Invasion of the Body Snatchers — Movie Essay
an MBTI perspective.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is among the best known films in the “B movie” category. B movies films exploded in the Fifties, along with the drive-in movie theater, as intrigued moviegoers watched a “double feature” consisting of two films, roughly one hour long each. These films were generally low budget and with fantastic plots. What these movies lacked in polish, they delivered in sensationalism and wackiness, with plots fresh out of a young boy’s lunch break fantasies, such as men who grow eighty feet tall in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, and creatures from the Jurassic who terrorize a lagoon.
Something more notable, however, also suffered. The characters in these films are quite often archetypes. This streamlines character development; an hour-long film, at roughly half the length of a typical modern film, would otherwise never reach its gripping reveal without leaving out a half hour of plot.
The two most important archetypes are The Love Interest and The Calm Protagonist. The Love Interest typically spends many dreamy nights reminiscing about old memories with The Calm Protagonist. Seldom will she make a crucial breakthrough or execute a brilliant tactical move to save the day. The Love Interest is really a pretty object for the screen which provides emotional support for the protagonist. She spends a lot of time worrying about other characters in the movie; will they be alright?, did I hurt them?, oh, dreamy Calm Protagonist, do you think they will be safe without us?. From a plot perspective,she contributes little for the vast majority of the film, listening intently to The Calm Protagonist and cooing as he drives the action and reaches yet another startling insight.
The Calm Protagonist, though less visually interesting for the forty-year-old men who are probably the only people still watching these films, is surely more complex. After all, they know who to call, where the villain is waiting, and what the monsters are doing so late at night. Perhaps most noteworthy, his sixth sense is rather convenient for the screenwriter, as his ability to predict the future from hardly any information at all will save The Love Interest several times. The Calm Protagonist is likely praised in his town for his knack at something, whether medicine, engineering, or repairing rare, specialized machines. He is never distracted by emotion; that is for The Love Interest. This is why he catches the villain, because he stays focused on connecting the facts and keeping his ears and eyes open; The Love Interest makes good wife material, but certainly can’t solve a problem.
After all, feelings lie solely in the domain of women, as well as cooking, cleaning, and sensual smiling (/s). These archetypes conveniently fit the somehow comfortable climate of the Fifties. Whether you call it complementarianism, gender roles, or sexism, it is clear that The Calm Protagonist and The Love Interest are a quick sketch of society in the Fifties
Myers-Briggs was first penned in 1943, and not surprisingly, the archaic gender stereotypes of the Fifties and presumably the Forties as well exist still in the Myers-Briggs community.
The Love Interest is really a caricature of the ISFJ. The constant motherly fretting about others (Si + Fe), relatively poor ability to piece together the plot (tertiary Ti), and frustration and unease in the rapidly unfolding plot (inferior Ne) all point to the gentler Introverted Sensor (Si) dominant. For my fellow Enneagram lovers, The Love Interest is probably a Two, perhaps a Sexual Three.
The Calm Protagonist, with his ability to stay calm in the wake of any event, interact with his surroundings effortlessly (Se), piece together the villain’s motives and spare data (Ti), and act on brilliant hunches which he won’t understand until near the end of the film (Ni) , as well as his inability to emotionally connect with The Love Interest except for the occasional joke (inferior Fe), all point to the Myers-Briggs type of yours truly, ISTP. His Enneatype is probably Five.
The ISTP and ISFJ both are maligned in the community for being arrogant assholes and stupid nagging wives / mothers. The lack of character development in this film and its adherence to archetypes does not offer a solution for this self-perpetuating sexism; it instead underscores this prejudice in a powerful way. Ultimately, however, I am not writing an essay about this film because of its social conservatism, but because it is a powerful analogy for xSTPs and xSFJs at large.
Once we consider Myers-Briggs, a film with excellent characters such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) becomes not merely a fun film, but also a tool for self-analysis. We can see how our protagonist doctor’s calmness also led him to be a tad too comfortable; his marriage fell apart because he failed to set aside time for his wife, instead prioritizing his career. This inability to prioritize others is clearly a result of inferior Fe. As an ISTP myself, I can see ripples of the same problem in my own life. We can also recognize how The Love Interest’s need to rest at any cost (dominant Si) is ultimately the root of her demise. What’s brilliant about Myers-Briggs is that it unites the strengths and weaknesses of a person into one; one’s strengths cause one’s weaknesses, and vice versa. At this level of analysis, Myers-Briggs approaches Enneagram in its potential for self-improvement through deliberate introspection, although, unfortunately, it will take far longer than one hour and twenty-some minutes for me to develop my three-year-old function, Extraverted Feeling (Fe).
Written by a tired ISTP
