how far do the american films you have studied convey key themes in simular ways

The two films that I have studied are "invasion of the body snatchers" and "War of the World". The invasion of the body snatchers is a film based on communism/ McCarthyism in the 1950's. McCarthyism is the practice of  unfair investigative technique, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism. The film "Invasion of the body snatchers"is considered to be allegorical due to the people in America losing their identity's in the1950's because of John McCarthy, in the movie the towns  lose their identity to "The PODS".War of the worlds is a post 9/11 cinematic film; this means that a film has been made due to being influenced by the tragic event on 9/11/2001.Although the book was written in 1898 before 9/11 happened, the director of the film Steven Spielberg creates a subconscious twist to change it to a post 9/11 film. An example of this is when the the plane crashes into Rays ex wife's home , this relates to the plane crashing into the world trade centre. Both of the films have similar themes which I will explain in this essay, the two main themes I will be explaining are the "Fear of others" and "Paranoia" .

The theme "fear of others" ( also knows as xenophobia) is shown throughout both films. 

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers uses this theme in the first few scenes where Miles encounters two people who claim that their relatives are ‘different’ with no logically proof. Both individuals ‘uncle ira’ and ‘little jimmy’s mother’ look, sound and remember the same and in miles’ eyes they seem to still be themselves. The only flaw is that their families can see that something is ‘different'. The lack of evidence leads miles to shrug it off as  ‘psychological conditions’. This is a commentary on the threat to Americans, representing how McCarthyism grew from a small issue to a national one.  More and more people started to take in the POV of McCarthy and those who didn’t were immediately seen as threats, relating to them as ‘others’ and that’s their xenophobia.People under suspicion became paranoid.  

War Of The Worlds comments on the "Fear of Others" through the aliens.  Society's perspective of Xenophobia at the time was foreigners , especially "Muslims" who they’d assume were terrorists, however War of the worlds used this stereotype to their advantage because of the paranoia and the fears of the Americans at the time in New York.
Spielberg changes how the aliens murder the humans, instead of burning them to death they turn into grey smoke, this resembles the wave of ashes as the two towers collapsed on 9/11, also we see a Close up of a man holding a video camera then dropping it in awe, this shot is powerful as it links to the footage shown as the 9/11 attack took place.

The theme Paranoia is used in both films.

 In Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Miles exploits the theme of paranoia as he is constantly on edge about the people and 'pods' around him. The number of pods have began to increase and show up in positions of authority i.e. the police. Miles results in travelling to his nurses house hoping for help only to find out that all of his close friend are also there, they have all been 'assimilated' and changed into pods . This is a reference to the paranoia  many Americans were feeling as McCarthy was seen as a major threat but nobody would stand against him. Miles becomes more paranoid throughout the film as he begins losing friendship and trust of those closest to him due to the 'pods'.

War Of The Worlds comments on the paranoia of terrorists in new York after 9/11. An example would be when we first see the tripods. The tripods emerge from the ground which indicates that they have always been there. This links to the 9/11 attacks because the threat came from the interior of the city because the terrorists were living in New York to begin with. Another example would be later on in the film when our main character, Ray Ferrier, tries to get out of the city. As him and his children jump into a car to get away from the tripods his daughter asks “Is it terrorists?” This symbolizes that she has acknowledged their attacking before, rachel lived through 9/11 and the paranoid accusations are primary instinct to guessing who the attackers are.  The follow up attacks from the tripods when the trio managed to find the mother’s house also is a signifier of the 9/11 attacks as there is a crashed plane outside of the building, the tripods are using transport as weapons like the terrorists did.