After my stunning plot synopsis of the film in yesterday's class, I'm sure everyone is excited to here my thoughts on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I got the sense that a majority of the class had issues with the film. Whether it be plot holes, issues with the representation of women, or just the film in general. I actually quite liked it. Sure it's campy, low budget, there's some bad acting, but I just took it for what it was, a 1950's horror movie. It's so bad it's good. I'm a big fan of films like that.I do agree that some of the film was over exaggerated. A big problem that the class as a whole agreed on was the depiction of women. Becky's character was annoying. That's the best way I can describe it. The relationship between her and Miles was equally as annoying. Aside from the mounds of cigarettes found at the beginning of scenes, dialogue bluntly stated that the two have had an intimate relationship.
"Becky: Is this an example of your bedside manner, doctor?
Miles: No, ma'am. That comes later"
The article "You're Next!": Postwar Hegemony Besieged in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, also discusses the way women are portrayed in the film. While he article stretches much of it's arguments, it was still quite interesting to read. Katrina Mann references the original novel, written by Jack Finney, to support and further her arguments. In the original novel Becky fights off the pods with Miles and ends up surviving. While in the film, she falls asleep and becomes another one of the pod people. After hearing the change from the novel to the film, I wondered why there would be a change. Mann believes that Becky survives only because Miles resists her sexual advances. Thus in the film she dies due to both her and Miles acting upon these urges;
"Her menace is located less in her destructive sexual appeal or sexual aggression than in her ambivalent sexual allegiance in the wake of the assault by aliens." (Mann, 61)
Mann also argues the film was a metaphor for minorities moving into suburbs and communities like Santa Mira. Mann believed that the aliens were supposed to represent illegal aliens, Mexican migrant laborers at that time. In one of the first scenes in the film, we see a community vegetable stand closed down. Miles is surprised by this as he believed the stand to be well taken care of and popular within the community. This is one of the first clues to us that something within the community is going wrong. Mann states that the reason why this stand and others would be closed down during this time due to the welcoming of Mexican laborers, called braceros. The produce trucks that were used to carry the pods in the film also seemed to copy those that were actually used to bring Mexican workers to the U.S. Along with this Mann argued that African Americans moving to predominately white neighborhoods was another influence for the film. Honestly the article just seemed a bit too crazy for me. Especially when she delved into the minority theories. It really lost me. But I did find the paragraph on Capgras Syndrome to be very interesting. It may be just a "postwar urban legend" but it still makes sense with the story. The syndrome was encountered by people who believed that their "loved ones were not who they claimed to be.
Another important piece of trivia I learned about the film was the original ending. The film was supposed to end with Miles screaming to drivers on the highway. Instead the studio decided to put bookends of Miles telling his story to a hospital staff. While the story is never fully wrapped up, the studio found it important to have a happier ending to the film. The importance to have an some sort of resolved ending to a film is something that American film always seems to need to do. In another one of my film classes, international films, we discussed this need. What do you guys think? Did it need the proper ending? Do you agree with Mann's theories?
For me the only real arguments that I that I can say that I agree with are the portrayal of women, as well as the direction of the relationship between Miles and Becky that you rightly coined as annoying. As far as the others are concerned, the article we read really just didn't work for me, I felt as though Katrina Mann went digging a little too deep for some her points. It could just be me, but when i first saw the vegetable stand being out of commission, my mind did not immediately jump to Mexicans. However, back to what i was saying before, I appreciate your opinion on Miles and Becky's relationship because I definitely got sick of the little play talking going on back and forth, and other than extremely annoying, the only other descriptive word I could think to call it would have been fake. That of course could be due to the bad acting you also mentioned, but at times while watching, I could not help but think whether or not some of their comments were completely necessary, as to say that the sexual innuendo was laid on far to thick for my liking. Furthermore, it was instances such as this which I feel give fuel to the argument regarding the representation of women. Yes I understand the whole idea of being afraid of the divorced female blah blah blah, but I'm sure that even married women at the time did not appreciate Becky's helplessness and on going pity party answered only by big Mr. Dr. Miles. Anyhow, when it comes down to it, I did enjoy the movie. I got a couple laughs out of it, and even more out of the reading, so I guess I really can't complain all too much. As far as the ending goes, I liked to one they picked, would have felt as though I was sold short if they would have ended it otherwise, not a fan of being left hanging.
ReplyDeleteBecky's helplessness irritated me too. Her some what desperate acts towards Miles was too much. The dialogue was pretty terrible between them. The innuendo was far too much but I agree, it made for some great laughs. I did think the ending that was picked was cool because it reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode that started with a man recounting his story. So although I think it would have worked perfectly fine without the bookends, I enjoyed the ending as well.
ReplyDeleteKatrina Mann’s racial theories concerning Invasion of the body snatchers in my opinion are a little bit out there. I don’t believe that pods in trucks suggest Mexican farmhands or that the alien lookalikes in the film were supposed to be related to minority groups. Mr. Grimaldi’s vegetable stand didn’t have anything to do with Mexicans and the alien takeover of Santa Mira had nothing to do with minorities taking over a small town. I found the reading to be almost offensive. I can understand how the aliens could be compared to communists. The aliens were emotionless and stuck to the same daily routines as the people they consumed. Americans of the period believed that people in communist countries were as brainwashed and emotionless as the aliens in the film. Without the ending of Miles in the psychiatrist’s office the plot would be left open in chaos. There would be no action taken against the alien threat and the guys with him in the office would be consumed like everyone in Santa Mira. I would have found it interesting if the movie left miles screaming in the middle of traffic. It would have had a greater effect on the audience. This movie was quite interesting and I had no idea that it could be analyzed to the extent that it was.
ReplyDeleteBecky's helplessness was so irritating! She was more or less like a puppy Miles dragged around. The camera work in this film helps establish some of the portrayals of women discussed in the article. In the shot where is sitting down in Mile’s office the beginning of the film, she is framed so that the top of her sleeveless dress is not in the shot, making her appear possibly topless. This framing seemed very unnatural and odd for a film of this time. I forgot when in the film precisely this occurred but there was a shot with Mile’s and Jack’s faces in the foreground and framed behind and in between there faces was Teddy’s face, forced to the background and of a must smaller scale. I thought this shot did a good job of portraying the overall role of women in this film. The action of women only seems to be shown through the men. Teddy and Becky both babbled in tense moments and the men worked to make plans and establish reactions. There were multiple times throughout the movie when Teddy asked about how Becky felt or vice versa yet neither women ever took charge without the men. With this sort of framework, I don’t see how Becky’s character could ever fight off the pods like she did in the novel. Miles would probably use Becky as a weapon.
ReplyDeleteNice overview of the concepts we discussed, Ellen. What I particularly like is that though you don't necessarily agree with Mann's analysis, you at least know what it is.
ReplyDeleteIn general though, Mann is countering the very typical reading of this film as about fear of Communism--invasion from without--and turning to all the other kinds of things that Americans were anxious about that served as metaphors for invasion from within: urbanization, racial mobility, border crossings, in vitro fertilization, sexualized women, etc. Which points you guys all seem to have a handle on, even if you don't quite like the way she presented them.
I think there's more to be said about the portrayal of Becky. I like where you guys begin to go with this, and I'd have liked to see more. There was something decidedly odd about it, and about all the women in this, that was more than bad acting. Part of it was very possibly the slightly salacious camera that sms is pointing to.