You're Next

“They’re already here, you’re next!” These are the frantic ravings of Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) at the intended ending of Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). This moment shows the overwhelming fear that has taken over Miles, and perhaps the paranoia that had overtaken the original story writer, Jack Finney, and Siegel as well. This film shows the American resistance to everything that is different, and our almost violent tendencies to retain the status-quo. Siegel builds a palpable sense of dread to carry along his viewers as he calls us to fight against subversion and to retain the white-male dominated, American way of life.

The film first suggests the idea of subversion early on during Miles’ first flashback. He talks about how everything looked normal in Santa Mira upon his return from the city; however he suggests that something was seriously wrong beneath the surface. Understanding the fear of what lies beneath the surface is the key to recognizing what makes this film so resonant. Everyone has the fear that their secrets will be found out by others. We also fear that we may not truly know our loved ones. This creates a fear of what cannot be seen, and a protective urge of what we do not want to be uncovered. However this fear of what lies beneath the surface is also alluring. Many people find it necessary to uncover other people’s secrets. This creates power from the knowledge that has been gained. But there is also the deeper satisfaction of uncovering the mystery that motivates people to dwell beneath the surface.

Miles is called back into town at the beginning of the film because so many people have been showing up to his practice to see him. But when he returns, everyone says that it was nothing important, and he need not worry about them. This is the beginning of Miles’ curiosity of what could be wrong with his town and it is the motivation to find out what has subverted his town. He can tell that something has infiltrated the town’s populace, and it becomes imperative that he uncovers what it is.

He can tell immediately that something has transformed the townspeople’s need for medical care, which directly undermines his place in society. As the typical male protagonist he is willing to fight to protect his place, which means upholding the economy that supports him, and protecting the woman he loves so he can have control over a family as well. This would reaffirm his place in the male order that dominates society. And the woman that he must protect is Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter), who becomes the films female protagonist.

When Becky is first introduced at the Doctor’s office, she is not dressed in typical attire for a domesticated woman during the 1950’s. Her dress is quite revealing and she openly flirts with Miles as the two of them revel in the other’s sexual innuendo filled banter. Both Becky and Miles are recent divorcees and this is somewhat threatening to Miles. He realizes that Becky is a sexually liberated woman which gives her an unusual amount of power. While Miles is drawn to Becky’s beauty and sexuality, he is also threatened by it. This makes it imperative for him to bring her under his fold through matrimony as quick as possible. He needs her to be married to him in order for the patriarchal order to be restored in his life. His hold on power has already been subverted from him once by his first wife, and he must prevent that from happening again. However, the courtship of Becky is continually interrupted and eventually cut short by the invading alien duplicates.

These duplicates happen upon Santa Mira to begin their conquest. This small town represents any that you would find throughout the country. The notion that a small suburban town could be corrupted by outsiders was exceedingly frightening during the fifties and remains so today. A principal fear in the time that the film was made was that America was being subverted by communists and their spies. This fear spanned from the highest levels of government, all the way to the average family. America as a whole was afraid of losing its national identity, as were Miles and Becky. The alien duplicates offer them a simpler life, where they will not have to worry about work or feelings. They also offer a different form of reproduction that renders the differences between men and women obsolete. This strikes up fear in both Miles and Becky, as they want to experience emotions and be in love. However this life offered by the duplicates is appealing to some, who seem to thrive under it after they have been taken over. And it is perhaps indicative in Miles’ anger that he is attracted to the concept of this new way of life subconsciously. However his fear of losing his place of power in Santa Mira is too much for him. For the duplicates are offering a life where doctors are not needed, therefore taking his identity in terms of his personality, and in his work life.

By the end of the film, Miles has been thoroughly emasculated by losing his job, his position of power, and his potential wife to the alien duplicates. When Becky is finally overtaken by the aliens, it is because Miles leaves her alone for an instant. Becky is portrayed as being very weak, because she needs Miles to protect her from the duplicates. Siegel shows her as being weak and submissive, because the second that she is left alone, she is willingly overtaken by her duplicate because she cannot fight off sleep by herself. The only reason she makes it as far as she does without this happening is because she had Miles to protect her. This is an ongoing theme throughout the movie, from the time that he finds her duplicate and carries her down the stairs like a child, all the way to the end when he is trying everything he can to keep her awake. Miles never seems to have much of a problem staying awake. He is doing all he can to exert his power over the aliens, and to retain his place in society. When Becky is finally overtaken by the aliens he has lost his final position of power, that of the patriarch over a family. When he goes to kiss her and she does not respond, it is clear that he has lost his sexual power over her. This is the final emasculation, and it drives him to madness. The following moments show his complete impotency as he is trying to warn his fellow man about the danger that is going to subvert them as well. He is only saved in the end, by authority figures that still retain their power over their own families and towns.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers continues to be an effective film. The fears expressed by Miles and Becky during the film are still very prevalent today. Everyone has a fear of losing their identity; whether it is their personality, or their position as a person of power at home or in society. The film succeeds at evoking suspense from the impending doom of the characters, and of society as a whole. Siegel seemed more pessimistic than the studio by wanting to end the film with Miles’ final descent into madness, as he screams wildly at the passing cars on the highway. Siegel feared that the white male was already losing its grip of power over society. However, he was overruled by his supervisors to tack on the optimistic ending. This was so the producers could reassure themselves, and society as a whole, that nothing was about to change.