Invasion of the Body Snatchers

What are the similarities between the book and the movie, and where are there departures which may have softened the contempt of the author to appeal to a mass movie-going audience?

First of all, you had to figure out that the book and movie really were focusing on attitudes about the Cold War, and the subtle and not so subtle changes in the way the ordinary person looked at things. Both the movie and the book (which began as a Collier's serial) feature the line about Wilma's uncle: "ahe looks, sounds, acts and remembers just like Ira. On the outside. But, inside, he's different" (Finney 21). If we really want to ascribe cold war attitudes to even this one line, we face the fact that people like the House Un-American Activities Committee believed that "ordinary" people were, somehow, different, influenced by Russia and Communism and determined to look and act "normal" while undermining our American free society. There see

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them". Only Miles is left, and, for the most part, he is adjudged as being crazy. That is, until, in the hospital where he has ended up, a traffic accident victim is brought in, and one of the ambulance attendants mentions seeing these strange pods- the ones Miles talked about and was, of course, believed to be "crazy as a March hare". Now, the FBI is called, all law enforcement is alerted. The film ends with a close-up of Miles' anguished face. The first movie, in realistic black and white, is so much more powerful than the book (and certainly far better on a minuscule budget) than was the remake. It is the ordinariness of the people of the small town. We see them not as aliens they have become, but as neighbors- however, without the ability to feel emotion or love. Even as Becky and Miles pretend to have been taken over, when Becky screams at a dog running into the path of a truck, it becomes obvious she has not been taken over. She feels emotion. There is another telling line in the film: "This is a malignant disease spreading throughout the whole country". Maybe this is an indication of the disease of mistrust, the fear of Communism and the feeling that even one's neighbors- some people that they have known for ye
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Communism Finney, Becky Miles, Cold War, Russia Communism, Body Snatchers, Allen's Front, Brian Koller, Snatchers Communist, Jack Finney, Chaplin European, cold war, body snatchers, invasion body snatchers, invasion body, rest world, book movie, movie book, people infected, alien culture, ordinary people, lived fear,
Approximate Word count = 1310
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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