Invasion of the Body Snatchers: contexts, genre and narrative — Eduqas GCSE Film Studies C670
Eduqas GCSE Film Studies · C670
Invasion of the Body Snatchers: contexts, genre and narrative
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
What you need to know
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956): Dr Miles Bennell tells doctors how, in the small Californian town of Santa Mira, people were replaced by emotionless copies grown from alien pods, and how he and Becky Driscoll tried to escape.
A low-budget film of 1956, made during the Cold War.
Two readings: a warning about communism, or a criticism of McCarthyism and the conformity of 1950s America.
The opening and closing scenes in the hospital added by the studio to soften the ending.
Science fiction mixed with horror and film noir: the alien threat hidden among ordinary people, the pods, flashback and voice-over.
Narrative: the frame story and flashback, Miles's voice-over, the ending on the highway, and themes of identity, fear of the 'other' and conformity.
A short worked paragraph linking a context to a specific moment in the film, as the comparison question rewards.
Worked answers with their marks, and practice questions to try, each headed 'Practice question' with its marks.
Quote only short lines of dialogue you're sure of, a few words at a time, and base every point on what happens in the finished film.
