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Brianna Urbina
COMM
We 2:30-5:30
Jowett 4370
25 November 2014
Invasion of the Body Snatchers- Film Analysis
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a classic 1956 science fiction film. The film is from
producer Walter Wanger. After many of his patients are suffering from the paranoid delusion that
their family members and friends are not themselves, Dr. Miles Bennell is convinced that
everyone happens to be suffering from an epidemic of delusion. After discovering what appeared
to be a dead body without any fingerprints, which turns into a clone of one of his friends, Dr.
Bennell begins his great attempt at trying to figure out what is actually going on. Eventually, Dr.
Bennell discovers that everyone around him is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
After his discovery, eventually him and the woman he loves, Becky, try to stop the invasion and
resist it but they fall victim to the overwhelming number of alien invaders. This film is a sort of
propaganda of communism and conformity.
Eisenhower was president in the 1950s of America and this time was an era of boom.
This time period consisted of booming suburbs, a booming economy and most of all, a baby
boom that involved approximately four million babies being born each year during the 1950s.
The people born in this era were known as baby boomers. Apparently, American couples were
eager to start families and have children because they believed that the future held peace and
prosperity for them. The baby boom also led to a suburban boom. After World War II ended,
developers began to buy land and mass produce houses that were affordable and modest. These

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houses were ideal for young families, but led to a confining effect on women. Women began to
feel a great deal of dissatisfaction of their lives, so this eventually led to the rebirth of the
feminist movement. The fifties also had a rebirth of religion, in America. In 1950, 49% of
Americans were church members and by 1960, the number of church members in America raised
to about 69%. Another major occurrence of the 50s was the Civil Rights Movement. An
increasing number of fed up Americans decided to speak out against inequality and injustice.
One of the most well-known acts of nonviolent resistance occurred in 1955 when Rosa Parks
was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white
person. Her arrest instigated a thirteen month boycott of the city buses by its African American
passengers. This boycott only ended when bus companies stopped discriminating against their
African American passengers. The 1950s also suffered from a Red Scare. This scare was
brought on by the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and Western leaders
worried that the USSR had expansive tendencies, as called by an American diplomat. In fear of
communism needing to be contained, there were many hearings held by Congress that were
designed to put an end to un-American activities. This Red Scare had an influence on the
concept of this film when it came to the theme of communism and conformity expansion.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers sparked a debate when it had its debut. Many people
wondered the true meaning of the film. When the film was first released, it had little attention,
but with the generation of enthusiastic word of mouth and more bookings in more theaters, it
became an unexpected hit. This film eventually became very well-known and some critics, such
as Danny Peary, considered it one of the all-time great science-fictions films. Although the
film did not start off incredibly popular or as a must watch, it eventually became one. In 1994,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be one of

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the motion pictures preserved on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. This film
became a classic, and a film that many people would never forget, or maybe even fully
understand.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a very interesting film, in my opinion. The events of
this film progressed fairly quickly. The speed of this film could easily be considered a technique
to avoid audience members from picking at the flaws of the film, or noticing all of the
occurrences that do not make much sense in real life perspective. One thing that I noticed about
this film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is that while watching the movie, I kind of felt like
Becky and DR. Miles Bennell were the only people in the movie. Although obviously they were
not the only characters, the other characters did not matter to me. This film has an affect on its
audience members that cause Becky and Miles to be the only characters that the audience
members have an emotional connection to. While watching the film, I caught myself only caring
about what happened to Miles and Becky and not caring about what the aliens did to the rest of
the world. I believe that this affect is a consequence of the speed of the film. I believe this
because the film did not give me the time to think about what happened to anyone else other than
the two people who were constantly on the screen.
Personally, I am not a huge fan of science fiction films, but I really enjoyed this one. The
underlying propaganda of communism and conformity was very intriguing to me. Communism
is not as big of a deal as it was around the time that this film was made. However, I feel like
conformity will always be a slight occurrence in everyday life. This is because there will always
be expectations for society members and a need for Americans to be what they are supposed to
be, so I like the way this movie portrays conformity. I like the promotion of individualism and
personal emotions, good or bad. The holes in the plot and flaws in scenes did not bother me at all

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because science fiction films are not realistic at all in the first place. The topic of conformity, the
causes, and the people who participate in conformity really interest me, so I greatly appreciated
how much this film displays the effects of conformity, even if it means everyone becoming
emotionless aliens.

References

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"The 1950s." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)." Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). N.p., n.d. Web.
25 Nov. 2014.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Society in The 1950s." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11
Nov. 2008. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
"Turner Classic Movies - TCM.com." Turner Classic Movies. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.