Being Inhuman

            Though tonight’s screening was my first time seeing Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I was familiar with the general story and idea behind it. Despite never seeing/reading it before, the ideas behind the movie and book have always been of interest to me because of how it is involved in discussions of the 1950s and the move to the suburbs. I knew the film focused on a small suburban town and how the pods threaten—or in other interpretations, critique—this new suburban ideal of life. What struck me the most about the film though was not the discourse it had with suburbia, but the ways in which one is truly “human” and how it relates to emotions.

            The movie seems to suggest that emotions are what make one truly human, yet whenever people in the movie actually show emotions, they aren’t taken seriously. In the scene where Miles goes to visit Wilma and discuss her concerns for Uncle Ira, Wilma is the only character really showing emotion; she is upset and expresses feelings of unease, while everyone around her acts “cool”, or calm. When Miles later sees her, she no longer shows those emotions.

            Likewise, when Miles and Becky respond to a call made by Jack and Teddy to investigate a body they’ve found in the house, the people who show emotions are the ones who are taken less seriously. Teddy seems to express the most concern and panic in this scene, while Miles and Jack drink whiskey. It is especially noteworthy that the body is a double of Jack’s own, but Jack appears more casually curious than he does concerned.

            Later in the movie when the town has been taken over by pod people and Miles and Becky are the only two left to duplicate, it seems to be emphasized that emotion is what differentiates real humans from the new alien forms. More specifically, there is a focus on love. Miles and Becky insist that they are in love and they don’t want to be replaced, but the kind of emotion they seem to display toward each other aligns more closely with lust than love. This questions the distinction between love and lust, an idea that was raised in discussion.

            It is also interesting to note that the people showing the most emotion in the movie are women, like Wilma and Teddy. Instead of their emotions being taken seriously, the women are written off as needing to visit a “witch doctor”, while the cool, calm, collected men take charge. This is at odds with the movie’s message that love and emotion is what make people truly human. Yet the people who are showing the most emotion, and should therefore be considered the most human, are the ones who are treated almost sub-human at times.

            Though the film didn’t relate to suburbia as much as I had expected it to, the suburban setting of the town is useful in considering the film’s messages on the importance of emotion. During the post-WWII era when families were leaving the city in favor of the suburbs, it was usually a move that favored the well-being of the man in the family. The cool, calm men would leave their suburban homes to commute to the city for work, while their emotional wives were left in the house to tend to the home. With regards to the movie, one could interpret the suburbs as an environment that brings out the worst aspect of people, whether it’s a nature of detachment and nonchalance (exemplified by the men) or one of excess emotion and paranoia (exemplified by the women).