I wrote a short essay on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
The film is an allegory for the societal struggle between individualism and collectivism. You can read it here:
http://christopherjohnlindsay.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/invasion-of-the -body-snatchers/
The film was nothing about what that essay says. It was clearly referencing the Red Scare and McCarthyism.
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Hi Atomic Girl,
Thank you for reading my essay, and thank you for your feedback.
I have revised it to make it more persuasive. Keep in mind that films can have more than one interpretation if there is evidence to support it. The pod people are an apt metaphor for communism, which is collectivism by force.
I hope you will re-consider my essay.
https://christopherjohnlindsay.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers/
I guess it's speaks of movie's strength when people see different things in it. I just watched it and was sure it's strongly anticommunist.
Pod people are communist, they cleared of emotions, they live as a collective hive, they gather in the morning and sent to work by family groups. But most importantly if you live with them "you don't have a choice" as said one of the characters. You're either become one of them or die. The process of becoming one of them is too lose your conscious for a while, it's kind of similar to 1984, but less brutal. Also in communist states, people who are against ideology are considered mad and are being treated with "punitive psychiatry" which is one of the themes of the movie.
There's also a theme of paranoia prominent in the first half of the movie, similar to The Thing, which makes sense since all the spy hunts during McCarthy period.