Michael C. Santayana

Programing People

    The cold war made science fiction ideological with the current paranoia of the red scare. Also the disappointment in human society and specifically government. This reflects the red scare, military government, and the materialism that came with the space race and economic growth of the 1950.
The 1950s was a decade that was lived under the shadow of the first successful nuclear bomb test conducted by the Soviet Union in 1949. The decade is often remembered as an era of good feelings, but careful analysis will show that this decade was instead very preoccupied with the new status for the United States. There was a feeling of vulnerability to two powerful historical trends; the rise of global communism and the spread of new and sometimes terrifying technologies. One of the ways to detect these anxieties is by examining the very popular science fiction movies of the 1950’s.

    Previously the United States had seemed untouchable, never having been invaded since the war of 1812. But with the advent of the Atom bomb, first used by the United States in Hiroshima and in Nagasaki, the wide expanse of ocean that protected America seemed to disappear. Suddenly having The Atlantic on one side and the Pacific on the other did not seem that significant. After all, Japanese airplanes bombed Pearl Harbor, which was basically American soil. The enemies were depicted as aliens infiltrates, with technology of great power, reflecting on the anxiety of postwar paranoia. “Looming over the many struggle of the postwar years was the image of the great and terrible mushroom clouds that had risen over Alamogordo in July 1945 and over the ruined Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” The purpose of this paper is to examine how that anxiety was realized in science fiction movies which were at their pinnacle of popularity in that decade.
 
    Science fiction movies during the 1950s were so common and so successful that the decade became name known as the golden age of science fiction. Over 500 science-fiction movies were produced between 1948 in 1964. Most of those movies, by todays standards are considered very bad quality. In fact, science fiction movies of the 1950s like “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and “Robot Monster” are now renowned the worst movies ever made, which perfectly covered the movies that would have been censured. “U.S. policies and expressions of fear about national security during the Cold War, the producers of science fiction films were generally left alone by government regulations and the private groups that tried to shape public opinion.” Regardless of the quality, they were also popular and profitable.

    Some people have argued that Politics is downstream from culture. This is perhaps an oversimplification of the complicated relationship between our culture and the direction that our leaders take us. Maybe a more general and more accurate description is to say that the culture can be seen in the art and that often the art reinforces the strongest ideas in the culture. There is a circular effect as our culture and art form the historical events that dominate the era and then that same art and culture shapes behavior that influences future historical events. Which came first in history almost seems like a chicken or egg question.
     

    This paper will analyze three movies from the perspective of the strongest historical trends that were affecting the United States at the time; The two most powerful forces were rapid advances in technology and the threat of communism. The movies to be analyzed are “Them!, “The Day the Earth Stood Still’ 1951 and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956”.
The threat of communism had become a colossal factor in world history at that time. The Soviet union had gone from being an ally and partner in the war against Hitler and the Nazi’s to becoming a rival for US power and US ideology. In Europe and across the developing world, communists were offering a different way of life that required rejecting everything Americans believed in. Communism just did not use only military might but it often use deception infiltration and persuasion to win over its followers. The greatest Cold War fears were not only have a Soviet union that could attack us but if I can't either side rheology that could in fact not only are young people but even members of the leadership in areas like academia, government, media and Business.
 
    On top of the table fears of infiltration and silent secret conquest there was an out right fear of the power of the Adam bomb. The funeral was far beyond just the mere explosive power of nuclear weapons Barito extended to the mutation caused by radiation so what was the twin threats of runaway technological progress and threatening communist ideology that created fear in the minds of most Americans during the 1950s.

    There may have been an element of guilt in the fact that the United States had just used nuclear bombs to obliterate two cities of a country that we were at war with. Americans woke up to the fact that the wide Atlantic and Pacific oceans were no longer a safety factor behind which the US could live comfortably and safely. Suddenly The narrative of many if not most of the science-fiction movies made during that decade describe one of two dangers; monstrous mutations caused by atomic radiation that destroyed cities or towns, or an alien species either invading us and destroying the planet or infiltrating innocent people controlling their bodies and taking our society and its institutions prisoner.  
 
    The shock the average American must have felt in this dramatic shifting of historical events must have been overwhelming. In four short years the Soviet union went from being a close ally in a war against Hitler to becoming a threat not only in Europe in the developing world but in the North American continent itself. Science fiction becomes ideology in the 1950s. As science Fiction grew ideological, thanks to authors like George Orwell, there grew though experiments of alternate future with the cold war, & even satires of the people specially the paranoia, that the people experience at the time. Science-fiction writers were not censured by the government they could write their ideas and express their anxieties for analogies an allegory and that is what gave the 1950s its flavor. In the past Movies has been all about escapism and forgetting the problems of the times. A lot of the greatest escapist movies were made during the horrors of World War II. The 1950s it was almost a role reversal. Science fiction was seeming to be escapist was actually addressing the darkest fears of the American public that alien invaders would conquer not just our territories but our minds.
 
    During this time science-fiction produce some of the worst movies and American cinematic history. It was a genre known primarily for just making money and they produced over 500 filmed us most of which were commercially successful. Most of the movies that were produced could be characterized by examining plan nine from outer space and robot monsters. The absolute horror that most Americans viewed the world political scene with. The 1950s were the beginning of the Cold War a time when America realize that it's one's political ally the Soviet Union was actually now becoming a threat to American security and freedom.

    The humans would become aliens in the invasion of the Bodysnatchers. That would look exactly like humans it would be indistinguishable from ordinary people. The key differences that they would lack faith desire and ambition. This loss of individual identity represented everything that Americans sought as a danger when you became part of a large socialist beehive culture. The perception was that in these large socialist centrally planned cultures, people would become cogs in in a machine, spokes on the wheel. Every everyone would be serving the state without their individual faith and subordinating the run feelings to the common good. It was clear at least it is in retrospect that the science-fiction novels of the era where a commentary on the global political scene in on the fears and anxieties of Americans.
One of the movies that best reflects the anxiety about technology in general and nuclear power and specific is the 1954 black-and-white science-fiction monster movie called “Them!” Them is basically part of a very large genre known as nuclear monster movies. Basically giant ants are discovered in the New Mexico desert and it turns out that they were created by radiation and the entire country is in danger.
 
    The battle with the ants reaches a peek in the stores of Los Angeles. The FBI investigates the Giants and the Army fight someone is they are discovered. In the movie, one of the key characters, Dr. Medford, says "when men enter the atomic age, he open the door to a new world. What we may find eventually in that world, nobody can predict!" It is not lost on people watching the movie that it was the US that unleashed the dangers of the nuclear era and not only was the real danger of the Soviet using nuclear weapons on us but our own experiments may create monsters. In this movie the monsters were giants the terrorized cities and killed innocent people. This team was repeated in dozens of movies that seem to follow the same plot; monsters arrive or I discovered a hero emerges that fight Stamm, there are major conferences between military and political leaders who are puzzled about how to save the planet and finally after many horrible atrocities the monster is defeated. The storyline brings to the surface the terrible fear is people had about Technology and the ruthlessness of our enemies who might use it against us. But in the end all is well because the danger is defeated.

    One of the earliest movies that came out in the 50s was "The Day The Earth Stood Still" released in 1951 only two years after the Soviet testing of a nuclear bomb, The story is remarkably relevant to the time. In the story and alien this it's the earth and basically gives the government of the United States the message that people from other planets are concerned about their own safety now that the human race has developed rockets and atomic power. Basically the movie tells the story that if you think you're worried about atomic power just wait till you see how worried other planets are about not only our technology but about how immature we are in using it and having it. Beckett the historical context of the time leads many people to question whether their governments and military leaders have the wisdom to use atomic power in a safe and smart way. There's even in the movie the basic theme Gralians will come to warn us that they see us as a danger. The movie had religious overtones in that the alien was known as Mr. Carpender and he was killed and at the end of the movie he rose from the dead. People involved in the making of the movie later admitted that none of that was accidental. That he came to earth of the message from and kind just like another Carpenter’s Death and that he was put to death by the military and he rose from the dead. There is an overwhelming sense that a great authority needs to come to save us from ourselves. This was another expression of people’s reactions to the idea that in the next war it may not be ships crossing the sea coming to invade us. But the war might start and end with a bomb that would wipe out the city you lived in. Clearly a higher authority has to come down and stop this madness. That was very much a part of the historical reaction to the new conditions of warfare and technology in the world. People were as unsettled by the idea that the Soviet union controlled nuclear weapons as the aliens were unsettled by the idea that the people of the earth controlled nuclear weapons and had Rockets to launch them.

    Another movie the grappled with the fear of the Soviets and the future of technology was the 1956 movie "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers". In this movie extraterrestrials go to the town of Santa Mira in California . The aliens basically take over the town by making perfect copies of the people who live in that town. They duplicate the people but the new people do not have any faith or ambition or individuality. This movie was literally about alien infiltration taking over our bodies and our culture and our society. It was an invasion city by city not too different from the domino effect that the American establishment running institutions like the CIA were using to describe communist expansion across the globe and the kind of infiltration of our own country and culture that they feared was taking place.
They are simply cogs in the wheel without the individuality that is the trademark traditional American culture. There is no escaping the understanding that this is what the communist government wants from the new Soviet man. Everyone subordinating their needs and their talents to the greater good as run by The state seems to be one version of a communist utopia. The aliens were infiltrating society invisibly just like the communist would and they were using the superior technology to duplicate humans. Technology was run away and out of control and it was now in the hands of our godless enemies.
 
    These three movies were among the hundreds and hundreds produced by Hollywood in that time. All of those science fiction movies dealt with themes of enemies invading, using technology against us and breaking or taking over our society. The Unfinished Nation textbook had the best examples for this which is a personal favorite. “Sometime popular fears addressed nuclear explicitly--- for example, the celebrated television show off the 1950s and early 1960s, The Twilight Zone, which featured dramatic portrayals of the aftermath of nuclear war; or postwar comic books, which depicted powerful superheroes saving the world from destruction.” However, Twilight Zone has amazing diverse episodes that a solid historical political paper could use only the Twilight episodes alone.

    History is fascinating and historians often do a great job of recording events and dates and battles. Ever since the dawn of television and movie industry we have had a record of what was popular for people to see and enjoy. The themes that are covered in these movies are written not only to influence the public way to make money. To be profitable and make money movies have to be relevant to the public and they have to resonate with ideas and concerns that are uppermost in the public mind. “The advent, risk and faer of global destruction is one that carries with it an enormous amount of weight and certainly carries with it plaenty of stories an possibilities for both science fiction writers, historians, political science junkies and philosophers.” When you look at the science fiction movies of the 50s there is no question what people were predominantly thinking. The thoughts were that we were in danger from technology that we created and was now out of control because it had fallen into the hands of our enemies.

Work cited
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Harris, James Wallace. "The Defining Science Fiction Books of the 1950s." Auxiliary Memory.    N.p., 09 July 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2017. <https://auxiliarymemory.com/2013/04/04/the-defining-science-fiction-books-of-1950s/>.
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"Quatable Quotes by Timmy." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2017. <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/557279-politics-is-downstream-from-culture-and-not-the-other-way>.
Thomson Gale wrote in the Science Fiction Film and Cold War Anxiety
The Unfinished Nation textbook
Andrew liptak in The Cold War in Science Fiction.
http://www.tor.com/2011/06/28/how-robert-a-heinlein-wrote-about-making-dinner-some-thoughts-on-farmer-in-the-sky/