Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) was a horror/science fiction film that responded to the Cold War and Atomic Age anxieties of the 1950s. On the surface, this was a typical 50s B-movie (low-budget commercial film), but it became one of the best science fiction thrillers of the period because it highlighted contemporary fears. The movie’s title was taken from Jack Finney’s source novel, The Body Snatchers (1955). Under Allied Artists, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was directed by Don Siegel and produced by Walter Wagner. After a professional conference, Dr. Miles Bennell returns to his small town practice in Santa Mira, California to find several of his patients suffering from the paranoid delusion that their friends or relatives are
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Major issues such as the decline of cinema audiences and attacks on the studio structure by government agencies led to a loss of revenue, which harmed the American industry. Thus, the American industry was forced it into rapid and serious change. The most important shift began in the late 1940s when audiences at US movie houses began to fall. By the 1960s, US movie house attendance was half of what it used to be in the glory days. As a result, thousands of formerly flourishing theaters were now closed …show more content…
In the film, the invasion engenders hysteria among the townsfolk. The film can be seen as a paranoid warning against Communism. Public concerns about communism were heightened by international events. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb and communist forces led by Mao Zedong (1893-1976) took control of China. The following year saw the start of the Korean War (1950-53), which engaged U.S. troops in combat against the communist-supported forces of North Korea. The advances of communism around the world convinced many U.S. citizens that there was a real danger of “Reds” taking over their own country. Figures such as McCarthy and Hoover “fanned the flames” of fear by wildly exaggerating that possibility. During the height of the Cold War, the fear of Communism reached a fever pitch. The townspeople in Invasion of the Body Snatchers become emotionless, conformist zombies and this illustrates the loss of individual identity that right-wing thinkers commonly associated with Communism. Don Siegel was not the most liberal or left-wing of directors of the 1950s. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers depicts 'small town America' under threat – it gets right at the heart of American values of the family and individual freedom. This could represent the fear the Communism was creeping into
Major issues such as the decline of cinema audiences and attacks on the studio structure by government agencies led to a loss of revenue, which harmed the American industry. Thus, the American industry was forced it into rapid and serious change. The most important shift began in the late 1940s when audiences at US movie houses began to fall. By the 1960s, US movie house attendance was half of what it used to be in the glory days. As a result, thousands of formerly flourishing theaters were now closed …show more content…
In the film, the invasion engenders hysteria among the townsfolk. The film can be seen as a paranoid warning against Communism. Public concerns about communism were heightened by international events. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb and communist forces led by Mao Zedong (1893-1976) took control of China. The following year saw the start of the Korean War (1950-53), which engaged U.S. troops in combat against the communist-supported forces of North Korea. The advances of communism around the world convinced many U.S. citizens that there was a real danger of “Reds” taking over their own country. Figures such as McCarthy and Hoover “fanned the flames” of fear by wildly exaggerating that possibility. During the height of the Cold War, the fear of Communism reached a fever pitch. The townspeople in Invasion of the Body Snatchers become emotionless, conformist zombies and this illustrates the loss of individual identity that right-wing thinkers commonly associated with Communism. Don Siegel was not the most liberal or left-wing of directors of the 1950s. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers depicts 'small town America' under threat – it gets right at the heart of American values of the family and individual freedom. This could represent the fear the Communism was creeping into