Invasions USA

The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s

Michael Bliss

Out of more than 180 science fiction films produced in the United States between 1950 and 1959, twenty were concerned with the notion of an invasion. Of these, a select number used the invasions as metaphors of issues that were of importance to America at the time, such as assaults upon individuality and marriage and debates about the supremacy of the human race. The invasion may be real (The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds), dreamed (Invaders from Mars), or the result of a mental breakdown, as seems to be the case in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Real or not, all of these massive disturbances to the status quo convey the same anxiety: In the 1950s, many Americans felt that things in their world weren’t quite right, and this sense of unease was expressed in the country’s art, notably these films.

In Invasions USA: The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s, Michael Bliss examines movies that stripped away the veneer of normality during a decade often portrayed as the last innocent period in American history. From a boy’s nightmares about his alien-controlled parents and a young woman’s fears that her fiancé has been replaced by an emotionless alien to an extraterrestrial visitor who comes to warn mankind about its self-destructive ways, the stories of these films offer a variety of messages, both subtle and overt.

With detailed discussions and analyses of the films in question, this book examines a unique group of movies with profound messages. By exploring depictions of insecurities—whether personal or political—Bliss shows how science fiction films spoke to American audiences deeply troubled by their circumstances. Invasions USA will appeal to science fiction buffs and film aficionados interested in this significant phenomenon in movie and cultural history.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-4422-3651-6 • Hardback • July 2014 • $56.00 • (£43.00)

978-1-4422-3652-3 • eBook • July 2014 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism, Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy, Social Science / Popular Culture, History / United States / 20th Century, Performing Arts / Film & Video / Genres

Invasions USA

The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Out of more than 180 science fiction films produced in the United States between 1950 and 1959, twenty were concerned with the notion of an invasion. Of these, a select number used the invasions as metaphors of issues that were of importance to America at the time, such as assaults upon individuality and marriage and debates about the supremacy of the human race. The invasion may be real (The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds), dreamed (Invaders from Mars), or the result of a mental breakdown, as seems to be the case in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Real or not, all of these massive disturbances to the status quo convey the same anxiety: In the 1950s, many Americans felt that things in their world weren’t quite right, and this sense of unease was expressed in the country’s art, notably these films.

In Invasions USA: The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s, Michael Bliss examines movies that stripped away the veneer of normality during a decade often portrayed as the last innocent period in American history. From a boy’s nightmares about his alien-controlled parents and a young woman’s fears that her fiancé has been replaced by an emotionless alien to an extraterrestrial visitor who comes to warn mankind about its self-destructive ways, the stories of these films offer a variety of messages, both subtle and overt.

With detailed discussions and analyses of the films in question, this book examines a unique group of movies with profound messages. By exploring depictions of insecurities—whether personal or political—Bliss shows how science fiction films spoke to American audiences deeply troubled by their circumstances. Invasions USA will appeal to science fiction buffs and film aficionados interested in this significant phenomenon in movie and cultural history.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-4422-3651-6 • Hardback • July 2014 • $56.00 • (£43.00)

978-1-4422-3652-3 • eBook • July 2014 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism, Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy, Social Science / Popular Culture, History / United States / 20th Century, Performing Arts / Film & Video / Genres

Author

Michael Bliss teaches English and film criticism at Virginia Tech. He is the author of many articles and books, including Dreams within a Dream: The Films of Peter Weir (2000), Between the Bullets: The Spiritual Cinema of John Woo (2002), and Peckinpah Today (2012).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter One: Sleepwalking: Invaders from Mars
Chapter Two: His Little Town: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Chapter Three: Ecce Humanitas: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Chapter Four: We Don’t Like Your Kind Here: It Came from Outer Space
Chapter Five: Welcome to My Nightmare: I Married a Monster from Outer Space
Chapter Six: Two Aliens from Inner Space: Kronos and The Thing from Another World
Chapter Seven: Invading from Space and Slouching into It: When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, Conquest of Space
Chapter Eight: Spiritual Enhancement: The Incredible Shrinking Man
Bibliography
Filmography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Invasions USA is a pretty good read, especially if you’ve seen the films he’s chosen to discuss.
— Free Kittens Movie Guide

Throughout the decade [of the 1950s] there were almost 200 science-fiction films made, some of which could be read as analogies of communist brain washing, a particularly divisive subject at the time of McCarthyism. In his book, Invasions USA: The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s, author Michael Bliss rejects the often held notion that these films were propaganda tools dealing with American anxieties but rather focuses on sexual politics in such cult films as the colorfully titled I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958) or about alienation (pardon the pun) in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). . . .The book is a quick and easy read that rarely diverts from its subject.
— Filmwerk

Invasions USA

The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s

Michael Bliss

Invasions USA

The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s

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