Week 7: Invasion of Black Rock by Suspicion
The Scream by Edvard Munch
Fear in America is a constant presence. This fear becomes such a part of our lives that it infiltrates all aspects of it, even many that we do not notice. Hollywood has always had a say in how to approach our fears, often controlling what the auteur actually wanted to say. When racism was overwhelmingly present in the US, black actors were never casted. When the population was still feeling the blow of the Great Depression, and iffy on our capitalist system, Hollywood churned out Fred Astaire musicals and Horatio Alger myths. The first showed the joys of riches and capitalist ideals, while the latter told all American’s that they too could make it big. The studio system is often given the blame for the representation of these oppressive ideals. Didion compares this inability to express controversial ideas to a monster and says “...the monster still haunts Hollywood itself - and Hollywood knows better, knows that monster was laid to rest, died of natural causes, some years ago.” (Didion 151)
In Invasion of the Body Snatchers “pod people” come and slowly take over a small town with their “eyes wide and blank, show(ing) no emotion.” Universally this film has been seen as a commentary on the Red Scare, giving a warning to audiences of the threat communism. The film talks about an “epidemic mass hysteria” caused by “worry about what’s going on in the world.” As the residents of the town fall asleep they are replaced by the dangerous alien impostors. This warns movie goers to never let your guard down, the “pods” (or communist sympathizers) could be anywhere, even in your house. As the couple try to escape they find that they can’t get a phone line out or talk to the police, everyone has turned against them, eventually even our protagonist’s love interest. In one of the final scenes Miles turns to the camera in a fit of terror, looks the audience in the eye, and screams “You’re next! You’re next!” giving yet another warning to the audience.
Unlike Invasion of the Body Snatchers the movie Guilty by Suspicion takes a direct look at the communist witch hunts, specifically the Hollywood 10 and the Black List. Much less subtly than even Bad Day at Black Rock’s disapproval of the racist mentality against Japanese American’s after World War II, Guilty by Suspicion tears apart these hunts and displays them as un-American. Though many are prone to think that this makes Guilty by Suspicion a film that is “telling it like it is” from the supposedly communist friendly 1991 Thomson has us think differently. “...the history of paranoia was, supposedly, over. But Polanski took his name off the film...because he had wanted the DeNiro character to be a real Communist and because the whole approach was, well, slick shit again.” (Thomson 283). Though the movie was progressive Irwin Winkler was too afraid to show anything more than a falsely accused Communist because otherwise it may have sparked a controversy.
Hollywood will continue to produce movies that hound on our fears and push us to believe in one, probably detrimental idea (i.e. Communism is un-American). It will also continue to make “slick shit” movies that come close to saying something. Didion hits on a good point however, “...we are all grown-up now in Hollywood, and left to set out in the world on our own.” (Didion 156) Perhaps the evil “system” is finally dead and we can start getting that monster out of our mind, and make some movies that question our reality codes and that question the actions of our government as well as of our people. It’s finally safe to start pushing boundaries, even if we can’t quite start making movies about masturbation (Didion 156).