Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion of the Body Snatchers reflects the time it was made. One of the first people we meet is from a mental asylum, presenting a psychological issue within the town the film is set in, Santa Mira. Miles, the person who is being questioned by the doctor insists nothing is wrong with him, reflecting how homosexuals would have felt during the 1950s when people wouldn’t believe that nothing was wrong with them. This introduces us to a paranoid and panicked America, the opposite of how America is typically presented in films, powerful and fearless. This shows the change in US society, as well as the fear and general paranoia that existed in 1950s America.

Miles introduces us to the town of Santa Mira. It is a fictional town that represents what an ordinary America should look like, the vast majority of residents are upholding the status quo. This also shows that everybody can be affected by anything. Santa Mira also shows that a national threat can be created anywhere, even in a small town such as this. Some people in the town believe that their relatives are different to usual, reflecting the paranoia people had at the time. Jimmy thinks that his mother is not his mother and Uncle Ira’s niece believes he is not her uncle. Both Jimmy and Uncle Ira’s niece are seen as acting out from the status quo, showing that people who did not conform to what was considered normal were seen as ‘others’ to those who did conform. This reflects the early followers of McCarthy who were viewed as inferior because they had differing ideologies to the majority of the country. Both Jimmy and Uncle Ira’s niece look like they have a psychological issue because they think something is wrong with their relatives. This reflects people’s views on those who supported communism in America. Jimmy and Uncle Ira’s niece also show how suspicious people were of each other in the 1950s, they both assumed something was wrong just because a person was acting differently, this is reflective of how people in the 1950s viewed people who had differing ideologies to them.

Miles, the ‘hero’, is an ordinary and relatable everyman, showing that everybody can fight any problem, reflecting 1950s America when people were encouraged to point out and name homosexuals who were considered a problem at the time.

The first pod-person we meet is a police officer, he appears normal but he is psychologically different. We meet a police officer first because authority is one of the three key factors for conformity, showing that people would conform because a police officer that has more power than them told them to.  This also taps into people’s fears at the time because if a person with a lot of authority could be manipulated, then anybody could.

As the number of pod-people rises, they start to become what they would view as ‘normal’. The number of non-pod-people becomes much less, therefore showing that the pod-people are now the status quo. This is used to represent the how of McCarthyism grew because at first he only had a small number of followers, who were viewed by everybody else as a minor, irrelevant threat. They were seen as the ‘others’ of society because of their different ideology. As McCarthy gained more and more followers, it started to become the status quo and those who did not conform to McCarthyism were now seen as the ‘others’ of society. The followers of McCarthy shifted from being a minority to being the majority.