Essay from Cancelled Lesson

How far do the American Films you have studied for this topic express similar messages and values to one another? From the viewing of the American Films, there are many clear similarities between them, not including the storyline. As ‘The Invasion’ was a remake of ‘Invasion of the body snatchers, the events throughout the films are quite similar, although ‘The Invasion’ takes upon a more modern outlook at the key scenes throughout. The 2007 remake, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig has is a more scientific approach to the original version. The main reason of this is due to the fact that scientific technology wasn’t as widespread around the era of the making of ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’. The first value which is similar in both films is the fact that the close friends of both of the soon to be known main protagonists are the characters that are firstly seen to be suffering from delusions. From ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’ the character who seems to be suffering is Teddy Belicic. She is the wife of Dr.Bennell’s close friend Jack Belicic. From ‘The Invasion’ the first character that seems to be suffering is a friend of Carol Bennell’s son. This value shows that a virus can spread from anywhere or anyone and even the most unlikely of people can catch it and end up causing a pandemic. Another message from the two films is that the only way the world will be free of terrorism and pain is for something like this to happen. From ‘Invasion of the body snatchers, in a communistic community in the 1950s, the majority of the population were wishing that something would happen to overturn Joseph McCarthy. Because 1950s America was so engrossed in communism, the people didn’t want to be governed in the way in which McCarthy was, so they wanted a way out. In the film, it seems that the only way to avoid the regime was to join the people who already had been duplicated. In the 2007 remake, communism has pretty much died down in American although it’s still around in other places around the world. The biggest threat facing modern American is terrorism. Again, the people of America are paranoid and on alert 24/7 for any threats since 9/11. Due to the threat of terrorism, the people of America want a permanent end to the threat therefore they decide to become duplicates where there is no emotion therefore terrorism is no longer existent. Although some people, despite the fact the threat will continue, don’t want to become a duplicate because of the threat to society. The value of trust is apparent in both films. Due to the epidemic, the characters that remain sane are in doubt as to who to trust. This is apparent in ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’ when Dr.Bennell and Becky Driscoll are filling up at the petrol station and Myles doesn’t know whether to trust the filler with his car. Earlier in the film this would be classed as paranoia but now the film has evolved its clear he is quite right to question everyone around him. Once he was out of sight of the crew after driving away, he checked his boot only to find the filler had placed two of the duplicate pods in it. This is a clear example in the film that you never know who you can trust. In ‘The Invasion’ a scene designed around trust is where Carol Bennell and her son Oliver are on the tube train surrounded by what seems to be people who are already duplicated. They are faced with the task of trying to look as blunt and as emotionless as possible throughout the journey. Lucky for them though, one of the passengers tells them that they are acting like they are duplicates. Carol and Oliver are now faced with the unprecedented task of deciding whether they are telling the truth or not. It turns out they were and they continued their journey posing as a duplicate. The value of truth is the most predominant throughout the two films. For any no duplicates, they need to find out who’s telling the truth or else they will be forced to become a duplicate and live a life of no emotion or love. Probably the most important message given through both films is the fact that the American societies of both eras are not prepared to deal with any pandemics that would hit their nation. During both films, society doesn’t know what to do or where it’s come from. ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’ the leading doctors fail to realise the severity of the pandemic about to hit their town therefore are not prepared or notified of its consequences. Similarly in ‘The Invasion’ the doctors and government fail to realise the importance of a diagnosis of the strange goings on around them. As they are not ready or prepared the infection spreads over a vast area in no time, leaving the majority of the doctors who should have prevented the infection now becoming duplicates.

The Visual Pleasure of Sci-Fi Films: Part One and Part Two

Asocial :Not sociable or gregarious; withdrawn from society.

Indifferent  to or averse to conforming to conventional standards of behavior.

inconsiderate of others; selfish; egocentric.

Aesthetics:

The study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty.

Assuage:

To soothe, calm, or mollify: to assuage his fears; to assuage her anger.

Q1. By saying 'Aesthetics of Destruction' Susan Sontag is saying that some of the characters in the films have minds of destruction. They are empowered by evil and they have no space in their lives for loving or passion.

Q2. The term is relevant to Sci-Fi because the usual themes during Sci-Fi films are about someone being infected or taken over by some sort of disease.

Q3. An example of 'Aesthetics of Destruction' in Invasion of the body snatchers is where Teddy is convinced that her Uncle isnt really who he is, and she is having doubts about his reality. Another is a similar style of scene where Dr.Bennell is also convinced that everyone has become infected in his local settlement. Again, Invasion deals with the similar style of 'Aesthetics of Destruction' as the characters who already have been infected, are refusing to stop anyone escaping the area without becoming 'one of them'.

Q4. In my opinion, film lovers love Sci-Fi films involving end of the world scenarios because its a very debatable idea. This scenario could be covered by many genres of films, but with Sci-Fi, it has a more believable and complex way of occurring. Sci-Fi films offer a usual occurrence of a worldwide pandemic to cover the 'end of the world' scenario. This has a more realistic chance of ending the world whereas some ideas in other genres. Also disease pandemics is a very real scenario in this day and age with people being able to travel the globe in 24hours who could carry the disease from one side of the world to the other just like that. As this scenario is a possibility  in the future, it gives the audience a chance to see how its expected that authorities would handle it.

Q5. This theme would be monstrous for 1950s film goers because it wasn't even considered in that era. In that specific era, the world as we know it was being manufactured. Motor Vehicles were beginning to become more modernised and more widely produced at a reasonable price. New organisations and freedom was being made at a high level around the world with minimal amounts of danger at all as climate change and terrorism was an almost unknown act. With the globe rapidly becoming a more social and mechanised area, the threat of the end of the world was not a welcomed theme. With all things looking to be going in the right direction, all the work that was being put into development and mechanisation would all be in jeopardy if the threat of the end of the world would be widely scrutinised. In 2007, the threat of the end of the world is a more potent theme as we are living in a much more diverse community with many more corrupt people living in it that the 1950s. This threat is a more believable situation nowadays with the many threats our world is exposed to. Acts of terrorism like 9/11 and nuclear power which is dominant mostly in the Far East are the most dominant human threat along with the natural occurrence of global warming. With these situations looming over the 7bn people on the planet, the subject of the end of the world is again a subject which is enjoyed viewing or being talked about.

Sci-FI Zombie Blog

Sci-Fi is a television genre which usually deals with futuristic and imaginary themes and settings. The films usually include themes of Alien Invasion, Space Travel and Paranormal abilities. The similarities between Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres are quite large, but Sci-Fi storylines are usually more scientifically possible within the laws of nature. Some of the most successful Sci-Fi films of all time also fall into the best films of any genre of all time. Films such as: 'The Star Wars Saga, Inception, Matrix and Alien are some of the most successful Sci-Fi movies made,

 

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

This 1956 film, directed by Don Siegal, deals with a small-town doctor learns that the population of his community are being infected with a toxic chemical and are being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates. Little does he know that it is the plan of the duplicates to ensure that the whole world becomes infected.

Explicit fears are that of which the actors are afraid of in the film and those that the audience can see on the screen. The sudden outbreak of the disease is an explicit fear in the film 'Invasion of the body snatchers' as to is the fact they dont know where its come from. Also when Miles finds the cloned bodies is an explicit fear in the film because character doesnt know what to do about it. Implicit fears are that of which society that the film may portray or represent. In Invasion of the Body Snatchers the implicit fears are the fears of Communism in America in the 1950s. Also in this film, an implicit fear is that the governor of the area in the film has become a clone aswell, so there are only a handful of characters that are normal.

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Explicit fears in the film 'Invasion' are the clear presence of the zombies in the film. The detail of the characters makes it easy to see that they have been infected to the other characters and to the audience. Another is the fact that Dr.Bennell has lost her son, and not even the audience know where he is.

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Similarities between the two movies

There are quite a few similarities between our chosen focus films and zombie films. Firstly, Zombie films usually contains innocent characters trying to stop a worldwide epidemic or worse to that effect. The courageous characters are usually also a male and female who eventually get together in zombie films, and this trend continues into the focus films. The clue is in the title for Zombie films. They contain people who are out to get or hurt other characters. This trend is also continued in the two focus films.