Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) | The Reds, White, and Blue: Film and the Fear of a Communist Menace

Red Rose Film Club

We continue our series on the Red Scare with Phillip Kaufman's 1978 adaptation of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" starring Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum. In our previous episode, we discussed the machinations of the Red Scare, and in this episode we talk about the paranoia and lives ruined in the wake of the Communist Panic. Discussion also include:

• The Kendrick Lamar v. Drake beef;
• The continued crackdown on Pro-Palestenian college protests;
• Irving Adler, a communist math teacher, who stared down the House Un-American Activities Committee;
• Weird right-wingers finally found the cure for wokeness: Sydney Sweeney.

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Sources & Links

• https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/public-trust-in-government-1958-2023/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/books/irving-adler-author-of-science-and-math-books-for-the-young-dies-at-99.html
• https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1261/ContagiousCultures-Carriers-and-the-Outbreak
• Jenkins, J. Craig, and Craig M. Eckert. "Channeling black insurgency: Elite patronage and professional social movement organizations in the development of the black movement." American Sociological Review (1986): 812-829.
• https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/5/dozens-arrested-in-us-campuses-in-another-weekend-of-pro-palestine-protests
• https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/342/485/
• https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/mcarthyism-red-scare
• https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1952/3/8/the-feinberg-law-ptheoretically-when-the/