How do you think theater audiences in 1982 would’ve reacted to The Thing if the Norwegians weren’t there? If we as Americans had to deal with the notion that it’s our fault we opened Pandora’s Box?
In 1938, Franklin Roosevelt was president. World War II was about to happen, and the U.S. was an up-and-coming world power recovering from the Great Depression.
In 1982, Ronald Reagan was president. America was going through its “new conservatism” phase as an established power fighting off the evil Soviets. In this time period, Americans are more… American. It couldn’t possibly be our fault, right?!
Perhaps I’m reading too much into the political side of this. But I think it’s incredibly telling that even though the U.S. was much more progressive in the ’80s than it was in the ’30s, Hollywood felt a need to avert American fault for the Thing.
