Letters to the Editor
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‘We’re Not in Oz Anymore’
I had intended to see “The Invasion” since I had seen the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and the sequels, and enjoyed them [Arts & Letters, “We’re Not in Oz Anymore,” August 17, 2007].
After reading Robert Asahina’s cutting review of the movie I probably won’t bother.
I liked his references to the original movie but have to take issue with him on one point. He writes that, in the movie, director Don Siegel “was warning against the threat of Communism.”
I had read an interview with Mr. Siegel where, to the contrary, he said that he was trying to warn against the danger of McCarthyism and America’s obsessive fear of a Communist under every bed. If you analyze many of the movies from the Hollywood left of the 1950s this is a recurrent, although unstated, theme.
In fact, if you recall the ending of the original movie Kevin McCarthy, having escaped from a town taken over by the body snatchers, is running down the highway to Los Angeles, and climbs on the back of a truck, only to fall off when he finds it is full of pods.
He staggers down the highway yelling at drivers, who ignore him, that “They’re here.”
Mr. Siegel wanted to end the movie there leaving the impression that the pod people — McCarthyites — take over the world.
The studio heads, however, wanted an up-beat ending so Mr. Siegel had to add a final scene where Kevin McCarthy is in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office, having been picked up on the highway, and they are getting ready to send him off to the County Mental hospital, after hearing his story of pod people from outer space.
At that moment, a deputy comes in and says that he has just seen the most amazing thing: a truck had overturned on the highway and spilled these giant pods all over the place.
The FBI agent, in the room, instantly gets on the phone to Washington and the forces of the American government swing into action to thwart the invasion.
If only our government could really react that fast in a crisis.
GEORGE CUSTANCE
Sunnyside, N.Y.
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