Alien invasion: The Russians are coming!!!

Paper by Maria Teresa M. Liljeberg. Viewed on DVD.

After World War II, Americans returning from war, as well as the ones who stayed home, were the victors of the war and were looking forward to a safe and peaceful world. They settled in to normal life, with baby and housing booms, both representing peace and hope for the future. But the war had also seen the birth of a terrifying new weapon, and immediately post-war, a new mortal enemy had emerged: Communism, represented by the Soviet Union. Having conquered fascism and Nazism, Americans now faced a new struggle: The Cold War. This precipitated the fear in American society, fear that eventually manifested itself in paranoid distrust of fellow citizens, McCarthyism’s hunt for real and perceived communists, and as it is always the case, it influenced the movies, in particular the many sci-fi movies of the time.

This fear and the post-war anxieties had been brewing already around 1946, when most part of Europe began to try to salvage and rebuild from what was left after the brutal war. The Soviet Union, an ally during the war, was of course also a communist dictatorship under the brutal rule of Stalin. This opposite view and ideology contrary to United States, of course played a big role for the film industry to create films that would exploit the fear and anxiety of the American people. To mention a few, movies such as Atomic city, The invasion of Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds were produced and inspired by this fear. The approach is still in use today: By playing on and exploiting these internalized fears, the film industry and the government greatly influenced and fueled a new mentality of the American society, creating further paranoia, in turn affecting the way people absorb the meaning of the films they watched. Conversely, the paranoia and fear of the cold war set the context and influenced the movies and their message.

Movies such as, The invasion of Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds, Atomic City, and The Day the Earth Stood Still and others of the same type of films had a premise of societies being attacked by an unknown and more technologically advanced civilization than humans. Furthermore, the common theme of the three alien films was about aliens taking over not only humanity’s world but also its inhabitants; humans. The idea of an alien life form taking over our bodies and taking over our minds, using us a their slaves presents a double meaning that could have influence audiences view of things. For instance, the movie , The invasion of Body Snatchers presents the story of a town and its people infiltrated by aliens, secretly taking over its bodies and mind, then blending in amongst other people that haven’t been taken over. It presents the audience with the terrifying idea of the enemy living undetected among, your friends and neighbors are not what they appear. This is a clear analogy to the prevalent fear of communists living secretly in the population, undermining the American way of life, waiting to strike. In another movie in terms of aliens, War of the Worlds have presented a grim outlook for humanity overtaking also both the world and humans, but this time around they show how much powerful they, meaning that they were not in hiding like in the Invasion of Body Snatchers, they simply show hostility without reasons.
Then in the War of the Worlds shows a more advanced civilization, more powerful than the human world. In the context of the 1950’s at the height of the Cold War and communist scare, it presents another effect in audiences minds, that is after an invasion from another “world” would leave everything else devastated, frightening, and a long hardship to follow; that the world we see today will never be the same after the invasion. Furthermore, this could also be interpreted in the reality of how technological advances through the 50’s suggests that careless use of these technologies might result in our own demise.

Atomic City on the other hand tells a story more towards the ruin of mankind through technological advances, people who have other ill intentions will stop at nothing to covet this power. This is inspired by the mere fact that in WWII United States used the first atomic bomb that decimated thousands of lives in two cities in Japan, this in turn could have resulted and influenced others to initiate their own research and development of the H-Bomb. Humanity for the first time possessed the capability of its own total destruction. Furthermore, this is symbolically important in U.S. history since this had become a declaration of how much power we have then, and that we are willing to use it for the greater good. Nonetheless, one could also argue that others (communist societies) have the same intentions and that U.S. could be the one who have the wrong ideology. Of course, this was not a view that was strongly expressed at the time. As we can see, if a regular audience relates these movies in terms of what they see happening in their current time, the technological advances and the cold war situation with Communism and the Soviet Union, make audiences internalize what they see and translate them in how the believe or perceive things.

The continuation of the Cold War in the 1950’s contributed to what sets the stage for the film industry and the government to fuel people’s fear and anxiety about communism. Nonetheless, the public’s attitude and wariness feeds the film industry an inspiration to create these movies. The speech given by Winston Churchill in 1946 stating, “…an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent” (Nash, 824) was his response to Joseph Stalin’s argument that ”Capitalism and Communism were on a collision course, that a series of cataclysmic disturbances would tear the capitalist world apart, and that the Soviet system would inevitably triumph” (Nash, 824). During this time, the film industry have been very creative in their writings and film creation, entertaining American homes and before that fulfilling their patriotic duties that is to entertain the troops during the war, and some even served. Through film, this had allowed many other films containing how the war is portrayed in movies such as the amount of death and destruction. Movies that were a recreation of the war or documentaries shows more than just United State winning in combat, it also shows much of the gruesome results war could do to any human flesh. Injured service men and women have come home with severed leg or more, some came back with their whole body intact but mind completely severed and their sense of humanity lost and left behind somewhere during the war. Moviegoers during these times must have tried to appreciate different sides of the war, that is winning for what is “just”, defending our home, or defending those who cannot defend themselves, serves a platter of hope and justice for many paying customers. Although movies that were a recreation of the war or documentaries shows more than just United State winning in combat, it also shows much of the gruesome results war could bring to humanity. Injured service men and women have come home with severed leg or more, some came back with their whole body intact but mind damaged and their sense of humanity lost and left behind in the horror of what they experienced during the war.

As the usual way of dealing with business the film industry have always done; to capture imagery of stories into films. This time around the films are towards the internal turmoil of every single American has in the back of their minds: the reality of a possible war breaking out and the realization that with the launch of Sputnik 1 prior to America having made progress in space, the Soviet Union was seen as a technological equal or even more advanced adversary. This further fuels the anxiety in every men and women worried of what could be lurking around them, who’s watching them, or who their real friends are. The film industry though under scrutiny of the HUAC during this time must have recognized that they could profit from exploiting these issues, so long as there is an audience who wants to watch, there is always profit to be had.

During this time it must have been obvious how American society is reacting to some of the changes going on around them. One of them is the housing boom that allowed many to settle in a suburban life and normalized to a point where they can enjoy working hard and coming home to a family. This is surely calming, but major political agendas and events continue to stir angst that still lingers, that is remnants of WWII and the Cold War. The government’s pursuit of the un-American ways such as actors in the film industry who have been a part of or had renounced their association to Communism made it even more real for many homes. This is further intensified when the some of the Hollywood actors, directors, producers and others that may have any type of association with communism go through under strict scrutiny, some simply answering questions, some gave other names to save themselves, and some simply defied the whole ordeal.

This event impacted the film industry in terms of how it creates films, the idea to express their artistic view as freely as they could, though carefully curtailed to ensure that there is nothing of sort that sends any message that can be interpreted as sympathizing with communist living amongst free Americans. The film The Day the Earth Stood Still tells the tales of human race initially living quietly and going along its day to day activities, when suddenly an alien life form enters earth. This alien character does not hide true intention nor identity as he continue his mission while trying to communicate that humanity does not seem to deserve a second chance since they destroy themselves and what ever what was given to them. Again this ties in to the horror of nuclear destruction and the apparent inability of humanity of living peacefully.

The political and social climate must have been intense during 1949 to early 1950’s due to nuclear proliferation after WWII. Assuming that, if after United States’ used of Atomic bomb for the first time in Japan, bombing two cities, could have been the trigger for others to realized that this power can be had by them as well. As this idea of “weapons of mass destruction” permeates into other countries who have little or no enthusiasm for an American-style capitalist society, this atmosphere becomes more heavier, more intense. To imagine that others who have dissimilar and extreme ideologies than America carries the same technology that have and can again destroy many lives by a single bomb could become a reality in America is in itself is a horrifying image to think about. The film’s message in The Day the Earth Stood Still though the premise of the story is the destruction of the whole world, the initial message it places in the audiences minds is the destruction of their homeland and no other else. This further creates anxiety to a point that the masses’ emotions could easily be aroused to a point where everyone due to fear and paranoia will support the hunt for communist people in America without question of fairness or maybe rationale.

The social climate in the early 1950’s revolves around paranoia affecting many activities Americans would usually considered “normal”. Nevertheless, since the threat of communist ideologies possibly infiltrating America and changing the belief system in democracy is therefore seen as real threat. The film industry as a business still seize the opportunity to exploit these fears through films created during the 50’s. The general populace who tries not think about what could happen, but something might have been happening just next door. The invasion of the body snatchers is one of the many science-fiction movies that uses implicit metaphors of this fear, anxiety, and paranoia. Several scenes in this movie that slowly started out in the town of Santa Mira with a boy saying that his mother wasn’t his real mother, then Wilma complaining of the same problem about uncle Ira, then it’s widespread. The idea of people who have been replaced by these “body snatchers” and who seemingly very different, emotionless, and that everyone is the same or equal can be connected to the idea of communism having had its society to have no individuality and that everyone has to be equal despite amount of contribution they may have in society. The Invasion of the Body snatchers seems to suggest that when people are taken by communist ideologies, it started out small and creeps into society not realizing what had really taken place or changed. It’s an idea of flipping a switch and turning people off and on again replacing the old society with a new one.

It is always the case that art and creative expression, including movies, reflect and influence the contemporary broader culture and mindset of the audience. This is arguably nowhere more clear than in the sci-fi movies of the cold war. The metaphor of hostile and technologically superior space aliens representing communist Soviet Union, a dangerous adversary threatening the American way of life. The horror unleashed with the advent of nuclear weapons further heightens the fear. The movies of the time reflect and build on this, using the obvious metaphor of hostile aliens for the communist threat.

Works Cited:

Nash, Gary. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. 6th ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2008. Print.

The Atomic City. Dir. Jerry Hopper. Perf. Gene Barry, Lydia Clarke, Michael Moore. Paramount Pictures, 1952. DVD.

The Day the Earth Stood Still. Dir. Robert Wise. Perf. Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1951. DVD.

The Invasion of Body Snatchers. Dir. Don Seigel. Perf. Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates. Allied Artists Pictures, 1956. DVD. Paramount Pictures, 1952. DVD.

The War of The Worlds. Dir. Byron Haskin. Perf. Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne. Paramount Pictures, 1953. DVD.

“Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Imdb.com. Imdb.com, 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2011.

“The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Imdb.com. Imdb.com, 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2011

“Atomic City.” Imdb.com. Imdb.com, 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2011

“The War of the Worlds.” Imdb.com. Imdb.com, 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2011