‘Films always reflect the times and places in which they are made.’ How far is this true of the American films you have studied for this topic

War of the Worlds is a post 9/11 film and is allegorical of the current situation in America with the war on terror and the constant threat from terrorism. The key themes represented in War of the Worlds are paranoia, fear of annihilation and threats from outsiders or ‘others’. The Aliens are intent on exterminating human life and replacing it with their own. They see humans as inferior and unworthy beings that should be destroyed. They are difference in appearance, practice and alien way of life and follow a challenging ideology – they are positioned perfectly to represent Americas view on terrorist’s post 9/11. In film ‘icons’ are visual signifiers used to transmit information about a character or location the audience. Audiences recognise icons of 9/11 in the film and a link is made between the two events. This is the goal of the film and contributes to War of the Worlds status as a post 9/11 film. Throughout the scene when the aliens are attacking at the start we see lots of allegorical shots. Most of the shots are from low angle this links to 9/11 as most of the footage was shot from people on the ground. Also the grey dust people turn into is visually reminiscent of the dust clouds that swarmed New York after the collapse of the Twin Tower. The track towards and close up of the video camera – we see the events via a video camera, the same method most images from 9/11 were recorded and then broadcast around the world. War of the Worlds uses iconography of the 9/11 terror attacks to create links between the events seen in the film and real life. By doing this Spielberg is drawing comparisons between the real and ‘un-real’. He sets the film in a post 9/11 world this places the film in a context. The themes if fear, paranoia etc. are feelings felt by society and the film taps in to those feelings and manipulates them – subconscious links between the causes of the real fear and the fear generated in the film are made.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ is a film about a small town slowly taken over by ‘pod-people’ – aliens that take the form of a person, almost identical to those inhabiting the town. However, the film is often seen as a statement about the ‘red scare’ and the fear of communism sweeping across America in the 1950s. The accepted reading is that these pod-people represent the people out to catch these hidden communists, HUAC (The House of Un-American Activities Committee) led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, especially in the American film industry. The protagonist in the film is miles and the antagonist is the pod –people. First antagonists miles encounters are dismissed as potential mental patients, its only when the narrative develops and a number of pod people increases – that miles considers them as antagonists. Direct links can be found via connections to McCarthy and is followers as the ideology’s and methods of McCarthy’s followers/Pod People replace the dominant ideology. The ending of the film has a cliff hanger, this could connote that due to the film being made in a time where there were no clear conclusions to the threat of a communist invasion or McCarthy's 'Red Scare' theory and actions, that the director of the film is trying to promote the ideology that there is still no clear conclusion to the problems of the time.