(Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel, 1956)My absolute favorite part of Invasion of the Body Snatchers has literally nothing to do with any body snatching. In fact, it has very little to do with the plot of the film at all. Early in the story, our hero (played by Kevin McCarthy) is meeting up with an old flame at her house, and her mother offers him to stay for dinner. And what does she say she's making? "Spoon bread." I had no idea what spoon bread was (it's some kind of savory pudding) but the enthusiasm with which the actress delivered the line made me laugh out loud. So there you go.
Aside from spoon bread, Invasion of the Body Snatchers still has a lot to offer. If you've ever been paranoid about anything in your entire life, this might be the best film you can watch. Unlike a lot of other films, the supposed "crazies" here are 100% right the whole way through. The reason your dad is acting so weird? He's not your dad, he's an alien drone whose only mission in life is to conquer our planet. So run. Run now!
One of the best things Invasion of the Body Snatchers has going for it is the concept that anyone could be a pod person, and it would be near impossible to tell. The film creates an atmosphere of extreme tension in all the scenes where characters we'd seen just previously are acting completely normal, but with a few small quirks. You get whipped up in a frenzy, much like the rest of the characters, until you feel the same panic McCarthy feels when he shouts "They're already here! You're next! You're next!"
Despite their efforts, Hollywood is never going to produce a better version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (but the '70s version still has Leonard Nimoy!). Communism is no longer the perceivable threat it was in the 1950s, and no studio would let the subtle moments of this film slide by without filling them with a shaky-cam chase scene or gory mutilation. It's a nice little sci-fi/horror film, made at exactly the right time.
I have to admit, I've kind of had enough of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I watched it for a Politics and Film class I'm taking and ended up writing a film analysis on it, so I really wish I could just skip this post because I don't need to talk about this movie any more. I would just post my film analysis, but it's kind of long and not very good, so I'll spare all of you good people the agony. But I'm kind of mentally done with this film.
In case you didn't already know, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about the terrifying, ever-present fear of COMMUNISM! That's right, the first incarnation of this film was made during the McCarthy era and the Red Scare, and those scary, soulless aliens that are taking over the bodies of the main character's loved ones are actually communists in disguise. As aliens. Or maybe they actually are just aliens. I'm still not clear on that.
Okay, I'm kidding. I'm pretty clear on it. They are actually aliens. But the aliens are a metaphor for communists. At least that's one theory. The other theory is that the filmmakers made a film about aliens that grow in weird space pods and take over the bodies of innocent citizens, and American society just assumed it was about communism. Because there's this theory out there that when a society is going through a problem they will project that problem onto things in popular culture such as television and film. I like to believe that the filmmakers are intelligent people and the metaphor was intentional, but I also used to dream of being a screenwriter so I might be biased. Either way, this film has kind of gone down in history as being a big red communist metaphor, so that's pretty much all it will be remembered for. That, and the multiple remakes.
To be completely honest, this film is kind of enjoyable in the same way that any 1950's horror film is enjoyable. By today's standards of horror it's completely cheesy and not scary at all, but that's kind of why it's fun. So I guess I don't hate the film, I just hope that I never have to write about it ever again.
Aside from spoon bread, Invasion of the Body Snatchers still has a lot to offer. If you've ever been paranoid about anything in your entire life, this might be the best film you can watch. Unlike a lot of other films, the supposed "crazies" here are 100% right the whole way through. The reason your dad is acting so weird? He's not your dad, he's an alien drone whose only mission in life is to conquer our planet. So run. Run now!
One of the best things Invasion of the Body Snatchers has going for it is the concept that anyone could be a pod person, and it would be near impossible to tell. The film creates an atmosphere of extreme tension in all the scenes where characters we'd seen just previously are acting completely normal, but with a few small quirks. You get whipped up in a frenzy, much like the rest of the characters, until you feel the same panic McCarthy feels when he shouts "They're already here! You're next! You're next!"
Despite their efforts, Hollywood is never going to produce a better version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (but the '70s version still has Leonard Nimoy!). Communism is no longer the perceivable threat it was in the 1950s, and no studio would let the subtle moments of this film slide by without filling them with a shaky-cam chase scene or gory mutilation. It's a nice little sci-fi/horror film, made at exactly the right time.
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I have to admit, I've kind of had enough of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I watched it for a Politics and Film class I'm taking and ended up writing a film analysis on it, so I really wish I could just skip this post because I don't need to talk about this movie any more. I would just post my film analysis, but it's kind of long and not very good, so I'll spare all of you good people the agony. But I'm kind of mentally done with this film.
In case you didn't already know, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about the terrifying, ever-present fear of COMMUNISM! That's right, the first incarnation of this film was made during the McCarthy era and the Red Scare, and those scary, soulless aliens that are taking over the bodies of the main character's loved ones are actually communists in disguise. As aliens. Or maybe they actually are just aliens. I'm still not clear on that.
Okay, I'm kidding. I'm pretty clear on it. They are actually aliens. But the aliens are a metaphor for communists. At least that's one theory. The other theory is that the filmmakers made a film about aliens that grow in weird space pods and take over the bodies of innocent citizens, and American society just assumed it was about communism. Because there's this theory out there that when a society is going through a problem they will project that problem onto things in popular culture such as television and film. I like to believe that the filmmakers are intelligent people and the metaphor was intentional, but I also used to dream of being a screenwriter so I might be biased. Either way, this film has kind of gone down in history as being a big red communist metaphor, so that's pretty much all it will be remembered for. That, and the multiple remakes.
To be completely honest, this film is kind of enjoyable in the same way that any 1950's horror film is enjoyable. By today's standards of horror it's completely cheesy and not scary at all, but that's kind of why it's fun. So I guess I don't hate the film, I just hope that I never have to write about it ever again.
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