Hegemony and Changing Enemies in American Cinema since 1951

Changing Enemies in American Cinema
Since 1951
By Michael O'Neill

Opening Visual Aid: 600 × 400 - water-technology.net

"I think people want to get into the minds of people who do these kind of things, and they want to see Americans kick their butts."- Arnold Schwarzenegger (Hollywood legend and former governor of California)

Presenter: The above quote from Arnie which I believe to be undoubtedly about hegemony, for those who are unaware what hegemony is the official definition is: leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others. However I personally choose to remember it as "using power, often political to change the views of those you control". 

Presenter: I chose this topic because ever since I watched the "cinematic masterpiece" [add emphasis on the previous two words so that the audience know what I thought of the film - added sarcasm] that is "Invasion of The Body Snatchers", I found it highly intriguing that directors can so cleverly reflect the "dangers" of our society through camera shots and character behaviour, once I was introduced to this way of thinking the way I watched films changed immensely. A favourite example of mine would be how in the 2013 blockbuster hit "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" the people of panem (fictional location of the film) have no problem viewing death and murder on television but are greatly offended by Joanna Mason's swearing because swearing is "wrong". I believe that scene highly reflects our real life media habits because its perfectly fine to view death on the news during tea time but swearing on television before the 9 o'clock watershed creates great uproar.

Presenter: The first film I will be discussing is Edgar G. Ulmer's 1951 science fiction film "The Man from Planet X" I chose to study this film because at the time America was in the period known as "The Red Scare". For those who are not aware, the red scare was a time when America's greatest "enemy" was Communism and the red scare gets its name as the primary colours of the Communist flag are red and yellow.

Presenter: Above is the cinematic poster for "The Man from Planet X", I chose to add the poster because I believe it is the perfect starting point for the films analysis. The first noteworthy aspect of the poster would be the choice of colour for the films title, the designer chose to use RED and YELLOW. As stated above these are the the two primary colours of the Communist flag:

Presenter: The second poster analysis would be that the woman (who appears to be character Enid Elliot) is wearing a red dress, this again represents Communism and she is looking passionately at the "alien" or "other" as they were commonly called in similar films at the time. The fact that she is looking passionately at the alien whilst wearing the communist themed red dress suggests to the audience that Enid has become foolish and fell victim to the alleged communist threat and this alone establishes the American people's fear of Annihilation.

Presenter: My next analysis will be another character based one, this time the mysterious titular character: "The Man from Planet X". The first thing I noticed is that his helmet and spacesuit give off a green glow:

Presenter: As you can see from the image taken from the opening titles of "The Simpsons" a green glow can be used to suggest radiation, the poster suggests that "The Man from Planet X" has fell victim to some form of radiation poisoning, which could've been triggered by the Communists dropping the nuclear bomb thus establishing the red scare. To back-up my previous point that the "other" suffered the effects of radiation I will draw your attention to the characters head:

Presenter: As you can see here the aliens head is almost twice the size of Enid's, this small detail follows a distinct pattern that many American film directors/creators chose to follow during the 1950's, this pattern is to simply show the enemy as "freaks": Invasion of The Body Snatchers portrayed followers of McCarthyism as "pod people", the 1954 science fiction film "Them" chose to portray Communists as giant mutant ants.