ASHE COBURN: If the United States had a middle name, it would be "FEAR"

Fear is something that everyone experiences. Its power is so great that it has culminated into various ways, such as phobias and social hysteria. Xenophobia (fear of what is foreign or unknown) and acrophobia (fear of heights) are a few phobias that have consumed people. And xenophobia has not only consumed people as a phobia they exhibit, but it has also turned into a device for social hysteria.

“The American motion picture industry willfully attacked itself in perhaps its finest moment. It victimized many talented people and deprived itself and its audience of what they might do.” (Thomson 282)

And why did they do this? Fear. Fear that was instilled upon them by the government. In 1947, when the House Committee of Un-American Activities, under J. Parnell Thomas called its first “friendly witnesses.” People in Hollywood became suspicious of their peers and fearfully waited for that subpoena from HUAC. It became a naming game, where the only thing that the committee was interested in was who you knew from these “parties” because just as Bunny from Guilty By Suspicion puts it, “They need names! Just let me use your name...” It was not enough to only state that you were not a communist. Some people, however, did stand up, but were found guilty of contempt of congress and were placed in jail. The Hollywood Blacklist is a long list, with hundreds of names, damaged many lives for decades to come (basically for the entire lives of most people on the list). As Thomson puts it, these “friendly witnesses” were “pretty powerful but all as troubled by the red seepage as people who cannot sleep (Thomson 279).”

And as for people who cannot sleep, this convention is used in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a film made during the time of the HUAC’s influence over Hollywood. The town of Santa Mira begins with the initial social hysteria that people are not really themselves. However, as the audience, we can clearly see that the message was anti-communism, where it portrays everyone as the same, emotionless, when they are taken over by the “pod people” (or communism). Dr. Bennell breaks the fourth wall and asks the audience, “Why would you want to live in a place where everyone is the same?” And the convention of “sleep” is utilized as the transition period where people turn into “pod people.” When you think of “sleep,” it is dark, a place where you’re unconscious and unaware of your surroundings. Therefore, the association of “sleep” with communism works, in the sense that citizens must always be vigilant and for their country or else they will be taken over by the “evil red communist beliefs.”

And it is interesting to see that the United States had not learned from the past; we see that history tends to repeat itself. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1943, the United States Government reacted in about the same way it did years prior: by “relocating” all people of Japanese ancestry on the west coast to internment camps, due to the social fear’s rationalization that there would be an oncoming attack to the west coast. The Japanese were finally released in 1947. Some Japanese Americans were lucky and had friends they had signed their homes and businesses to and were able to pick up where they left off. But for the majority, they were not as lucky, and they returned to a society still in a war with fear, hate, and Japan. In Bad Day at Black Rock, the story takes place right after the war, where Reno Smith and his gang had killed Komoko, a Japanese American. Not only does this film address the fear Americans had of the Japanese, it also addresses people’s fear of each other. The rest of the town looks the other way for quite some time, afraid that something were to happen to them if they were to speak against it.

In a sense, we are still repeating history (as seen by today’s war on terrorism). And if we look at it closely, we can see that fear is one of the motivators (whether that is personally motivated or externally motivated). The United States' xenophobic behavior continues to be present time and time again. Looking at Hollywood films in the historical context, as seen in Thomson and Didion, we can use these films analytically. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a film clearly influenced by the committee, can be looked at in contrast to the films Guilty By Suspicion and Bad Day at Black Rock, films not influenced by the committee, showing how we should be cautious but always move forward, progressively and pragmatically.

ASHE COBURN

Hollywood Film Journal

If the United States had a middle name, it would be "FEAR"

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