MovieChat Forums > The Puppet Masters (1994) Discussion > metaphor for AIDS/family values

metaphor for AIDS/family values

posted 17 years ago by maximumpig
8 replies | jump to latest

First let me say that the original heinlein story is one of my all-time favorite stories. . . which means like many of us I was disappointed by the movie. *What follows is about the movie not the original novella.*

Digging deeper, i was struck by certain camera angles and blocking that was used especially in the scenes in men's rooms and other places where people get 'slugged'--the positioning is highly suggestive of sexual activity.

Then I watched the movie again and it rang clear as a bell--the director had turned the story into a metaphor for AIDS, homosexuality and family values.

Watch it again with this in mind and tell me i'm wrong--

slugs = AIDS

being under their control = gay lifestyle

recovery & return to 'normalcy' = return to traditional family values with nuclear family unit--husband, wife and child, strolling off into the sunset.

There is really not the same theme at all in the original story--Heinlein was a somewhat militaristic libertarian with streaks of misogyny but he was definitely not a fundamentalist.

So they turned this very cool story into a not so subtle right-wing metaphor.

booooooooo

[–] omnipotent_one 17 years ago

Surely you are joking?

[–] Waz-Q8 17 years ago

Seriously?

[–] mikescola 17 years ago

You my friend, are a nimrod.

Duh duh duuuuuuuuh.

[–] SkaterDave 15 years ago

Boy, that is about the stupidest theory I've ever seen anyone come up with dude.

[–] walterfive 14 years ago

Yeah, it tells me a lot more about the reviewer than it does the movie, and I'm not sure I want to know.

[–] smokehill retrievers 14 years ago

If that's any indication of the deep guilt and paranoia you feel about your homosexuality, you should really seek some professional help.

[–] FriskyMeerkat 13 years ago

Heinlein's novel also repeatedly makes explicit the analogy between the mind-controlling parasites and the Communist Russians, echoing the emerging Red Scare in the U.S. Not homosexuality.

[–] SkaterDave 12 years ago

Okay, I watched it with what you said in mind and I'll do exactly what you said I should do..say you're wrong. I don't buy your interpretation at all. If a person tried really hard they can find a metaphor in any movie. My favortie was with 'The Wizard of Oz' wherein someone stated that the ruby slippers represented Dorothy's becoming a woman and having her first menstrual period. With yours I rteally can't fathom the being under their control as a metaphor for the gay lifestyle. That makes no sense at all.