ABSTRACT
From the flourishing of political cinema in Europe and beyond, the author returns to the United States and move back a bit in time, to the 1950s and the prolonged period of political repression known as the Cold War. He uses the word “repression” carefully. There were films during the Cold War that addressed Cold War politics directly. Science fiction film goes far back into film history. One of the most important silent films is Metropolis, made in Germany by Fritz Lang in 1927. Bizarre machines, a mad scientist, and a sexy robot figure in this film about class distinctions with the rich living in a futuristic city while workers toil in an underground hell. Science fiction audiences did not need reassurance or ambivalence, only reinforcement of their beliefs. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was not a commercial success in the mid-50s, perhaps because it hit too close to home or was too vague in its politics.
