What was the allegory?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Panic in the Streets
MaryLouStalin — 15 years ago(August 02, 2010 02:56 AM)
I had the feeling that there was a political sub-text here, but couldn't put my finger on it.
The banter about the child's pocket money "Are you going to give him a quarter?" was echoed by Reed and Gafney outside the coffee shop, and there was a lot of chat about wages, bills, and money.
Also, when Reed went on his 'Community? We're all the community!" rant, it struck me as a nod to communism, given that 60 years ago the word wasn't bandied about in the way that it is now.
I understand that the rats and the disease were metaphors for crime and its effects, but did anyone think there was another layer here? -
jayraskin1 — 15 years ago(August 10, 2010 10:54 AM)
I think the ideology was completely confused as Elia Kazan was. There were these ideological messages:
Give kids a quarter to go to the movies.
Stay away from immigrants with plague.
If you are trying to find a killer with plague and not cause a panic: 1. cause a panic among the underworld by having the police arrest everybody for no reason. 2. cause a panic among dock workers by offering money for any information about a man and not explaining why 3. cause a brawl and mutiny on a ship. 4. cause a panic among journalists by arresting a reporter for asking questions. 5. Ignor the first four and just wait until some nurse phones in that she is treating somebody with plague symptoms.
If you're trying to get information from a dying man, caress him, then choke him, then offer to pay for an expensive sanitarium, and then toss him off down three floors onto the pavement.
These are the only allegories I could find.
"the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas" - K. Marx -
philmphile-1 — 15 years ago(January 23, 2011 09:14 AM)
If we are to believe that Elia Kazan's AMERICA, AMERICA is the real story of his immigration to the US, then consider he had a friend or a brother on board that fateful journey who apparently had TB. (I was around 9 when I saw it.) Anyway,
that "bro" committed suicide rather than be denied entrance or sent back. This "panic" then becomes justification for that death. Perhaps Kazan possessed "survivor's guilt."
What bothered me is that the wife has not been inoculated so she gives her husband affection at the end although he's still wearing "contaminated clothing" which we never did see him "de-contaminate" the first time he promised to.
I don't think folding the items up and putting them on a shelf qualifies. -
franzkabuki — 14 years ago(March 15, 2012 12:01 AM)
"The rats and the disease were metaphors for crime and its effects".
It was particularly cool how, in the final chase sequence, Palance and Mostel were pretty much literally likened to disease-carrying rats trying to make their escape in the warehouse filled with loads of goods and in some filthy passageways underneath the dock, attempting to board the ship to potentially contaminate overseas countries as well. A very well directed sequence, too.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan