Invasion of the Body Snatchers Essay

It is often said that, “films reflect the times in which they are made”

How far is this true for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)?

The ways in which Invasion of the Body Snatchers reflects the time in which it was made is through the state of panic from Post World War Two as 1950s USA, was in a state of panic over the fear of Annihilation and also paranoia which firstly, here taps into a link of the reality of the 1950s. To begin the analysis of the introduction of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as an audience we can tell that there is a specific threat that is present, however it is not visible, revealing that the threat is immediate and is during the Cold War in the time of McCarthyism. In the introduction it is seen that Miles, is reflected as the “other” due to the fact that whilst he is in the emergency hospital, one of the doctors open the door and see that he is having to be restrained by two security guards so that he doesn’t attack him, which is where we judge Miles as being insane, which is in relation to the types of people labelling individuals in the 1950s.

                 The next part of the opening scene of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is when a flashback takes place of why, Miles was going ballistic as to why the doctors where calling him insane… The flashback consists of Miles opening with a voice over of “ At first glance, everything looked the same. It wasn’t. Something Evil has taken possession of the town.” Which signifies that the threat type is unknown, which is psychological because it was playing on people’s minds day in day out, causing paranoia. This related to the 1950s with people having fear of the ideologies of communists, homosexuality, black people etc…

                Next is the way that Miles establishes the status quo through the environment seeming ‘normal’ as when Miles and Becky come out of his surgery, and it seems to be that nothing bad is evident through the use of the pods taking over at this point, due to Miles says to the trafficking officer, “At it again” the police officer replies in a way that they have been brainwashed almost, just like the way that people were represented as in the 1950s if they were apart of the communist party or if there was people who believed that homosexuality was a disease that could be treated and also the treatment of black people then were acceptable- which reinforces the status quo as people went about how everyone else treated people that were labelled different.

               In the films introduction, it is evident that Jimmy and Becky’s cousin are seen and labelled as deluded due to them claiming that their family members aren’t actually their family members, and that they’re someone different.

In the film, Miles is an icon in the community as he is very familiar as a doctor, because everyone in the world near enough as a set doctor. This is revealed through him actually having to be brought back from a conference because people only had requests to see him- showing that people were paranoid as they were in the 1950s in the USA anyway, but also shows people felt comfortable and felt like they could trust their doctors, which people did in the 1950s, just like the characters in the film can trust Miles. 

     The use of Santa Mira in the film is allegorical for the small towns in America during the 1950s, as it signifies that small towns were in much threat as the rest of America.

     Finally in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, there are indications that people may have complaints, however they don’t raise them, as people may be seen as “other” and therefore seen as a threat. This signifies the Alien Registration Act as congress made it illegal for anyone in the US to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government, which people never did as they’d be arrested, so went along with what they thought would keep them away from the trouble of being arrested, however there were people who went against the government such as the American Communist Party, these were caught however it was hard for the prosecution to prove that they had broken the Alien Registration Act, due to none of them ever causing openly, any violence or being involved in accumulating weapons, which obviously created paranoia to the communities around the US, living in fear of others.