There was a line in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers that seemed to sum up everything I wanted to cover about the alien invasion and replacement of the true person for the "revised" one, but the reading does not at first seem to back up the line. To paraphrase (since I was writing and listening and completely lost track of what I was writing down), Mile's voice over said something along the lines that after we lose humanity and have to fight for it we realize how precious it is. The humanity of the population of his great town is being stripped by the alien forces and he is forced to either comply or fend off against the growing alien population. At first the quote doesn't seem to resonate with much of Katrina Mann's "You're Next!" article because she focuses on the anxieties of the postwar 50s, but perhaps the article and this loss of humanity can be correlated somehow.
What was American "humanity" in the 50s? From past movies and articles we might be able to say that America's humanity was a white democracy in a male and middle class dominated society. If you will accept my definition of American humanity (aka the status quo of the time. I know it's a stretch but bare with me) then perhaps it's easier to find a connection between this line from the movie and an argument or two from Mann's article. The movie draws on the fear of losing the normalcy during the time of anti-Communism. Every 50s stereotype seems to be played on this film: the assertive, do-gooder dominant male; the complacent women of the town who are fragile and timid; and society working together in perfect harmony. Nothing could possibly go wrong in such a white washed little town. So we think.
The aliens stand for everything that stands against normalcy. Though the article's use of race seemed to almost be far-fetched to most of us in class considering there were no minorities used in the film, there does seem to be a point made in Mann's article. She talks of African American families starting to move into white small towns more after World War II. This was definitely something against the norm in these towns. Normalcy is what keeps the people of the town in the film "human." When things change, people get scared. The same could be said for the migration of African Americans and other minorities "invading" the towns of rural middle class white neighborhoods. Again, if we are accepting my definition of American humanity in that era, we can see how this migration can be related to Mile's line about losing humanity.
To derail from the article, the alien invasion has its obvious connections to fear of Communism. Our capitalist society cannot fathom a world where everyone is paid the same and not an individual. The individual could also be part of the "humanity" definition considering that is what the town in the film was losing because of the aliens. They are emotionless and expendable with no personal motives. They don't waste time on individual concerns such as love or money for themselves. Sounds like a pretty obvious tie to Communism, but didn't the director say he was just making a film and it's nothing more than just a horror film? I think that statement is more far-fetched than my definition of American humanity in the 50s.
I think you bring up a lot of good points in your post. I too believe that the film was trying to portray American humanity being at stake in the 1950’s. While the article had some farfetched ideas, I think the central theme was the changing culture during this time in America. I think the film represents all the fears the American public had during this time. The “body snatchers” could represent so many things for the American people, change, and invasion by other countries, invasion of communist ideas, and the race migration to the suburbs. At the same time, I wonder if we’re making too much out of the movie. While the film could potentially represent all of these things, was that the intention of the filmmakers? Or was the film simply a science fiction story of alien robots? It’s hard for me to decide. I liked how the article gave many possibilities for representation in the film, whether they are far stretched or not. There were so many anxieties in post war 1950 I can see how this movie would serve as a theme to these fears.
ReplyDeleteYou say a lot and precisely in a short space, Scott. What counts as 'normal' and 'human' in 1950s small-town America is very definitely a point of anxiety, in precisely the ways that you outline. Nice work with Mann's article too. You grasp her arguments nicely, and I agree they could have been made more concisely. What she's doing that I think is interesting is pushing against the widely accepted interepretation that this movie is about communism into an examination of other sorts of more domestic tensions--which again you outline nicely.
ReplyDeletePity most of your peers flaked on you. :-( This post is exemplary.