' Them ! Understanding The Big Bug Movies Of The 1950's

Gigantic ants that mutated from nuclear fallout from the New Mexico desert. Know terrorizing the American populace and instilling fear of death. The movie “Them!” was produced in the same year as Godzilla by director Gordon Douglas. “Them!” is a movie of gigantic ants that mutated from nuclear fallout in the New Mexico desert. The ants are exterminated by agents who burn the queen’s nest. Even though the American populace never had a direct effect from nuclear warfare they still feared its powerful destruction. “Them!” was one of the first films to deal with the Americans fear of the atomic age and how nuclear arms affected peoples peace of mind. Like Godzilla “Them” embodies nuclear fear. The incident of Nagasaki and Hiroshima heightened fear of nuclear bombs to Americans that saw the destruction it created.
Understanding the Big Bug Movies of the 1950s." William M. Tsitsui states how Americans viewed the movie Them! “The oldest and most esteemed critical approach to movies like Them! is that they are all about nuclear fear, the widespread anxiety about the threat of atomic annihilation”( Tsutsui pg.240). I agree the movie them had obvious symbolism of nuclear fear. From the atomic testing in New Mexico to the mutation of ants to giants. Not only did the fear from the images of the deaths in Japan affected Americans peace of mind the communist testing of nuclear weapons heightened their fear. In her article "The Nuclear Monsters That Terrorized the 1950s." Katy Waldman states Americans unease due to the USSR nuclear testing “images of carnage in Japan mingled with unease about a growing communist presence in the east, especially when the USSR exploded its own atomic bomb”. The American populace not only had to worry about their own nuclear testing but of the USSR’s growing power in nuclear