Invasion of the Body Snatchers

In the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" the story shows many relationships and characteristics between communists and aliens from outer space. The movie also shows a lot of propaganda that was around during the Cold War. During this paper I will show what key relationships between the two that I made.

One thing I noticed in the movie is that the restaurants were empty which relates to communism in the fact that in a communist society you do not go out and eat because everyone does there part to better the nation and eating out and is not necessary for that. Another major thing from the movie is that all the people that were swapped out with aliens looked exactly the same but didn't have emotion, which ties into the propaganda about communism in that the you couldn't tell if someone is a communist by looking at them, but they are emotionless conformist and the entire movie the protagonist (Dr.Binell) is trying not to become an alien and stay an individual or human. which I find ironic because McCarthyism told people to conform and not have your own political view or you will be punished. The movie also used fear by showing a common American town being taken over and then it spreading to other towns like a disease because that's how people thought of communism, not as an idea but more like evil that will destroy your way of life. another thing they show in the movie is how the first people to be changed are the government workers and the press and this shows how turning into a communist town would take away freedom of speech and it also shows how everyone would work for the government in that type of environment; that or it shows how they would take over, I'm not really sure.

In a way this movie reminds me of the short clip we saw of a town simulating what would happen if they were taken over by communists because it's basically the same propaganda ideas in both. Another thing I noticed in the movie is in the part were Dr. Kaufman and Jack try to convince Dr. Binell and Becky to sleep and accept the change it sounds like they are brain \washed and they are trying to brainwash Dr. Binell and Becky too; and I think that's probably what people thought back then is that the communists brainwashed you and made into them. And the public probably believed that because the government was making other propaganda like this movie.

Overall if the goal of this movie was to scar people into hating communists and spread lies about them while entertaining you than I think they did a great job. the way that they fit so many little things that you don't even really notice unless you think about it into the movie to show the relationship between the communists and the aliens is unmatched in any other movie I've seen. And I would have to say that the people who wrote this were very effective at scaring the general public into buying whatever lie they through in