Presentation for POL 338 Dr. Kevin Lasher

Monsters, Punks and Despair 1950s: Good Times BUT ALSO Monsters, Punks and Despair

1950s: Good Times US as world’s dominant economic, military and cultural power US GDP about 1/3 of world GDP World’s leading manufacturer Low unemployment

1950s: Popular President Eisenhower 65% approval from 1953-61

1950s: Baby Boom

1950s: Consumer Society

1950s: Escape to Suburbia

1950s: Creation of Middle Class

1950s: Problems

1950s: Problems Civil Rights movement

1950s: Problems The Organization Man

1950s: Problems Cold War

1950s: Problems Nuclear War

1950s: Problems McCarthyism, HUAC and the Blacklist

Hollywood and the 1950s

Hollywood and the 1950s

Hollywood and the 1950s

Hollywood and the 1950s

Dark Side of 1950s Hollywood “Black Films” which represented modern life as violent, corrupt and hopeless

Dark Side of 1950s Hollywood Films about troubled teen-agers and juvenile delinquents

Dark Side of 1950s Hollywood Bad teen-age girls

Dark Side of 1950s Hollywood

Atomic Monsters Japanese Godzilla

Atomic Monsters Giant radioactive ants in Them

Atomic Monsters Giant radioactive crabs

Atomic Monsters The Incredible Shrinking Man was exposed to radiation

Atomic Monsters The 50 foot woman was NOT exposed to radiation (she encountered a giant alien)

Alien Visitors Martian invaders destroy everything until they catch an Earth virus

Alien Visitors In Earth versus the Flying Saucers, unknown alien ships wreak havoc until a scientist perfects an anti-magnetic ray

Alien Visitors Kind but frustrated alien tries to convince humans that we will not be allowed to “export violence” once we begin to explore space in The Day the Earth Stood Still

Communism Hollywood Fears Dissatisfaction with consumerism and suburbia Atomic war and atomic radiation Alien invasion Another this-worldly “alien danger”? Communism

Hollywod Fears Not the case that every “1950s danger” is a metaphor for communism But some were

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956

Invasion of the Body Snatchers More written about this film than any other science fiction film? Open to various interpretations Compelling story remade three times

Invasion of the Body Snatchers Communists want to turn Americans into “soulless”, group-oriented beings Communism comes from the sky and from within One can never rest in the struggle against communism #1

Invasion of the Body Snatchers Anti-communists (like HUAC) seek to promote unthinking, patriotic conformity If you do not conform with the anti-communist struggle, you are treated as a threat #2

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1950s American society was creating a mind-numbing cultural conformity Americans were losing their humanity through consumerism, corporatism, and suburbanization #3

The End