Last year we could see so many bleeding-heart liberals or progressives suddenly transformed into zealous authoritarians who demand lockdowns, concentration camps, or even executions for anyone questioning state-sanctioned truths. This isn’t the first such transformation in history, and the similar events in the early 1950s in America inspired science fiction writer Jack Finney to write Body Snatchers, a novel that became a classic of the genre. In 1956, it was turned into Don Siegel’s black-and-white film, which also enjoys a reputation as a classic and cult status, leading to three remakes. The first and arguably the best of those remakes was Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the 1978 film directed by Philip Kaufman.
The plot begins on an alien planet, from where strange spores begin a long journey through space that ends with their landing in San Francisco. The protagonist, played by Donald Sutherland, is Matthew Bennell, the city’s health inspector who is in love with his co-worker Elizabeth Driscoll (played by Brooke Adams), a gardening enthusiast who lives with a dentist, Dr. Geoffrey Howell (played by Art Hindle). One day, Elizabeth notices a strange flower on the street and brings it to Geoffrey’s home. The next day, Geoffrey begins to act strangely, not showing any emotion and instead meeting equally strange people on the street. Increasingly paranoid, Elizabeth tells Matthew what is happening, but he is at first sceptical, only changing his mind when he hears about other San Franciscans having the same experiences with their loved ones. When Matthew’s friend, aspiring writer Jack Bellicec (played by Jeff Goldblum), discovers a strange human-like body resembling him in a health spa owned by his wife Nancy (played by Veronica Cartwright), the terrible truth begins to reveal itself. Alien plants use humans’ sleep to create their perfect copies, taking over their identities and joining them into a collective mind intent on taking over San Francisco—or the world.
Two decades had passed since the original film, allowing Kaufman to enjoy the benefits of a higher budget, colour cinematography, better make-up and special effects (most evident in the gruesome scenes depicting plant-to-human transformation), as well as laxer censorship standards that resulted in disturbing violence and brief nudity. But the most important difference between this version and the 1956 original was the change in setting from a small Californian town to a big metropolis like San Francisco. Using a large population centre, where many inhabitants have little personal connection with each other, made much better sense for the alien invasion. The fact that the city was San Francisco served this film even better—a place worldwide known for its individualistic, “hip”, anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian attitudes suddenly transformed into a city populated by robot-like “pod people” who, in the end, run a neat and efficient operation, spreading the plants everywhere, luring the few remaining unsuspecting humans into “treatment”. Those scenes are not only dystopian but might also feel disturbingly reminiscent, to some modern audiences, of real-life scenes associated with government-mandated vaccinations. Even without its sociopolitical context, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a very good piece of cinema, and its adherence to the 1970s bleakness of New Hollywood manifests itself in one of the most powerful and effective endings in the history of the science fiction genre.
This film also benefits from a very good cast. Sutherland is excellent as a government bureaucrat and sceptic who transforms into a reluctant hero, while Brooke Adams gives a great performance in the role of a charming young woman turned into a distressed paranoiac. Jeff Goldblum is also effective in one of his first major roles, playing a neurotic character like many he would later embody in his career. Veronica Cartwright is equally compelling as Jack’s constantly frightened wife. Leonard Nimoy, on the other hand, adds much of the period flavour to the film by playing a popular psychiatrist and self-help guru, a figure common in the 1970s. Not everything works in this film, though. Kaufman’s direction is at times too “artsy”, almost making the film into a parody of itself, and the ending—where two protagonists desperately try to outrun zombie-like hordes—is slightly overlong. The musical score by Denny Zeitlin is very poor, and the film could have worked well without it. However, despite such flaws, the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers enjoys a well-deserved reputation as one of the best remakes in cinema history and can be recommended to many fans of the science fiction genre.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
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