Cleopatra Jones

Well first off the characters throughout this film seem larger than life in the sense that they do not seem to live by any social standard but instead following their own code in what seems to be a whole other universe from our own. Especially the females and especially Cleo whom seems almost heroic. She wears over the top clothing, drives a flashy car and lives an extravagant lifestyle by her own set of rules that seem to over throw even the authorities at times, meanwhile never forgetting the life she came from. "Mommy," played by Shelly Winters is also a strong female that seems to live the same type of way as Cleopatra. She is a strong female dominating in a male dominated world. Really, how many times will we ever see in real life or fiction a female character the pin head of a major drug trafficking operation? Never, is the answer; because it is usually wealthy men. 


The power of feminism reins free throughout the entire film. If the protagonist in this film had been male unlike Cleo he would have been torn and tattered by the films ending. Cleopatra however never had a hair out of place or a wrinkle in site, which is entirely to strange considering Cleo seems far too exotic and feminine to be carrying a gun and man handling gangster after gangster. When first seeing Cleo one would think she was an outstanding women who had a husband and three little children running around, which how women are largely viewed, you would never think of her packing a gun. Nor, would we believe that a short, plump women with bad wigs would run an entire thug empire, again man handling her own goons and killing people because historically that was always a "mans part."


However, I do feel that every time a woman plays a strong female lead the character is almost always made out to be super hero-like, in the sense that she almost seems unreal and could never possibly be a real life woman ever. Because we all know that if anyone was to get into a fight they would never come out of it looking and smelling like a rose. Unless were you know - SuperMAN, BatMAN or ... Cleopatra Jones. Think about it, if the character was not made out to be superhuman she would seem to be a weak little girl whom got beat down repeatedly to only catch a lucky break in the end - i.e every horror movie known to man kind. 


This film without a doubt uses feminism to a tee in the sense that for any real life women to be able to kick the massive but that Cleopatra did she would not only have to look great doing it but she would have to posses some sort of unnatural ability to do so. 

Manchurian Candidate

Is the art of brainwashing a vice that could actually occur? Is it truly possible to train a human being to execute a plan and take lives in a very precise manner as to not get caught or even remember the act of doing from only viewing the queen of diamonds in a deck of 52 playing cards? A question that is both believable and quite interesting to me. I believe that if started young enough a person can be trained to do or live any way the puppeteer chooses for them. While watching this film I couldn't help but notice the similaritaries between it and Angelina Jolie's film Salt. Salt was a film compossed with the idea that the Russian government from birth would give children american identities and sculpt them into perfectly trained sleeper assains. These children would live, eat and play this lifestyle until they were old enough to be transfered to American to start fulling their jobs. They were even taught english at birth so that they would have perfect american accents.

I feel Mrs. Iselin was the perfect person to train Shaw. She was a very strong and cold character that would fill Shaw's head with the material necessary to carry out the goals of the Russian government. She fills the momism role to a tee and is perfect example of a corrupt and controlling. And Shaw having the sense to protect his mother this monster is a great example of the demonology term we read throughout the reading. Having made this film at around the time when JFK was assassinated I believe played out the idea of McCarthyism and Communism. Shaw and his stepfather we both puppets of Mrs. Iselin and the Russian government much like McCarthy and Lee Harvey Oswald were to the vices of their own government in the sense that was we see and hear makes us do.

I personal found this movie to be very interesting. I liked the fact that in the end Iselin and Shaw were killed and Manchurian Global was forced out of the shaddows and all was well. I believe that this bringing an end to Manchurian and the film gave the viewer the sense that out country is strong and we always find out the truth and we will never let the threat of communism bring us down.

Fear of the abnormal

Throughout the Cold War fear was at an all time high all across the country spreading from family to family and town to city causes what I like to think of as a fear epidemic creating controversy everywhere. Fear of the abnormal; communists, any non-caucasian race, homosexuality and feminism were all but normal in the caucasian male dominated normalcy of America. The perfect American family: father, mother, son, daughter, and dog all heterosexual living a middle class life with a white picket fence surrounding their perfectly unblemished lives was the only way to live in the 50's and everyone on the outside looking in were the greatest causes of anxieties. The film Invasions of The Body Snatchers and the readings of Katrina Mann touch base on these very anxieties of the 50's in their own theatrical ways.

The film is based on a small non-existent town of Santa Mira, California which appears to be a normal middle class working suburban society in the 50's. However what we begin to uncover as the film unfolds is that this town is anything but normal. The women of this film seem to be a bit more "frisky" then they really probably would have been during this time and the residents of Santa Mira are having their bodies taken over by an alien form that seem to resemble their original selves in every way right down to their very memories. What was the message that Don Siegel was trying to portray throughout this film? I believe he was trying to show his audience that what we view as normal may just be an act, do we really ever know anybody or their true intentions?   Look at the Rosenbergs; two communist spies that lived in America and led completely normal lives until they were found to be frauds sending shock through their community that really had no idea who they were. This is what I believe Siegel was saying - We could be best friends with a Commie and never know until it may be to late. It worked for the alien attackers in Santa Mira, they seemed real and normal and no one expected a thing.

Katrina Manns message was a bit more realistic that Siegel's. She based her readings upon real instances not a syfy drama. Mann talks about the abnormal taking over the suburban dream by discussing the feminist societies that were beginning to bloom threatening the ideals of the betty crocker stay at home housewife and white superior society when the African American's move into the neighborhood. Mann really touches on the delicate subjects in a real light showing how easy it was to cause anxiety and uproar amongst an ignorant population. Homosexuality, Feminism, Racism, and Espionage caused a ridiculous amount of uproar and fear throughout the 50's causing people everywhere to act out and do heartbreaking things like lynchings and public executions to the most innocent of people and films like the Invasion of The Body Snatchers only added more to the fear epidemic.