snatchers represents the red scare and McCarthyism where as War of the World reflects modern day post 9/11 society and how it is affected by the terrorists of 9/11.

The themes and ideologies of these two films are firstly represented through genre. The genre of a film includes the ‘what if?’ scenario, this is used in both films as the films reflected every day society at the time that they were made. Foe example, Invasion of the Body Snatchers reflects how society was split between the followers of McCarthy and the majority of society which McCarthy liked to call ‘anti-Americans’ however the film showed how this could change if society didn’t try to stop McCarthyism from becoming the majority. On the other hand, War of the Worlds reflected society today in that it brought across the paranoia that many suffer from due to the 9/11 terrorists. This film also displayed the fear of annihilation and the unknown as America feel as if they are under a huge threat of being annihilated by terrorists.

The use of narrative in film also helps to portray the themes of the two American films. A technique used in narrative is binary oppositions in which the audience can clearly see the conflict between both sides of the story. Some binary oppositions in Invasion of the Body Snatchers include good and evil, one ideology against another and McCarthyism versus communism. In War of the Worlds the binary oppositions include technology against nature and good versus evil. The use of binary opposition helps the audience become aware of the protagonists (the good characters who the audience usually take sides with) and the antagonists (the villains or the opposing characters) in film, such as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers the audience see everything through the eyes of Miles therefore they take sides with him and know that he is the protagonist whereas we see the pod people against Miles as we only see them from Miles’ viewpoint therefore we know that they are the antagonists. Furthermore, in War of the Worlds we are introduced to the family first in the exposition therefore the audience build a relationship with them before the aliens are introduced during the development, because of this we see everything from Ray and the children’s point of view therefore we immediately become aware that the family are our protagonists and the aliens are the antagonists of the film.

The narrative in film is the stages of the film that we can clearly see which make it flow and the very last step in a narrative is called the resolution; in these two American films the resolutions are very different however they have been made this way to portray a message to the audience. The resolution on War of the Worlds is that the aliens are destroyed and the family are reunited, this has been done to tell the audience within a post 9/11 society that America will always stick together no matter what and is represented through a family in War of the Worlds. On the contrary, Invasion of the Body Snatchers has no resolution; this is done to make the audience think about the allegory of this film after they have left the cinema and will make them realise that the only resolution to McCarthyism is themselves therefore they must not follow him however they should try to prevent his ideology from becoming the majority opinion in America.

Finally, the representation of the film also puts across the themes in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and War of the Worlds. In Invasion of the Body Snatchers, we don’t become aware that the pod people are antagonists and Miles is the protagonist until the pod people start becoming the majority. This tells us that Miles represents society and the pod people represent the McCarthy followers and how they are gradually becoming the majority in American society.