13+ | Color | 1978 | 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen | Director: Philip Kaufman
This is my favorite film adaptation of this story. The first film was based on a short story, and the short story was prompted because of one man’s solo war against communism. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was a shithead for creating the "Red Scare" back in the ’50s, originally meant to vilify the Soviet communists, but destroyed many American lives instead. However, this film tries to establish a sense of similar paranoia that was resurfacing in the ’70s after the Vietnam War: fear of "Asian immigration."
Ewww, 30 minutes too long on the tanning bed, sir...
It is important to study films like this one because, as a minority in White America, I get to see how these filmmakers depict what they are afraid of. This is their propaganda. It seems everytime White Americans become afraid of a group of people, they’ll throw out a new "body snatchers" film villifying an unsuspecting group of people.
Look at this booger, Ma! Loooookkkeeee!
The “body snatchers” movies are all about being in a majority and the play on irony when the key majority becomes the minority. Alienation sometimes leads to good things in real life, but always count on it to lead to doom in the cinema.
Tags: 1978, anti-asian, anti-communism, body, fear, invasion, mongering, politics, red, scare, snatchers, tactics, vietnam, war