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.