IOTBS & WOTW exam question

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

From a genre standpoint, science fiction has been used countless times as a ‘cautionary tale’ – a warning for human behaviour. Invasion of the Body Snatchers acts as a warning against conformity and the prevalence of paranoia, whereas War of the Worlds reflects on humanity’s fear of annihilation and of ‘others’. Each of these key messages were reflect society at the time of production, prompting further examination of both films’ values and ideologies. Both of these films also use the ‘What if?’ scenario as a starting point, reflecting on issues in society and exaggerating them; an essential part of social commentary. They use the codes and conventions of science fiction to ‘mask’ this social commentary, adding a layer of subtext the audience may not notice on first viewing. The ‘tripods’, ‘pod-people’ and aliens are vague metaphors for the ‘others’ in society at the films’ respective releases.

The narrative of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is non-linear, producing a sense of inevitability rife throughout the film, and does not feature a resolution to its narrative. The ‘invaders’ or ‘pod-people’ and turned humans represent the conformists to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunt for communists in 1950s America, meaning that main character Miles (and, for a while, Becky) is the non-conformist. The binary opposition of non-conformist versus conformists is often seen as non-conformists versus McCarthyism in films of this period. The message of this film is that your beliefs shouldn’t make you an enemy, even to people you know well. By having no clear resolution, IOTBS’ story transitions into the real world of paranoia and indecency from McCarthy still occurring at the time of its release in 1956. It also lacks closure, because the threat of McCarthy still resumes and will do until the audience realises the threat to their own belief system.  

The 2005 version of War of the Worlds unlike ‘Body Snatchers’ features a linear narrative and a clear resolution, at least to the ‘invader’ conflict. The characters, after dealing with such hardship, arrive in Boston and are safe with family. This may suggest that, post-9/11, the American people moved on relied on their families to do so. While Ray may not rekindle his marriage, their family is safe and this brings closure to the overarching narrative. Post-9/11 America was filled with anxiety and paranoia, as in the 1950s with the ‘threat’ of communism, and is reflected in the film’s view of a realistic approach to what happens when the terrorists invade and are winning. There are missing posters, shots of mass debris and huge amounts of destruction – all iconography of the terror attacks in 2001, which should still be apparent only a few years later as the film was in production. These aliens, who once represented conformists or even the communists themselves arguably, now represent the ‘others’ of our society – those with ideologies we can’t understand ourselves integrating into our own.

Even with around 50 years between their releases, both films are similar in their representation of their male and female characters. Laura Mulvey’s ‘The Male Gaze’ need not apply to War of the Worlds, as any of the few female characters in the film aren’t especially sexualised. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, however, features the protagonist Becky Driscoll. Becky is, until the last moments of the film, a protagonist and an assistant to the male character Miles. Her appearance is that of a film star or model, not of a character escaping from certain death – furthering the point in Mulvey’s theory that many female characters are written (or included) as objects of male affection and are sexualised just to appeal to the male demographic. Becky often requires assistance and can’t hold her own without Miles.

Similarly, the representation of males in the film (primarily Miles) include protagonists. Miles is the every-man whom discovers that the town has been taken over, in secret. He embodies the qualities of a hero character, often a strong and active participant in the narrative whereas Becky is a passive character there to be used whenever the narrative asks for her.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers and War of the Worlds both represent a social panic at the time of their productions, but in different ways reflecting the society they were produced in.