Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)Referring to Hendershot and using Invasion as example, how do science fiction narratives of the post-World War II era concerning invaded bodies and replicant humans manifest anxieties concerning human reproduction and sexual difference? What is the function of the paranoiac worldview in these films?
In the scene prior to Becky's transformation, Miles is lured away by singing voices he assumes are human, only to find the sound emanates from a radio in a vehicle used to transport the replicant pods. Referring to the above clip or other scenes from the film, in what ways does Invasion question the recourse to the human, nature, or the natural world?
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Science fiction narratives of the post-World War II era were laden with the subtext of the cold war. The theme of invasion goes deep into the theme of Invasion by showing the frantic anxiety that came along with an average American man threatened by the "life-as-he-knows-it" suddenly being taken away from under him. It can be seen that the "paranoiac wold view" in this film is a sign of the times. In the mid 1950's, America was in the heat of fighting off the communist threat at home, and the country was swept into accusing anybody of being loyal to the communist cause.
This was similar to the invasion threat that was portrayed, and the paranoia that came along with that, where the main character began to see everyone transform into the invaded creatures.
Human reproduction and sexual difference were stripped from the rights of the humans, as the new race of beings were able to reproduce without the natural needs of reproduction, and having the ability to take the form of any living being that it wanted to, whether male or female.
In the scene where Miles hears the singing and realized that it was merely a radio from the truck being used to transport the pods, Invasion questions the recourse of the human. Miles quickly feels as though he could turn to the voice for help and answers. He felt as though finding that voice would be safety. This plays into the general feeling of society at large, where people are very desperate to find the answers to their questions, and be given a sense of safety. Whether this is through religion or a community leader, people are on a search for answers and comfort.
-Brandon Savage
Science fiction narratives of the post-World War II era manifest anxieties concerning human reproduction and sexual differences due to the fact that during WWII there were two sides being created - the allies and axis. The axis representing the replicant humans, while the allies represent the normal humans. In relation to the axis powers in WWII, the replicant humans demanded no individualism, and attempted to remove reproduction as a choice with the creation of the seed pods that could create replicant humans. Similarly, Adolf Hitler established the Nazi Party in Germany around 1930 to 'rearm' the country. This relates to the theme behind the movie with the invaded bodies planting seeds all over the town attempting to grow, or arm, its population.
The scene where Miles is lured away by a voice of a human singing in the distance is also a way of showing that in desperate situations, the human race will risk anything, and resort to desperate attempts of survival. Even though Miles knew it was a bad choice to leave Becky by herself, he decided to leave her on her own to find the singing voice. Also, attempting to find the voice was risking his survival, since he was exposing his position to the replicant humans.
The Science Fiction narratives of post World War II have the theme of human bodies being physically taken over by an alien species. Hendershot’s, The Invaded Body, discussed during that period in history, the public was paranoid about radiation; taking it to the extremes of having effects of mass sterility, loss of genitals, loss of manliness and not wanting sex. If there was exposure to radiation, it would essentially mean the end of mankind. Sci-Fi of this time uses the alien invader as the antagonist to represent the unseen threat of the time; the radiation. Invasion of the Body Snatchers used the pod as the source of infiltration. It suggests that sexual reproduction would be replaced with the production of these seeds, making these “pod-people” asexual creatures, thus making the genders obsolete.
In Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Miles begins to have hope of salvation when he hears the music. Only humans that can feel and have emotion can create something so beautiful. His hopes are dashed when he learns it is the radio of a car transporting the pods. This scene suggests that, no matter what Miles does, even if he reaches people that haven’t been transformed, there is nothing the human race can do to prevent it. In other words, “resistance is futile”. A façade has been arranged with great success and in this case, the bad guy wins.
This seems to be a topic that would benefit from a more deeper delving into the origins of the fears and anxieties placed on society in post-WWII America. But I do agree Hollywood essentially mirrors, if not motivates and propagates, society's stance, understanding, and practice in everyday life, more so during the heyday of science fiction films. It has suddenly occurred to me that the science fiction genre, while immediately following film noir on the timeline of cinema, seemingly challenges what film noir stood for in the first place. Returning from war, American men had to readjust their lifestyles, leaving the hard, difficult and deadly way of life they had been accustomed to for years, adapting what they grew to know as normal and making it feasible in a civilized society. This was reflected on the screen as the male subject seemingly struggled to find their place in a society where women had taken their place in their absence. This 'invasion' of the world they left behind came across as being hostile against the norm, the life they dreamed of during their mental escape during battle. In SF films, specifically those screened in class (for example, Forbidden Planet and The Thing From Another World) the male seems to have taken a dominant role again, occupying such careers as Air Force Captain, doctor and leading scientist, but they are again challenged by another invading force, this time an alien or unknown force. I understand the asexual undermining story line in Body Snatchers, specifically because the 'alien' force is a non-flowering plant pod, but it took reading the Hendershot article to understand the origin of such a fear. In regards to Miles hearing the voices and hoping they would lead him and Becky to a safe haven, the only analogy I can come up with is that Miles, having spent the entire film as the male hero, suddenly became reliant on a outside source for safety. The irony in that it's a radio is an analogy of being propaganda.
Working with radiating equipment I can relate to the fears of such aftereffects, but more so understandably is the uneducated times as the 1950s were when it came to such new and powerful weaponry as nuclear bombs.
All in all, while effectively characterizing current anxieties in the American society of the day, I can't help but leave science fiction films of the 1950s as nothing more than a decent and artistic portrayal of said fears. As I mentioned to a friend of mine while recently discussing the SF genre, the films viewed in class started to become relevant about 8 years after WWII ended. Are we, in 2008, about to be hit with post 9/11 fear and anxiety films? I agree that some were almost immediate, but we have yet to create a new genre from them...
Jim
Tony Lopez
The paranoid world view came from a time when the average American’s world view had been affected by fears of the unknown produced from the cold war. This atmospheric paranoia was displayed prominently in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. The sexuality of men being threatened by the conforming seeds of replicated organic birth. For if the seeds could repopulate the average American male would no longer be needed. By threatening the male sexuality, the new wave of brainwashed replicated human tissue forms, now challenge the worth of mankind itself.
As miles wanders away from the cave, and his new-found love, Becky, he hears a voice of reason in the distance. What Miles is hearing is a pre-recorded voice, a voice that was recorded before the invasion of these soulless beings. He is hearing an answer to this dilemma. He hears inside the voice of this angel, feelings, natural tones, and a soul. When he learns it had been a recording he returns to kiss Becky. Instantly he notices the lack of feeling. He says “that moment of sleep was death to her soul.”
Post WWII SF films express fears concerning human reproduction and sexual differences through of an unseen enemy. Hollywood’s first stab at the atomic bomb happen in In The Beginning or the End (1946), where a ship’s crew questions what happens to their sexuality after “fooling around” with atomic equipment. This fear of radiation is common in SF films of the time. The biggest issues surrounding it are loss of manhood, sterility and other reproductive abnormalities. Oddly enough, amount exposed to this radiation was used to determine manliness by the military.
These films also expressed the paranoia felt by citizens concerning the American and other governments. This unseen enemy is able to penetrate into the heartlands of America, perhaps interchangeable with the fears of Joseph McCarthy towards Communism.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers questions recourse between humans. Miles does think he will be saved if he can come into contact with the singing people because of humans need to rely on each other. The film questions recourse between humans and nature more because of the pods. The pods stand for a new evolution of humans. The humans do not trust them until they take over their bodies. This implies a battle to save Earth because of the ending. The film doesn’t solve the problem of the snatched bodies, but leaves it opened ended for the viewer to consider if humans succumb or defeat this “natural” force.
Desten Johnson
In Hendershot’s article it was talked about that the fear that was shown in the film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was that it was turning into an asexual world. This was a fear particularly in the post World War II era, during what was called The Cold War. The idea of humans no longer being able to reproduce and relying on plants to make humans was a scary thought, especially during that era. This would also make no difference in gender, which would eliminate any relationships along with any emotions. What is a world without love and other emotions?
In the scene of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” where Miles hears the radio and hopes that there are people that he can go to for help. I feel at this time Miles is feeling fairly desperate and is willing to assume that any thing could be a sign of help. In this case it would be hearing the radio and thinking it could be people that he could tell. At this point he was also very tired and delusional so I’m sure he was not able to think clearly.
Hendershot's article starts off talking about the fear of radiation and what it might do to the body. She talks about a man, Paul Schreber, who says that "rays" penetrated his body and turned him from man to women so that he could be the mother of a new race after a world catastrophe that depopulates the earth. Not only that, he also believed that he was the only real human left on the Earth. Everyone else is what he described as "fleeting improvised men" and he was the only one that could spot them. This memoir was written in 1903, however this is the same thing that happened post World War 2 with the fear of the atomic bomb and radiation being the rays and Soviet spies being the "fleeting improvised men".
Miles comes over the hill to find that the singing he hears is over the radio. The recourse to the human is questioned and proven impossible when the pod people turn off the radio because they feel nothing from it. It doesn't resemble hope like it did for Miles. It also proved that it is hard to get help from anything human because at that point he didn't know who was human or not
The science fiction films that are post World War II have a definite paranoia because of The Cold War and atomic bombings. There’s fear expressed in movies such as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” that other countries could send things to disease people in our country in order to gain control. These fears are based on the notions that radiation could make men impotent and sexually stifled. Men would not be able to carry on their lineage. This was a huge scare because it could be the end of humanity as we know it. The pods in “Invasion” were a threat to both men and women. It was able to take away the true humanity of human beings by stripping them of their emotions and feelings. The fact that these pods could affect both sexes was the main scare.
Miles runs to the voice in “Invasion” because of the human connection to society. He felt that the voice meant civilization and sanity, so he took the chance to go find it. Society always finds ways to make themselves feel better, to find the answers to their problems. This is how modern societies obtained culture. Culture began as societies concocting answers to questions through religion or myths. Humans will never lose that connection to the need for comfort.
-Julianna
Science fiction narratives of the post-WWII era were influenced, as Hendershot writes, by the fear of invaded bodies and replicant humans. Hendershot argues that fear of radiation and it’s effects where what helped facilitate these fears in the sci-fi genre. As radiation posed a threat to ‘manhood’ and could render a male sterile or impotent, it became the unseen enemy that could eliminate the possibility of future generations. In Invasion, the pods that are replacing people are doing so by asexual reproduction. This can be related to the postwar fear of the loss of sexual difference due to radiation. As Hendershot writes, “Sexuality and sexual difference are the measures of humanity in the film” (pg 34). So, with sexual difference eliminated, so to are the emotions and humanity. This explains why Miles is terrified when he kisses Becky (or rather, Becky’s replicant) at the end of the film. Hendershot argues that a paranoiac worldview is illustrated by creating an ‘other’ as a scapegoat for what the U.S. has inadvertently done to itself through radiation contamination.
At the end of Invasion when Miles goes to investigate the singing voices he hears and leaves Becky behind, I was reminded of the ending The Stepford Wives. In both films, appeal to human emotion is used as bait for the lead characters. In The Stepford Wives, Joanna is led through the mansion by the cry of her child. In Invasion, Miles is led away by singing voices. I thought it was interesting that in both films the protagonists dropped their guard at the first sign of humanity. Further, it is interesting to note that both sounds (the child’s cry and the singing voices) were recordings rather than genuine voices.
-Joseph Belknap
Science Fiction narratives of the post-World War II era concerning invaded bodies and replicant humans manifested anxieties by using the same fears that came from the war. During the Holocaust it was hard to believe our enemy’s capabilities, how far they actually went to destroying the jews; it was almost as if they weren’t human. So in the film, the replicant humans, probably raised a lot of anxiety in the audience of the time it aired, due to that reason. Also in the movie the lead characters paranoia went to a high, when they were looking out on the street as everyone was conforming, which was what they seemed to fear most.
Invasion questions the recourse to the human, nature, and the natural world by making what seems commonplace or normal, unfamiliar. Miles, who normally found comfort in singing(along with most humans) found it disturbing, making conversations with people was out of the question, and loving Becky was no longer possible; all of these were due to the current circumstance. The things that made Miles feel safe or “feel at home” had been turned around and there was no place he could go. His natural world had become the unnatural, his fellow humans, inhuman.
-Ryan Bender
In science fiction films from the post World War two era there was a great feeling of invasion and fear of radiation. Most notably was the fear of invasion as seen in the film we viewed called "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The film exemplified the idea of a fear that if an invasion were to happen we would be helpless to stop it. During the time that the movie was released it played off this idea of a "red scare" on the home front but instead of using the communist party it instead used alien like figures who would take over us, as we were asleep. It could be easy to see that the idea of simply being replaced and having no more need for reproducing.
With the scene where Miles hears the singing in the background he believes there is hope. He like many others if they would have been in his situation believed that only something that has emotions could produce such an amazing sound. With thought in mind he his correct by his guess but shut down once he see's that it is just a mere recording of a beautiful voice and not the real thing.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers expressed the Cold War era paranoia that existed in America. It took this issue and extended on it by involving plants from outer space to make it not so literal. The plants came from the sky and this was a worry of people post world war II. Hendershot wrote "one concern at Trinity was that clouds might carry radioactive material miles away and contaminate areas distant from the test site" (31). That is most likely where Jack Finney got the idea to write the novel that was later turned into this film.
This film as well as other science fiction narratives, dealt with anxieties concerning human reproduction and sexual difference. "sexuality and sexual difference are the measures of humanity in the film" (34). When the force that invaded them and took over their bodies they would no longer have sexuality or feel emotion. They would become an asexual reproductive entity. They were transforming in their sleep so they had no choice.
In the scene in which Miles runs to the singing voices, he is devastated to find out it is just the radio. This in a sense this questions the recourse to the human. He ran to these voices in hopes that they had not fallen victim to the invading plants and searching for answers. In exchange he found no answers and when returning to the cave Becky transformed and he was alone. This plays into what was happening in America at the time. People were scared and wanted answers. They feared for their safety due to the state of the world.
Science Fiction narratives that come from the time of the early Cold War talk about the concern about human reproduction through sterility and through the fear of radiation through nuclear weapons. In Hendershots narrative, she goes into full depth on how this fear plays though several movies. In invasion, the pods are viewed in the same manner as the radiation, as they take over the human body and make them sterile.
In the scene where Miles is drawn away from Becky, it shows how humans will choose to believe in anything to try to free themselves from the danger they are in, even if it seems unlikely in the situation that there is something that will happen. The main irony in this scene is that the scene where Miles thinks that everything is finally going to be okay and every thing will be resolved is also the scene in which Becky is lost and that everything is over for him.
Cameron Sproul
During the 1950’s and post world war era it was very common for the different sexes of males and females to show little physical attractions relating to sex. It was a subject that was seldom talked about as well as on TV. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers kind of film gives many feelings that the world if turning on people. It gives people the idea something is coming to get them, and there is nothing to do about it. Much like a war there is no escaping it.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers questions the real human because a real human is born from another human, and not a pod. This is also the nature of human life. Humans create thoughts, memories, and feelings throughout their lives that they live, and it is extremely un-natural for a person to be born already with a complete lifetime of memory. If everyone was born with memories already programmed in their brain, than they never lived those moments.
Robin Christiansen
In an event that not only took place within Science Fiction narratives, but also in all genres of film and literature of the time, the American view in a Post-World War II era was to present America, and Democracy to be the best ideal. The fear of Communist infiltration, and support led to a strong push towards "Americanizing," the public.
The idea in Invasion of the Body Snatchers was to show what would happen if an overthrow or corruption took place. The film displays a world that would exist if everyone sat by and gave up. The main character gave a role-model figure of the perfect man. It is very interesting how every other character, male and female looks up to him for advice and guidance. Similarly, the anxieties of the body snatchers being produced by a pop, or simply grown is similar to a notion that communism is grown and instilled on individuals - fear of brainwashing was also present in this post-World War II era.
In the singing scene, Miles was searching for another human, only to find that he was lured out by simply a radio reproduction. Unfortunately, this scene makes a very dark realization that we will be on our own if such a dark day does occur. This instills a bit of fear, and perhaps would lead the audience to want to remain the way they are - American.
Referring to Hendershot's writings and the science fiction readings and films studies thus far we can see that the post WWII era was full of people that were extremely anxious. Anxieties stemmed from the thoughts that the human race was going to be extinct from contamination due to radiation poisoning or even alien invasion to the human body. Humans minds were filled with the thought that radiation essentially would null the reproductive system.
She writes about Daniel Paul Schreber;s "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" and describes a man who feels that God is unmanning his body by transforming him into a woman. The man's feel that with the contamination of the human race God is making him the mother of a new race.
She writes about Victor Tausk's study of patients that believe that they are under the influence of a machine that uses mind control to sexually manipulate their genitalia.
Bradley's work says that the biggest fear associated with exposure to radiation was loss of manhood. Sexual impotency and sterility were also extremely feared symptoms of radiation. This psot WWII time really created a breakdown of gender roles due to the preparation for nuclear war.
The function of the paranoiac world view is that the persosn will possess the sexual difference needed to save the world by reproduction. "Invasion" questions the the recourse to humans in the examples of Miles trying to explain in the open sceen of the movie but no one will listen. As a viewer we continue to see that it is difficult to trust other humans because we don't know who has changed into a replicant and who is still human. The world in general is oblivious to the take over of human bodies that is happening and this lack of knowledge questions in essence the recourse of humans in this film.
-Monica Salazar
Invasion to me was a complete anti-communism film. The whole mood that the film portrayed was one that, to me, expressed anti-communism views. Miles saw many people react to their loved ones not acting the way they knew them. They were doing all the same things but something wasn't right. To me this is a analogy to communism and how the ends might be the same, however, the means are completely different. You see conformity come to a front near the end when everyone in town seems to have been replaced, even Miles' close friends from earlier. This conformity spoke to me as an analogy to communism in that everyone must conform to the ideal. At this time the USSR was influencing much of the eastern world on its views with communism. A typical United States approach to communism is one that sees it as taking away individualism. In democracy you can choose your life, in communism, you are given your role and that's it. When the people described how they felt after being replaced, it sounded like they lost all individualistic qualities. Even in the end, Miles kisses Becky and feels nothing and is the most scared of his life while she tries to bring him to the other side.
The music is another analogy to communism to me. It shows how Miles has hope and when he goes to see, he is only met with disappointment. This seemed to me like communism can sound great but when actually viewed in action is terrifying.
The sci-fi films of the post WWII era concern the changing roles of both men and women in that time period. One of the major concerns was if radiation could somehow alter a person's sexual organs. This fear was brought upon by the nuclear bombing of Japan. It sort of became a hysteria among people because of the destruction and the amount of unknown knowledge on nuclear energy. The function of the paranoiac worldview in these films, as stated by Hendershot is, "a world in which the very authorities citizens look to for protection from the danger of radiation are insidiously poisoning them". It is perhaps a reasoning that people created to rationalize the war efforts that their government had been a part of.
I think that "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" shows that we crave for the human interaction and want to believe in hope. I believe that is why Miles was lured towards the music. In hopes that humanity was still alive.
Kyle Arpke
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